THE STORY BEHIND THE REMINGTON MODEL 1100

[Music] really tough automatic shotgun it's so hot the four ends smoking after 1500 rounds of continuous rapid fire but not one malfunction in that whole pile of shells for this remington model 1100 throw it in a brook we did just to see what would happen cool it off and see if you've still got yourself a shotgun a working shotgun you got one this automatic was designed on a couple of computers probably the first gun ever worked out that way we wanted perfection in this gun and there were a lot of questions about shotguns that no one had the answers to the computers began coming up with the answers among them how to cut recoil and we started building the guns and hammering the daylights out of them to get the toughest automatic ever made we pounded the bolts with all kinds of simulated loads to find and eliminate any weaknesses in them with high speed photography we analyzed the action at work here it reveals the perfect ejection of a fire shell and the smooth feeding of a new one over half a million test rounds were fired through these guns before they were ever put on the market to make sure the model 1100 could take it wherever you took it like out for hours in a soaking rain would it be ready [Music] sopping wet but ready and what about that recoil on the oscilloscope of our kick meter we compared the recoil patterns of the model 1100 and a conventional automatic that big peak is the wallop of the conventional gun and the low curve below it is the reduced recoil of the 1100 the computers were right and what about cold right out of the deep freeze but no trouble there finish counts too and there's a bowling pin finish on these stocks that's awfully hard to beat up and impossible to beat take a look at it completely transparent and tough as nails had it take a good look at one of these guns standard grade look at the fine line checkering like expensive custom work and the neat white spacer at the grip cap look at the teardrop shape and diamond inlay and look at the decorative scroll work and highly polished finish of the receiver outside and in custom throughout in a standard grade gun and how does it shoot a perfectly balanced gun that practically points itself paul a great gun for women and girls tireless with its light recoil and this is unquestionably the trap gun and for doubles too where light recoil means getting on that second target quickly hello [Music] take an 1100 to the field for heading out from stratford with duck boats in tow the broad bill promptly make room for the invading party and take off in the direction of montauk point [Music] no hunter ever charmed the wily broad bill with a thin rig of decoys on a puddle as big as long island sound after the first 50 of floating a man stops counting them on the open water a broad bill shooter's castle is his duck boat which is half kayak and half row boat equipped with orlox and running ice water this boat is rigged the way a dog is leashed to a backyard clothes line with a few exceptions an anchor is dropped next to the decoys and the boat is rowed away some 50 yards paying out anchor line as it goes then a second anchor is dropped between the anchors the boat is hitched to the anchor line by two short lines with a cork float on each the end result is a pulley arrangement that enables the gunner to travel back and forth up close when the ducts are bold well back when they're shy finally the real moment comes 115 decoys are bobbing on the water all hands reach for the shell boxes the days of talking about it and the hours of preparing for it narrow down to the few seconds it takes to slide three loads of number fours into the shotguns then there's nothing more to do except to melt down into the boat and roll your eyes and wait [Music] wait for those heavy feathered broad bill that just won't drop unless they're hit hard and clean [Music] why is it they never fail to come in while you're reloading your gun [Music] 10 o'clock well offshore eight broad built flat on the water and a half numb gunner wraps his hands around a cup of coffee and thinks about coming back tomorrow [Music] meanwhile thousands of miles northwest on the edge of james bay winter is coming on the wind this morning is gathering force as it pushes across the barren flatland no golden light here this is a desolate land of leaden skies gray wet it's a lonely way station for the blue goose on his long beeline migration from his baffin island breeding ground to winter quarters on louisiana's shoreline there's only one practical way to move into this blue goose headquarters and that's to come in by air the way the goose gets here outfitters meet the hunters at the nearest commercial airline point then bring them on in in light amphibious planes the reception committee turns up promptly to raise a gunner's blood pressure a few hundred yards from the airplane the pre-indian guide chops dwarf willows for a james bay blind while another guide plants a set of goose wings on sticks a wing and a prayer method of decoying that generations of trees have used the blue goose at james bay is not the super cautious bird he becomes when he heads south later on nature gave this country a short haircut anything that grows over six inches is tall timber and finding cover can be a problem guides build blinds by pushing dwarf willows into the spongy ground the goose wings are usually set upwind from the shooters giving each gun a sporting chance of birds passing overhead on a glide toward these strange decoys for many years the blue goose had mankind guessing because in breeding season he vanished without a trace he remained a mystery bird until 1929 when his nesting ground was discovered on baffin island the swampy cree indians couldn't live without him the white man could live without him but can't resist the sport of gunning for him halfway to the north pole the indians speak three languages their own english and blues the blue goose talk will bring them in from far far out woo woo the blind where the gunners wait in the cold mud [Music] uh the limit kill of these heavy birds is down and thousands more are left in flight the gray panorama of james bay grows darker as the day nears noon but that doesn't matter to men who have felt the gun butt nudging against their shoulders and seen the blue goose suddenly fold and tumble down thousands of windswept miles due west of the willow blind a flight of ducks whistles down the pacific flyway through a green valley of british columbia and two hunters move quietly up a river from the canadian coast searching for a