Читать книгу Gun Digest 2011 онлайн

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Browning Double Automatic “Twelvette” Model with short recoil system. A beautifully-made, superbly-handling gun that just never caught on.

Top: Winchester Model 50, slipping or floating chamber; Bottom: Browning Double Automatic, short recoil system.

At about the same time, Winchester introduced an autoloader that was also quite innovative. Actually, although the Browning Double Auto was developed in 1953, the Winchester appeared earlier in larger numbers in 1954. The new Winchester Model 50 employed a “floating chamber” that previously had been used in a .22 caliber pistol, the Colt Ace, and the Remington .22 rifle Model 550. The Colt Ace had been in production since 1935, so the Model 50’s was not a new concept. Still, it was new when it came to shotguns. In this system, the barrel is stationary, does not move at all. Instead, the chamber is a separate piece of tube that is sleeved into the barrel and slides back and forth. At the shot, the recoil forces the chamber to jab backward and moves the breech block, which completes the cycle on its own inertia, ejecting the empty and reloading the chamber with a fresh round. This was a very simple and effective method of harnessing the recoil energy. Unfortunately the gun did not catch on. The Model 50 with a steel receiver was very butt-heavy because it had its recoiling mechanism in the buttstock. Most shooters found it to be not just butt-heavy, but simply too heavy overall. The Model 50 in 12 gauge weighed close to 8-½ pounds and in 20 gauge it was around 7-½ pounds! Although it was made in trap and skeet versions, it never gained popularity because it lacked proper balance for clay target shooting.