REPEATING AND AUTOMATIC SHOTGUNS
What I have said heretofore relates entirely to double hammerless guns,
but there is another type of shotgun which being a weapon of absolute
merit and a strictly American production must not be overlooked. I
refer to the repeating shotgun either handfunctioned or auto-loading. I
shall consider them both as one type of arm, for undoubtedly the pump
repeater is merely a halfway house on the march to an automatic.
Pump guns and auto-loaders may never replace the double gun in the
affections of sportsmen, yet their use is increasing steadily and
rapidly. Note the picture of a crowd of trap shooters and you will
observe that the majority of them are armed with repeating shotguns of
some kind, which is no less true of a group of Western hunters. I might
be wrong but I would consider it a reasonable estimate to say that
one-third of the cartridges loaded by our factories will be fired from
repeating shotguns.
[Illustration: THE HIGHEST GRADE WINCHESTER REPEATING SHOTGUN]
[Illustration: THE HIGHEST GRADE REMINGTON REPEATING SHOTGUN]
[Illustration: THE STEVENS REPEATING SHOTGUN, TRAP GRADE]
I believe it is true beyond question or dispute that there is more gun,
better gun value for the money, in an American repeater than in any
other shotgun in the world. They will shoot as well as any smooth bore
tube ever fired, and one of them is equal to two double guns with a
man following about to carry one and do the loading--English fashion.
Unquestionably custom is mighty and a man’s prejudices small, for the
Briton will have none of the repeater on the grounds that it is too
deadly and unsportsmanlike, yet he will have the aforesaid two guns
carried about so that he can kill game as rapidly as he could with the
repeater.
The handfunctioned repeaters are so common that a detailed description
of them would be a waste of time. They are made in two models, one
working with an under lever, now nearly obsolete, and the other with a
sliding fore-arm, known as the pump-action. In the latter, moving this
sliding fore-arm back and forth ejects the spent shell and reloads.
An expert can move this slide so fast that he can shoot nearly if not
quite as rapidly as he could fire two shots from a double gun, while at
times he will discharge six shots to the two of the double barreled man.
The pump gun is the favorite trap gun in America to-day. If I am not
mistaken it holds all American records at the trap, the longest run
on clay birds, the best annual professional average, and odds the
greatest number of first place wins either amateur or professional.
As a trap gun for clay birds under present conditions it is unrivaled.
It balances as well as a double arm, shoots more evenly, and will fire
five thousand shots for every dollar that it cost and still be ready
for business.
Nevertheless, I believe an auto-loading mechanism is the ultimate fate
of all pump repeaters. Within another decade I expect to see every
gunbuilder, who now places a pump gun on the market, extolling the
virtues of his own particular automatic.
The manufacturers claim for this type of gun that it is in effect a
single trigger, hammerless ejector with five barrels to shoot and but
one to load and care for, a weapon that reloads itself and shoots with
greatly lessened recoil. A single trigger is admittedly an improvement
in a double gun, and it must have the same advantage in an automatic.
The double gun derives its prestige over the single shot from the fact
that it delivers two shots in place of one; this being true, three more
shots of the automatic could hardly be considered less than a most
commendable feature.
Few who have used a self-ejector will ever return to the old method
of extracting shells by hand, and the auto gun is beyond question a
self-ejector. Every user of an ejecting double gun must have felt
at times that if his gun only reloaded itself he could ask for no
more--the automatic reloads.
The last claim to superiority made by the builders is that a single
barrel, not being bound by rigid ribs and the contact of another
barrel, expands more uniformly under pressure of the powder gas and
hence makes a more round and regular pattern.
It might be concluded from the foregoing that the auto-loader is
nothing short of perfection, but the other fellow is not slow in
telling his side of the story. He claims that the automatic is over
weight for any purpose except duck and trap shooting; that the piece
utterly lacks balance; that the grip of the two hands because of the
size of the fore-arm and depth of the frame is so far below the line of
sight that the man accustomed to a double gun cannot point the piece
straight, but will be absolutely at a loss to know when he is holding
right. He further asserts that because of its complicated mechanism the
auto arm is bound to break down after a season or two.
