Tuesday, April 08, 2014

Beretta Builds A Gun That Is Actually Smart

     Nope, it doesn't know who you are, nor does it care.  I've never shot one and I have no idea how they perform -- but the ideas informing the A400 Xcel shotgun design apply modern electronics and mechanical design to the Old Reliable "shotty," and end up with the hybrid offspring of an M41A Pulse Rifle* and a classic hardwood-and-blued-steel Remington Model 11.*  Love it or look askance, it's an interesting machine.
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* You guys do realize I don't have to look any of this up, don't you?  Not because I know, but because at Roseholme Cottage, all you have to do is shout, "What's that rifle in Alien with the LED round counter?" and "What was the first semi-auto shotgun?" and the question is answered, in full.  Yep, with Tam around, who needs a reference book or a search engine?

10 comments:

DJ said...

Well, it looks like a Remington Model 1100. The Remington Model 11 is a Browning Auto 5.

Sigman said...

Shiny!

Anonymous said...

DJ is correct. FN began production of the Auto 5 in 'aught-two. Remington began production of the Model 11 (a licensed copy of the Auto 5) in aught-five.

-Drifter

Roberta X said...

Tam named both of them. I went with the one made in the U.S.

Tam said...

DJ,

I think what she was going for was "Future gun with digital readout" and "The first autoloading shotgun" (which is the question she asked: "What was the first autoloading shotgun? What was the receiver made out of?")

Also, you're holding it wrong.

Also, do you prefer your comments read aloud in the voice of Comic Book Guy or Professor Frink?

;) :p

Roberta X said...

What Tam said, DJ.

"Classic semi-auto shotgun with pretty wooden furniture" plus "futuristic gun" equals that Beretta.

You can reads more into what I wrote if you like, but I didn't set out to put it there.

Gewehr98 said...

C'mon, Beretta - "Steelium"? You couldn't do better than that?

Roberta X said...

Metallica?

DJ said...

Roberta, it was just a comment in passing, nothing more. Read it again:

"Well, it looks like a Remington Model 1100."

And so it does.

You, too, can read more into what I wrote if you like, but I didn't put it there.

How innocuous does a comment have to be to be treated as such?

Roberta X said...

DJ wrote: "You, too, can read more into what I wrote if you like, but I didn't put it there." Fair enough! :) Asked and answered, then, and we'll consider mutual snark closed.

I shall clarify: I was not referring to the specific outward appearance (of the Auto 5/Rem 11) as such, but to the general ur-wood-stocked-autoloading-shotgun nature of it as a kind of Platonic ideal, i.e., "lovely, classic automatic shotgun." That general look -- nice wood, graceful shape -- is still incorporated in the modern Beretta design.