[keeperofthehills]

a friend of mine at work broght me a shotgun to clean up. and re-do the stock on. it looks like an A-5 browning. complete with reciprocating barrel but is made by remington and has US along with the flaming bomb pierogliph (sp?) on it.
it has a wood stock and has a hunting dog on one side of the reciver.
the bolt just says "model 11"
on top of the barrel it has the remington information then below it , it has browning and the patent numbers.
it had a pretty short barrel on it but the guys dad put a cutts compensator on it many years ago.

what is this thing. i didnt know the army used autoloaders..

any info would be helpful

~keeper

[Jim K]

It is a Remington Model 11, which is basically the same as the Browning A5, but not all parts interchange. The story is interesting. Browning had always worked with Winchester, but Winchester insisted on buying the rights to produce Browning's designs. Browning saw the autoloading shotgun as a gold mine, and wanted a royalty arrangement, which Winchester refused. Browning tried to make a deal with Remington, but their president died before he could meet Browning, so Browning went to FN in Belgium, which made the first auto shotguns. Later, he did enter into an agreement with Remington, and the result was the Model 11.

They are one of the more common military shotguns and were bought by the Army in both a riot gun version with a short (20" I think) barrel, and with a long barrel. They were used as riot guns, prison guard guns, and general military police use. AFAIK, the Remingtons were never fitted with bayonets or used in actual fighting, although some shotguns were so used in WWI.

The long barrel version was used in WWII for clay pigeon shooting in the training of aircraft gunners. The "sport" taught lead and follow through, important when firing at targets a bit more dangerous than clay birds, like Me-109's.

Again, AFAIK, the military guns had the standard commercial finish, and many were sold after the war in unused condition.

Jim

[Penman]

IIRC, Savage also made a shotgun based on the A5 design. Used tohave a M11, wonderful gun. Traded it because I occasionally do stupid things.