I just bought a browing a5 16 gauge. It wont cycle the cartridge, I am using just some 2 3/4 number 7 shot. Any advice on how to trouble shoot that?

Give it a good cleaning

it may be set up wrong. Or your spring is worn out.

Is it jamming or not cycling? If it's not cycling try to adjust the ring. If it's jamming, is it new or old? if old, how old?

Have a friend who got her Grandfathers A5 16 ga and the serial # traced back to early 1900's. The cahmber is marked 2 7/16" shells. Modern shels wont eject.

Little details.

Its not jamming, just not cycling......I am gonna try what scalebuster said. thanks for the info!

Could be lots of things...since it's a recoil operated gun it could simply be not getting it tight to your shoulder.

P_102

Where's the safety located, front of trigger guard push/pull or rear side-to-side button-style?

I thought that at first so I fired a couple holding tons of pressure and still no luck.

Safety is located in front of the trigger

take the wood off and show us a pic of how the spring/friction ring is setup.

It probably looks like this


But needs to look like this.


It is possible it has the wrong spring in place if someone replaced it with the wrong one. How does the magazine tube look? Is there a lot of rust on it?

And you mention safety in front of trigger... Is it an X serial number gun or just numbers? If its a pre-47 gun its possible it has a 2 9/16 chamber instead of 2-3/4".

Like Poke81 said, check the friction ring setup. Also check to see if it actually says Sweet 16 on the receiver. If not, it could be older and have the 2 9/16" chamber. Not a big deal, but they need to be 'let out' to chamber current shells.

Make sure the magazine cut off switch is not activated.

Best answer yet ^

I have two 12 gauges. One wouldn't even start to eject. I totally disassembled and it was caked internally with soot and crud. After cleaning, oiling, and properly adjusting the spring/friction ring setup, it would eject but not cycle. So, after some reading online, I found that a VERY light coat oil (like wipe some on and wipe off with a clean cloth) on the magazine tube allows the barrel to move more freely to eject the shells. If you put too heavy of a coat it can be too much recoil and too much force on the action. You want it to be just enough to cycle. No more.

Except that you can't load it in the first place with the cutoff engaged...............