Please help ID this Remington Shotgun

[DDS]

I would appreciate any infromation on the attached shotgun. I'm basically a pistol nut and have very little knowledge on shotguns besides the 870, 1100. Thanks! Dave

[Researcher]

Your gun is the John M. Browning designed "Remington Autoloading Shotgun." In that it is marked Remington Arms Co., Ilion, N.Y., U.S.A. it was made between 1905 and 1910. In 1911 Remington Arms Co. and Union Metalic Cartridge Co. were combined as Remington-UMC, and about that time they began calling this gun the Model 11. In 1920 the company became Remington Arms Co., Inc., and in 1934 they were taken over by DuPont. For the first 25 years of its life the gun was made only as a 5-shot 2 3/4 inch 12-gauge. Along about 1931/2 Remington brought out a slightly smaller-framed version in 20- and 16-gauges, also with 2 3/4 inch chambers. About that same time they also brought out a 3-shot version called The Sportsman. These guns are essentially the same gun as the Browning Auto-5, and during periods of the 20th Century when Belgium was involved in Europe's altercations, Remington made Auto-5s for Browning. Remington replaced these guns with the 5-shot Model 11-48 and the 3-shot Sportsman 48 in 1948.

[DDS]

Thank you very much for the detailed history of my shotgun. Being an older gun, is this safe to use with modern ammo? Would there be any precautions to take? Thanks again! Dave

[Researcher]

The heaviest commercially available 12-gauge loads at the time your gun was made were 3 1/2 drams equiv. and 1 1/4 ounces of shot. However, the 3 1/4 dram equiv. with 1 1/4 ounces of shot was considered the better, more "balanced" load. The Super-X, Nitro-Express (3 3/4 dram Equiv. 1 1/4 ounce), etc. type shells came out in the 1920s, and in the middle 1920s the SAAMI specs were formalized. Unless your gun has spent the last 85 years in a closet, it has likely digested a lot of Super-X, etc. I'm not a gunsmith, and I certainly can't say what this 100 year old gun can and can't handle. In the 1950s Aurthur Kovalovski made heavier springs for these old Browning designed Remingtons so they could be used with the then new 2 3/4 inch Magnums which contained 1 1/2 ounces of shot in 12-gauge.