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What happened to all the Model 11 Riot Guns?


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I have seen countless pictures of the Remington Model 11 Riot Gun being used by local police, sheriffs and the FBI throughout the 1930s. And yet, despite years (granted, only a few years) of searching, I have never seen an original Model 11 Riot Gun bearing a serial number which dates it to the 1930s or earlier. I’ve seen plenty of M11 riot guns marked with a U.S. Ordnance cartouche or a stamp that says “MILITARY FINISH” but those all bear SNs dating them to the 1940s.

So, what happened to all the old Remington 11 riot guns used by law enforcement agencies all over the nation in the 1930s? I know it is pretty common practice these days for government agencies to destroy all obsolete or non-working firearms that they possess, but that can’t be what happened to all of them. Does anybody on here own one? Has anybody ever seen one, and if so, do you have any pictures?

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I have several of the WW2 vintage ones. Are you sure the dates on the photos are correct? I'd have to dig through references, but I don't recall much info on the ser. number ranges before the military contracts were run for riot configuration. It's been a few years since I went through that, however the military marked ones tend to be "the market" for a poor man's riot gun with any documentation.

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For some of the pictures, I'm going off of what was represented by others, but for the FBI photos and screenshots, I am certain on the dates. 1935-1937. In addition, there is reference in several FBI documents from the early 1930s to the late 1930s to Remington "automatic shotguns" in a 20" cylinder bore.

I have seen many, many, many Remington Model 11s out there, but none in that configuration from before the war.

Are your war-time examples parkerized or blued?

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Just a thought and not based on anything, when World War II started Britain didn’t have very many firearms, especially when there was a legitimate fear of being invaded by Germany. There were "gun drives" where people could donate their guns to Britain’s defense. Do you think it’s plausible that those shotguns were turned in during that time and then subsequently destroyed since they were not returned?
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For issuing to the troops, no. But when they were forming the home guards because they thought the German invasion was coming at any moment I think they took whatever they could get. A scatter gun with limited range is preferable to nothing.
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Hmmmm. An interesting thought. I suppose I always thought of those as being civilian-donated long-barrel sporting shotguns. I'm not sure law enforcement agencies would give up some of their already limited resources to another country, even in times such as England faced. All that being said, it's the best theory I've heard so far.

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