Oh yeah, A-5's and Model 11's are bruisers for sure. Fine for hunting, and for a limited amount of shooting, but not an everyday skeet shooter. Fifteen or so rounds into shooting mine and I have a badly bruised shoulder. Then I can't shoot it again for two or three weeks. But these guns can be tamed a little by some adjustments you can make according to the type of loads you use. Instructions for how to do this came inside the forearm of my gun. You can also replace the hard plastic butt plate (which is the only plastic part of this gun) with a recoil pad, but I can't bring myself to do it to my completely original Model 11, manufactured in 1938. I know the A-5 is the ultimate gun that people want because it has the name Browning on it, but if you can't find one, the Remington Model 11 is a nearly identical gun (if you can live without a magazine cutoff which is the only real difference between these guns). These days you can find Remington Model 11's rollmarked with their famous duck and pheasant hunting scene in very good to excellent condition that will probably last for another 100 years selling for $200-$250 - an incredible value considering the quality of these guns, and a deal that can't last forever.