Home Forums Birds & Dogs Shotguns Any love for the Rem. model 11 ?

I am curious why the Browning hump back has almost cult status but the Remington practically none. I have a really beat up 16 that I am trying to decide if it is worth restoring. Mechanically it seems fine but would need a new stock and re-blueing. My just cold blue it and cobble the stock up to get it usable again.

The Remington lacks the refinements of the Belgian Auto Five. Not that the Model 11 wouldn't work in a duck blind, because it certainly will.

Good solid guns. My dad has a couple with a million rounds through them.

I've got 3 Belgium A5s and 1 Jap A5 along with 2 Rem 11s. The only real difference I see between them is no magazine cut-off on the Remingtons. They are all fine shotguns. It is getting hard to get parts for the Remingtons as A5 parts don't readily interchange. You can still get A5 parts from Art's, but he and his family may not be around for ever. If you own an A5, might be a good idea to go ahead and get an action and recoil spring while still available, maybe even a friction piece. I have laid back a few spare parts and springs for mine. Browning no longer supports any parts for the A5.

Magazine cutoff, speed feed, engraving and blue quality on the metal work along with better checkering on the stocks are differences between the two.

I just bought one in 16 gauge. Have yet to shoot it. It should make a dandy small game shotgun.

I got a 12 ga m11, 12 and 20ga Belgians A5s and a 12 and 16 ga savage 755as. Guess i like them.. Mel

The engraving on the A5s was head and shoulders above everything else in that time period or now as far as that goes. The magazine cutoff was something I have never used in the 40 years I've hunted with A5s, although I see where it might be very handy in a duck blind when geese may present a change in shells. I've had several M11s apart and haven't found them lacking in any way as far as machining. The higher grade m11s will give the A5 a run for their money in stock work finish and engraving, but most people bought the lower grade m11 as a utilitarian shotgun. All the better manufacturers, Winchester and Ithaca for example all had bluing, machining and stock work would rival the Brownings. It seemed gun makers took a lot of pride in their workmanship in those days.

I used to have a 12, have a 16 now, both good quail/dove guns for me.

Finally got to shoot my model 11 today. Despite it being a full choke shotgun, I shot it pretty well, breaking a lot of clays. It functioned flawlessly with two different loads. I expect this shotgun to accompany me on many hunts and range sessions. I am considering opening the choke a bit to somewhere around a modified. Perhaps Briley thin walls? Anyone have an opinion or experience on this?

I've got one in 20ga that was given to me. The original barrel is cylinder bore and I picked up a 30" full barrel for $50 a few years back. The full barrel has brought some squirrels out of some pretty tall trees.

Is the 16 gauge Model 11 standard weight or is it lightened like the Belgian Sweet Sixteen? A 26" plain barrel Sweet Sixteen weighed around 6 3 /4 lb. and handled like a magic wand on fast moving critters.

I have 2 M11's one a 32" and the other a 30" full chokes both have solid ribs. They run fine as long as you keep them clean. All ways liked them and Browning A-5's. Don't mess with the choke find some older Federal shot shells before they had plastic wads or load your own with nitro cards and fiber wads with no shot protection you will get modified performance then. MB

I have a Remington Model 11 12 gauge with 2 barrels, a modified and an improved cylinder. I like that old shotgun.

This pretty much sums it up except the Speed Feed did not appear until 1953, five years after M-11 production ended.

The M-11 was built under license for FN to circumvent U.S. import tariffs. It was a more utilitarian design so as to not compete with the FN model which was still imported though in limited numbers. The Remington did switch from an inside the trigger guard safety of one sort or another to a crossbolt safety before FN did which is/was a bonus. This feature was kept on the "American Browning" made by Remington from 1939-1946 or so and retained when production of the A-5 resumed at FN.

I've owned most of the variations of A-5s over the years along with a handful of M-11s, a couple Savages, and a Japanese knockoff imported by Garcia. All but two A-5s have hit the road and only one is likely to remain in the future. They are complicated compared to many of today's guns but they have proven to be reliable.

Yep, love em


Papa bought one ( 12ga. ), after picking cotton, when he was 13 ( 1921 ).
Utilitarian, when compared to a Belgian Browning, but every bit as reliable.

He later bought a Browning Sweet 16. Many many many quail, dove, ducks, pheasant, and geese have fallen, to both.

