The Armchair Outfitter

Forend cracks are a common problem with Browning Auto-5s. The wood is necessarily thin to accommodate the magazine tube and the recoil spring. The barrel snapping back into battery hits a pretty good lick, and the impact is rough on the tiny ridge that slides into and mates with the front of the […]

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Browning Auto-5 Magnum 12
The Auto-5 was the first successful semiautomatic shotgun design. My Papaw carried a Belgian-made Browning Sweet 16, and my little Franchi AL-48 20 gauge uses the same long-recoil mechanism. Some find the “double-shuffle” of the barrel snapping forward into battery distracting, but having known nothing else during my early shotgunning […]

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(Note: The need for other gauges is beyond the scope of this article.)
This is a question to which you will have to find your own answer. I will provide mine at the end of this piece, but first let’s review the Armchair Outfitter armory’s current inventory.

Remington Model 870 Express
This is the first 12-gauge […]

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