Читать книгу Gun Digest 2011 онлайн

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The long recoil autoloader first introduced in 1903 by Browning is still being produced, not as a Browning (the A-5 was discontinued in 1998), but as the Franchi 48AL, over 100 years after its first appearance! However, despite the fact that Robert Stack won the world 20 gauge Skeet Championship with a Remington Model 11, except for the streamlined 11-48s in smaller gauges – especially the 28 and .410 – the recoil operated autoloaders never really caught on with trap and skeet shooters.

From 1903 until the 1950s, there were no other autoloaders in the U.S. that were successful other than those based on the long recoil system. In 1953, John Browning’s son Val came up with a design that was very different from the standard long recoil-operated autoloader. Val tweaked the existing short recoil system that had been used in the Johnson Automatic rifle, a rifle of questionable reputation that was used by some Marine and Army units during WWII. In the short recoil system, the barrel moves but about an inch or so, only far enough to start the breech block moving, then the breech block takes over on its own inertia and completes the cycle of ejecting the empty and reloading a fresh round. It is a very simple and extremely reliable system that does not require any friction rings and can fire both low and high velocity loads interchangeably.