He declares that the gun frequently fails to function, balks, and
must then be worked by hand, making it slower than a single shot. He
is positive, too, that the piece is an ill looking, clublike affair,
without a single attractive line. He sharply maintains that it is an
unsportsmanlike arm as well--both a game killer and a game crippler
owing to the reserve of fire which leads the gunner to blaze away
wildly at everything within range and out of it. Additionally he
protests that there is no such reduction of recoil as the manufacturers
claim, but on the other hand the piece gives him an additional prod
every time it is fired.
In truth it seems that both sides can readily make out a case, and the
author hardly feels competent to sit in judgment. Doubtless every man
will have to pass upon the matter himself, and then he will either like
the arm or he will not and decide accordingly.
The contention that the arm is unsportsmanlike might be thrown out
since it depends so much upon whose hands are on the gun. A shotgun is
made, primarily, to kill game and not to save it--the more effective
it is the better adapted to its purpose. That it will kill game is no
reason that it should be made to do so beyond reason or lawful limit.
That the mechanism is complicated is something hardly to be denied,
and no man should expect it to have as long and sound a life as a high
class double gun. However, three auto-loaders can be bought at the
price of one good double hammerless. It must be admitted, too, that the
combined cheapness and quality of these automatics are the greatest of
all tributes to the genius of American gunbuilding.
That the piece lacks the graceful lines of a double gun is quite true,
though it might alike be asserted that the repeating rifle is without
the clean lines of the single shot. You could hardly attach a magazine
to a double barrel and maintain its grace of outline. Sometimes beauty
must yield to utility.
I believe, myself, that the man accustomed to a double gun will have
some trouble in shooting as accurately with the auto because of the
distance his pointing hands are below their accustomed place. However
this is something that time and practice will assuredly remedy.
As to the recoil, while it would appear reasonable that some of this
would be absorbed by the heavy spring and the butt at least come back
with more of a push, yet to the man unaccustomed to the automatic the
jerk of the arm as the spring throws the barrel back into place is more
annoying than the sharper blow of the double barrel.
Since the auto gun is operated by recoil it follows that this should be
made as nearly a fixed factor as possible, which precludes the use of a
large variety of ammunition with satisfaction. The manufacturers advise
shooting standard ammunition only when that is possible. At first
glance this might be thought a hardship, but in the end the gunner will
discover that the use of a cartridge with a regular velocity and breech
pressure is the greatest possible help toward uniform shooting. In
wing-shooting the gunner could no more expect to do regular work with
one shell that gave a velocity of a thousand feet and another of eight
hundred than he could with a rifle having a fixed sight and using one
high and one low power cartridge.
The automatic arm, being the latest invention in firearms, might still
be regarded as in the embryo stage. If so we may be forgiven for idly
speculating as to what the future will bring forth. At present it
seems an assured fact that in time all military and sporting rifles and
side arms will be auto-loading. If this is true of rifles why not of
shotguns?
It seems highly probable that every fault that can now be found with
the automatic will finally be remedied. Means will be discovered to
simplify the mechanism. A reduction in gauge would reduce the size and
clumsy appearance of the fore-arm, giving the piece the lines of our
present single barrel trap gun. The weight of the weapon is certain to
be reduced in the immediate future so as to come within the standard
weights of field arms. Whatever is done, we can look forward with great
interest to automatic gunbuilding, certain that no prejudice, not even
law enactment, can long retard the development of an arm that in the
logic of events must displace every weapon of other description.
For myself, I am looking forward hopefully to the appearance of a
twenty bore automatic that will be neat in outline, positive and
lasting in action, and with a weight under seven pounds. I should
prefer that it use dense nitro powder in a shell not over two inches
long so as to shorten the present heavy frame; that the fore-arm be
cut down to the last ounce of weight; and that the number of shells in
the magazine be reduced to three. I expect that through an improvement
in boring and choking the entire twenty gauge charge will be placed in
a given circle in place of sixty-five or seventy per cent., and that
the charge will be given a muzzle velocity three hundred feet higher
than the now standard thousand feet. Such a weapon would be as much an
improvement over the twelve gauge double gun of to-day as the modern
Springfield army rifle is superior to the old 45-70.