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Browning A-5 with the long recoil system, the granddaddy of them all. The very first successful autoloading shotgun. This one is the legendary Sweet Sixteen model.

The Browning A-5, the brainchild of John Moses Browning, utilizes what is known as the long recoil system. The operation of the action is dependent upon the recoiling barrel, which moves the full length of the action, ejecting a spent case and reloading a fresh round just as the movement of a pump handle on a pump gun would do. In short, the recoiling barrel (which rides on a heavy spring wrapped around a magazine tube) performs exactly the same function that the forward arm of a shooter does on a pump gun. It is a very simple system that when properly set up (i.e., with its friction rings installed correctly) can be extremely reliable, as millions of Browning A-5s and its progeny have proven.

Browning’s A-5 with its long recoil system produced a whole bunch of look-alikes and outright copies. Remington produced its famous Model 11, which was almost exactly like the A-5 with some modifications, under Browning license and Savage produced its 700 series, also under Browning license. In 1948, Remington streamlined the receiver of their Model 11, kept its long-recoil action, and simplified the friction ring system and voila! The new Model 11-48 was born. This was a very successful design and, although displaced by the 1100 in 1963, it continued to sell well into the 1970s as the budget priced “Mohawk” model.