Ian’s Customs: Remington Auto-8

I have a number of interesting custom guns, and I figured it would be fun to do videos on a couple of them…let me know if you enjoys this and would like to see more like this!

Today’s example is what I call my Remington Auto-8. It’s a recreation of the FN Police Model Auto-5. Those guns were standard Auto-5 actions made with longer 8-round magazine tubes and full-length hand guards. The most well-known purchase of them was by the Rhodesian military (probably through Portugal), but they were bought in small numbers by a variety of police and security organizations. A shotgun of this pattern was also a personal favorite of Charlie Askins.

Mine was built from a generic Remington Model 11 by the shotgun wizards at Vang Comp, with their barrel, a sling, shortened stock, and modernized Auto-5 lifter that allows one-handed loading. It still has the original safety in the trigger guard, but is otherwise a pretty capable tactical shotgun…and a heck of a head-turner at the range!

25 Comments

  1. I loved the video, especially the super slow motion of firing it. I have owned a Browning Sweet 16 since 1967 and it never failed to fire or feed except if I switched to light field loads and forgot to change the recoil setting. Great gun, I enjoy showing people how the barrel slides back and works the action.
    Keep up the good work.

  2. Very interesting! When I first saw the picture, I was wondering what kind of customization had resulted in a Remington Model 8 (rifle) looking like that.

    The duckbill choke is a nice touch.

  3. Well thought-out set of choices, and I like it. Although, I have to point out that you’ve basically recreated a Benelli M1-series combat shotgun…

  4. you can drown us in anything by now. go for it. serious recoil btw; i understand the rubber butt plate

  5. I read one of Askins’ book years ago. He practically sniggered at a tale of a border agent claiming that a man he killed on a bridge had pulled an S&W Safety Hammerless on him…by the time the river was searched, his ‘helpful’ colleagues had seeded the water with something like half a dozen ‘drop guns’ that matched.

    • So if you’re a psychotic murderer who wears a badge you get to be a celebrated hero who writes books. If you’re just a regular ol’ psychotic murderer you…well…

      • Depends entirely on when and where you do your killing. If you’re a high-functioning sociopath, and can keep your killing within the lines, you’re a hero. If not, you’re a monster–And, what makes the difference is highly subjective. I’d wager that an awful lot of the old frontier “Indian fighters” would probably be in prisons, these days. Conditions of the time made them iconic heroes, and translated to today? They’d be considered monsters, no matter what justification there was.

        Of course, I imagine that if the idiots of today’s morally enlightened times were running things back then, we’d have never gotten past the Appalachian mountains…

        • I’d wager that an awful lot of the old frontier “Indian fighters” would probably be in prisons, these days.

          “Liver-Eatin'” Johnson comes to mind.

          😉

          cheers

          eon

        • This gets a little political whiff, but I have to agree; there would be no United States without them. All major state creations in past were based on “justifiable” violence.
          Moral justifications sideways, the current “cancel culture” will not last long; it cannot if the country is to survive.

  6. Nice. I’m not a great shot gun person, but I had a 26” barrelled 16 gauge Remington 11 for a while, and it was a very nice shot gun. I think the Remingtons are often overlooked, and there’s a tendency by A5 owners to trash talk them.

  7. I believe that was Bill Jordan in No Second Place Winner. They were contemporaries, and both Border Patrolmen, but not the same person. It’s been a while since I read the two.
    In Rhodesia in my battalion (1RAR) they were part of the armoured truck load out, one per truck. Truth be told, in the field they were mostly used to take (poach) small game for the pot.
    Wafa Wafa Wasara Wasara

  8. Very cool!

    Thank you for agreeing with me that the safety does not belong inside the trigger guard.

    It makes the Garand fanbois foam at the mouth when I point this out, but the only thing that should happen inside the trigger guard is pulling the trigger.

    • I have a post-WWII FN Auto-5 with the “M-1 type” safety and I love it! It is a different configuration than the one on Ian’s Model 11… it moves through a slot in the front of the trigger guard so you press forward and back, just like an M-1, without any upward pressure as this Model 11 seems to require.

  9. For a guy who professed not to like shotguns much, you certainly have a nice one.

    More, por favor.

  10. I have a Remington Model 11 in 20 gauge. With the exception of maybe my Saiga 12 with the 20 round drum, the model 11 is by far the most enjoyable to shoot. Keep up the great work Ian!!

  11. Very interesting shotgun.
    Two questions:
    1 You made a reference to use of the Police model by Rhodesian forces. Could you elaborate on this please.
    2 In the vane of military shotguns, have done a report on the Savage model 77E and it’s use in Vietnam?

  12. This gun is a super creation, by bona-fide enthusiast. No ‘historical harm’ was done here. I personally like box fed shotguns but this is a classis, one of which was almost wiped out of existence by later fashionable inertial locked guns. Congratulations!

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