Designed by John Browning in 1898 and patented in 1900,[4] it was produced continually for almost 100 years by several makers with production ending in 1998.

The weapon was used heavily by members of the Special Air Service in the Malayan Emergency, who found the semi-automatic shotgun perfect for close quarter jungle fighting.

However, Winchester's higher-ups, particularly Thomas Grey Bennett, were opposed to working with Browning, as they deemed Browning to have been uncooperative in creation of Winchester Model 1893's production version, and the company then needing to further redesign it into Model 1897 at high monetary cost.

However, the president of Remington died of a heart attack as Browning waited to offer them the gun.

It was manufactured by Fabrique Nationale de Herstal (FN) of Belgium, a company that had already produced Browning-designed pistols, starting in 1902.

The Auto-5 was produced by Remington alongside the Model 11 until FN could resume making the gun after the war.

[4] In 2014, Browning Arms released the A5, a mechanically unrelated recoil-operated shotgun with external resemblance to the Auto 5; it is manufactured in Viana, Portugal.

As the barrel returns forward to its initial position the bolt remains behind and thus the spent shell is ejected through a port on the right-hand side of the receiver.

If the chamber is open (the operating handle is drawn back) the first shell loaded into the magazine tube will go directly into the chamber (there is a manual bolt closing button under the ejection port), the bolt then closes, and all further shells fed into the gun go into the magazine.

Setting these rings correctly is vital to good shotgun performance and to ensure a long life to the weapon, by controlling excessive recoil.