Jap vrs Belgian, I've had both apart many times. The Japanese guns are very well made, no negatives in workmanship at all.
I've weighed a few and found them to weigh more and the 12's do feel more sluggish in the hand.
One source of this is the foreend which is much bigger around, which reduced the breakage issue a bit. The Belgian forend is much more svelt and seems to make the gun feel lighter in the lead hand.
Many of the Jap guns were made with the square knob stocks which I do not care for and of course the really pretty FN buttplate was gone too.
Regarding cycling, if it won't cycle and the rings are set up right it may just need a cleaning. Even an A5 needs to get cleaned once every 50 years or so if you want it to cycle light loads
The breech block spring which goes into the stock gan be full of gummed up oil, as the owners tended to over oil the actions. Most of the ones I've opened up have a ton of gummy lube but were still cycling all but the lightest loads fine.
Jeff
