Show no sport guns truly automatic says expert the term automatic shotgun so commonly used by hundreds of thousands of sportsmen is a misnomer according to ii a remington arms company authority there are no full automatic sporting arms he said this applies not only to shotguns but to rifles and pistols as well the only full automatic firearm is the machine gun when the trigger is pulled and held back the machine gun will continue to fire until the trigger is released the machine gun is usually supplied with a lever or adjusting device which shifts the mechanism from complete automatic to semiautomatic which requires a pull of the trigger for each shot when the gun is on full automatic short bursts of fire can be secured by holding the trigger back for a very short time and then releasing it due to the extreme speed of its action about the shortest burst one can secure from a full automatic machine gun is five shots this however is dependent upon the reaction of the shooter and the sensitiveness of his trigger finger the guns so frequently referred to by sportsmen as automatic are really auto loaders this same term is applicable to so called automatic rifles and pistols as well as shotguns in this type of gun the trigger must be pulled for each shot and therefore the gun is under the complete control of the shooter at all times three types of action are employed in the man manufacture u facture of these auto loading guns these are known as the recoil operated gas operated and blow back operated the U S argys famous garand rifle works on the gas operated principle |