spot that suits their idea of a natural blind this is beautiful country so downright beautiful that a hunter can forget why he's there if he lets his gaze wander you don't have to hurry in this valley nobody crowds you waterfowl gunning in these parts is a combination of decoying and pass shooting hunters find a natural location from which they can screen every bird that passes down the valley bufflehead goldeneye widgeon mallard and canada goose whatever comes through the goose decoys in this game are spotted flat side toward the pass these collapsible imitations will bring geese in close if they also persuade a high balling duck to slam on the brakes for an instant that's all a hunter could ask shells for this shooting have to reach way out and still deliver a haymaker because the birds whistle through high overhead and you don't have all day to throw your gun up swing and squeeze now let them come there's a duck that was winged but not dropped and the hunter touched off a long shot this is where a full choke on a lightning fast load make the difference between a lost bird and one in the back the labrador grabs him a [ __ ] that won't get away meanwhile back across the dominion of canada on the eastern rim of hudson bay other wings are beating high up against the autumn heaven the long black necks of canada geese points southward down the atlantic flyway down through ontario to the eastern shore of lake erie then eastward across pennsylvania and southeastward across west virginia to chesapeake bay and the broad mouths of virginia rivers in majestic vs and sloping lines the honkers come on south into carolina south to the vast area of flooded farmland called lake mata mesquite one of the finest goose gunning areas in the east it's early afternoon here and the north carolina climate is working on a light snow that fell in the morning [Music] most of the shooting at mata mesquite is from permanent blinds the state of north carolina runs the show and the federal fish and wildlife service owns the sanctuary and shares management with the state a gunner pays a daily fee for a guide and a blind and draws lots for his location then here too all the preliminaries dissolve into the simple hopeful act of loading the gun this is the moment of maximum optimism every wildfowl shooter knows he trusts his gun he trusts his ammunition he expects to see feathers and he expects to bring them down look there off to the left peace get down [Music] me [Music] here they come [Music] wait them out let them come in [Music] so this is her show now and she knows it out and after that bird for the honor and glory of the chesapeake breed in this kind of country a dead bird dropping on the water can be picked up in a boat but with a chassis along you don't need a boat and you get all the cripples without a retriever a [ __ ] is a pretty sure bet to get away in the reeds and marsh grass every hunter loses when that happens give me that goose [Music] at the same instant a north carolina gunner takes a bird in hand a cloud of pin tails beats southward through central california they're moving in on the rice paddies of the sacramento valley and there waits a gunner in a sunken concrete barrel with his obedient lab beside him the man looks out across flooded crop fields that were dry and thick with grain a month ago he likes what he sees so he sends his greetings to the oncoming pintails [Music] good bird [Music] so hello wow [Music] so here's a duck hunter who shares his day with his dog and finds his reward in the work of a masterfully trained retriever the dog goes instantly on signal to a blind retrieve finding no bird because the bird is hidden the dog keeps busy on a general search [Music] get back he responds to hand signals and shouts from shore get over moving where he's told without hesitation the treasure hunt ends behind a clump of [Music] grass and a good dog pays another dividend on the many hours invested in his training money alone won't buy that kind of service [Music] a mile or so away on the clubhouse stove a kettle of stew is simmering the swamp wagon drags to a stop on its noontime pickup route horse and buggy transportation is part of the service in this territory [Music] up they go the results of a good day's teamwork by a man and a dog the man is a little tired but he hasn't discovered it yet his mind is filled with some phrases that keep drumming away like the words of a familiar song clean the bird well and remove all pen feathers filled with moistened bread stuffing well seasoned place in a moderately hot oven wild rice currant jelly words come back as the buck board wheels turn slowly through a flooded field in california a pintail hunter is calling it a day but mallard hunters in arkansas are spotting decoys in a flooded stand of pin oak trees smack in the middle of the stuttgart rice country they come in by boat and quietly move through the acorn studded shallows hiding their boat wherever they decide to make a stand arkansas and stuttgart are magic words to the mallard gunners ear the green heads funnel into this area from the central flyway they come by the thousands because this is a popular stopover for rice and acorn feeding [Music] a man stands close to an oak tree and tries to make himself scarce in this timber topping the sportiest kind of hunting quite often a man has to grab a fast wing shot through the oak branches that birds flying straight away above him he can't direct the flight of the ducks and he can't move the trees and that often results in deflected shot strings the part of the string that gets through must do a knock-down job once a flight is spotted the man with the truest call is the fella who will get the shooting [Laughter] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] yes [Music] a day of good gunning ends with a bang in arkansas and the very next morning at daybreak the broad bill shooters are back on long island sound with dirty skies above them choppy water under them and the winds sticking needles in their faces [Music] foreign [Music] when the limit is down the shooting is over these broad build gunners still have a thrill coming as they lie down in those tossing duck boats and look at the most fascinating air show in the wildfowl world here are the birds that taught the airplane how to fly they circle the field lower their flaps start their glide drop their landing gear and change their minds and so the season ends another 11 months and the shooters will be back same place same time same thrill all over again all right partner let's pick up those 115 decoys [Music] you