Have only one M11, a 16 ga. It is no beauty queen, but after fixing a broken extractor, it is just as reliable as my auto 5’s. I saw one in 12 ga with a solid rib that I still kick myself for not buying. It had beautiful wood and some engraving and priced not much more than an 870 express. I did some research and went back but it was long gone.

Bought a really clean 16 ga. from a fire member a few years ago and it has accounted for it’s share of pheasants. Would sure like to have an open choke barrel for quail.

Growing up, I walked alongside my grandpa for many miles hunting pheasant as he carried his M11 16 gauge. That gun went bang every time he pulled the trigger over the years.

Never heard about A-5’s until a I got older. For me, I have lots of love for the M11, and very little for the A-5. Nothing against the A5, it is arguably mechanically and definitely value wise superior.

That gun fired its last shot about 5 years ago on a pheasant hunt as grandpa sat in a chair and blocked the end of a field 3 generations of us were hunting. He missed that bird but had a great big smile on his face.

He passed away on Memorial Day this year and that M11 is still waiting to find its home as family sorts through his belongings. If it doesn’t someday find its way to my safe, I will definitely be finding another.

Is the weight of the Model 11 16 gauge the same as the standard 16 Auto Five? Or the weight of a Sweet Sixteen?

I'm pretty sure the M-11 and standard A-5 weights are roughly equal. The added time and effort to lighten the stock and receiver would likely not have been cost effective on the M-11. To further bolster this idea, I have not seen nor heard of such a thing being done to the M-11. If efforts to lighten the gun had been undertaken, it is probable this would have been commented on to get a less expensive "Sweet 16".

Well this has convinced me to restore the old gun. Even though 16 gauge shells are hard to find on sale and I don't currently have reloading dies maybe I will just start getting AA loads until I have a stockpile of hulls and then start re-loading for the 16.

JKLUND38 Liked that story and this is a family gun too.

Thanks for the reply, that's what I thought.

Compression formed (Win AA style) hulls in 16 ga haven't been made in 30 years so you will be hard pressed to build up much of a stockpile of them. I started out with over a thousand of them around 1990, I'm down to maybe 300 now and I've added some to the stash along the way. Prices have gone way up as these shells have reached collector status to some.

I prefer the Remington hulls of those currently available. They load much like the old AAs and I typically get several reloads out of them. Next would be Cheddite and other European hulls. Their biggest negative is needing to use European primers rather than American one's. Close behind are Federal hulls. These latter hull (Federal and Euro) are fairly volumnous which make them better for 1 1/8 or 1 1/4 oz loads. The Remington and old Winchester AA style are my preferred hull for 1 oz and lighter loads.

I've been reloading16 ga for a long time. There are not many options for the 16 ga in either factory loads or reloading components. In some ways that is good though it can be a problem looking for loads.

Thanks!

I’ve sold lots of guns, but never one with sentimental value. Those old family guns may not be worth the most monetarily, but they sure are valuable. Keep it and fix it up!

I have three Model 11's in the house - two 12s and a 16. One of the 12s has a 28 inch Imp Cyl barrel with a solid rib. The 16 is the same, except with a Mod choke. According to my bathroom scale (and it tells me i've lost weight, so it's most likely not anywhere near accurate) the 16ga weighs in at 8lbs even, the 12 hits 8.4 lbs. Neither is a lightweight.....

I grew up shooting the 12 ga. Shot my first pheasant with it when I was eleven. Killed tons of ducks, geese, pheasants with it. It's an old one, with the safety in front of the trigger. Belonged to my Grandfather - he bought the other M11 (Sportsman) for my Dad. When my brother and I became old enough to hunt, the M11s became "ours" and my Dad bought a Browning A5 Magnum with a 32" Full barrel. I have that here too, somewhere. Got my first triple on gamebirds (hungarian partridge) with the A5. As a side note: DO NOT shoot partridge at 20 yards with 3 inch #2s through a full choke. I bought the 16ga (also a Sportsman) through the classifieds here many years ago, in order to fulfill my need for a 16ga autoloader to sate my addiction to that gauge.

As a previous poster has said, the M11 does have less refinements than the A5. Most of those, though, you are not going to notice when the shooting starts.

Kaiser Norton