browning light 12 shotgun

Question
how can you tell the year the gun was made by the nos. or wording on the gun? like what do the stars mean? anything you cah tell me would be appreciated. thanks, mildred

Answer
You can look it up by model name and then date by serial number. Here is a link to do that.
http://www.browning.com/services/dategun/index.asp
It likily a Browning Auto-5 with the name light 12.
It would have be made after 1953.
Brownings made in USA or Belguim are collectable.
It was in production for close to 100 years.

The Stars tell you which choke the barrel has
Browning Shotgun Barrel Choke Identifying Marks
Browning uses little star shaped marks like this *, to identify the choke for a given shotgun barrel. The * marks can be found about 6" forward of the chamber end of the barrel, along with the Browning, gauge, and chamber length marks. The table below relates the * mark to the amount of choke for that barrel:





Full *
Improved Modified *-
Modified **
Improved Cylinder **-
Skeet **S-
Cylinder ***