Life happens and I have been putting this project on the side burner, revived from the Archives (ETA:multiple times). Plan is to send it to be parkerized in January (ETA: 2016).

I have been looking for a shotgun to turn into an SBS for a while. Have looked at every flavor imaginable, but could not make up my mind. My mind was set on an M4, but the 14.5" barrels are like hens teeth (I did not want to send a standard barrel to get cut, etc.).

I have been looking at older, semi shotguns. I did not want to nutter some of the old timers that I found. So, this landed on my lap today, perfect start! Unknown to me, I looked at the parts list and I'm missing 87 parts. I can't say its a sign, but find it interesting!

I will post as this build progresses. Main technical questions:

1. Good source of parts for these?
2. Anything that was different from the "military finish" and the commercial versions?
3. Who might be able to do the work on the barrel? (chop,etc.)
4. Any tricks or things I should be aware of when putting this together?
5. Suggestions/comments?




UPDATE: 1 March 2015

Yes, parts are EXPENSIVE. A beater is a LOT cheaper. Found the perfect donor, a bubba'd (seems like an ATTEMPT at installing a scope!) shotgun, with a pitted receiver. Most parts are usable as is, the handguard/forend has cracks but should be repairable. Never knew the rem-choke is soldered on (the threaded nut that the rem-choke screws into).








UPDATE 21 March 2015

Form1 has been in process for a few weeks, hoping to have it back in 3-4 weeks. Meeting with the engraver next week and heading to getting parkerized as soon as the form comes back.

Project receiver and donor gun have a S# variation range of 300K! Minor fitting issues with wood to steel, etc. However the trigger guard to receiver was horrible and had to do some fitting.
Not concerned with tool marks, as the parkerizing should take care of it. A lot of dents and nicks on steel surfaces, 70+ years of improperly sized screw-drivers are also apparent.
The worst screw was the one on the tang, it took me a lot of soaking with oil and patience to remove. Once I removed it, I re-cut the slot. I already have a NOS tang screw inbound, but needed something to hold the parts together while fitting them.
My goal was not to perfectly blend all the steel pieces, as in a high end shotgun; however, I did want for the parts to show proper fitting.

Forgot to grab "before pics"!

On the second picture, I lost sight of the rear of the file and took a little too much off from the rear of the receiver/handguard. While "overstated" on the picture, it is not that bad in person.






For the barrel, I did a test cut (past the 18" mark) and it worked out great. Measured the barrel at 12", 14" and 18" (depicted by yellow marks)
Fitted the mag-tube and hand-guard/fore-end and decided on the "perfect" barrel length for this project. Form1 set at 14".




UPDATE: 5 December 2015

Decided to do two barrels, 12" and 14". Bead sight installed on each barrel. The 12" is for show, the 14" is for function! Or maybe I'll shoot the 12", depending on how the 14" works out...



Recently received the 14" back from the gunsmith




14" Barrel "mock-up" (FYI: F1 has been approved for over half a year) -bad potato pic!-


12" Barrel "mock-up"




UPDATE 01 January 2017

Finally shipped for refinishing to another gunsmith (the original gunsmith that was going to refinish it, has been busy and unable to complete my project)


UPDATE 15 February 2017
Got the goods back from the gunsmith. Park is finished. So far, so good.



AND 110% MY FAULT. Forgot to put in the instructions, "only park operating handle knob, NOT entire part!". The result:


New fiber buffer, installed:



UPDATE 18 February 2017
I did install the two part lifter in her. Some minor fitting (performed after this picture was taken). Some are direct drop-in, some are not.




So, took her out for a spin. Lessons learned.

Both barrels tested with one initial shot, inspected, a new round loaded and fired. Once the second inspection was completed, I loaded two rounds:

The 14" barrel works great. I had it cut for rem-choke tubes and a small bead installed. I figured there would be no removal of the bead sight when parkerizing it (the bead is steel, and purchased as such for this purpose). For some reason the gunsmith removed it, and re-installed it after the park was finished. I knew it would be trouble, since it was no longer pinned and had a small layer of material/threads on the barrel to attach to. It made it between 26-30 rounds (it was still attached after the first box of shells). I will be filling the hole with JB Weld and painting the "dome" red.

The 12" barrel was going to be for DISPLAY ONLY. Decided to give it a shot...or two. The first two initial test shots, in this configuration showed no damage to the wood. On the third and fourth round the sides blew out. I figured SOME wood would come off the end. I was partially right! A LOT of wood came off the sides/front. I will be re-profiling the wood. I enjoyed shooting the 12" more than the 14" barrel. For some reason, the sound of the 12" going off is more pleasing to me(with ear muffs on).

Total rounds fired: 150

I was alone at the clay range. Around the 80 round mark, a few folks showed up. TO LOOK. This thing is FAST, faster than my Benelli M4 (at least to me). Some of the folks thought it was "fireworks" going off. Others thought it was a "full auto". So they came to see.

Into the 5th box of shells, I could no longer shoot more than a 3 round string without stopping. Some shells would not fully eject. I think my shoulder was starting to feel the burn. I did play with the settings on the spring. Heavy loads was the most pleasing to the shoulder.

I do have it configured for a sling (notice two caps in the picture). I did replace ALL springs with new ones. Either NOS or current production. The stock/buttpad was fitter over a year ago, but kept separate. Once assemble, they don't match. Figured the wood shrunk a little.

In all its glory, with "range trip scars" and all. Model 11; on bolt,  parkerized (done by me).








More pictures to follow, once the hand-guard has been worked over.

Tag.  I can't wait to see the finished sbs.

Can't wait to see the refinish. Looks awesome.

I can't wait to see it

5th Update. Getting CLOSER...

I absolutely adore the Auto-5 / Model 11. I cannot wait to see the finished product! Thanks for continually updating this, Draco223!

6th update.

Awesome.
I wanna do the same to the one I picked up a few weeks ago.

Ive put new springs in mine, soldered a new front bead base on, and put a two piece a5 lifter in mine also already.

I tossed a few bids at some M11's on Gunbroker and of course won two of them.  One was a whittler, broken stock rusty bore.  Cool plum color and solid rib.  I chopped it to 18" waiting for the snow to melt a little to shoot it.  The other might be too nice to SBS.  The pics were poor but a very clean gun.,

Can you further elaborate on what you did for fitting the two piece? I have mine in my M11 working pretty good, but it doesn't like to feed slugs with the two piece.

Man, that's too bad about the handguard.

Looks nice otherwise.

If you want to run the short barrel, you need to shorten the magazine tube and forend.

This one has a 12.3" barrel on it.