Remington Model 11 safety

Carcassman · Mar 9, 2021

I inherited a M11. It was my great Uncles and I had never shot it. Going to go turkey hunting for the first time next month. Avid turkey-chaser friend of mine to pattern my guns and see which gun/load worked best. I wanted to use my Winchester-12, but it patterned poorly; at least it aimed poorly. The M11 was, once I figured it shot a little high, rather impressive on the density of shot. My question is the safety. It appears that the safety is in front pf the trigger, inside the trigger guard. It is "on safe" when slide back towards the trigger and "off" when pushed forward. The seems logically backwards to me but is that how it is supposed to work or do I have some dangerous mechanical issues?

Yotehunt · Mar 9, 2021

What a great shotgun, I have owned many!.

Yes, its a slider. If I recall right, back is safe and fwd is fire. Like a mini 14. You can dry fire it to confirm.

Its fairly sensitive to being dry, do not use modern dry lubes.

I can use another if you cant get into the old tech!!!

CountryGent · Mar 9, 2021

Here's the manual, should it be of interest.

Hop Sing · Mar 9, 2021

Yeah, an odd place for a safety but once you are aware of it and get used to it, it works great. Good luck with the hunt!

Oh, depending on your loads you may want to mess with the friction rings - if they are set for light loads the gun will give you a pretty good kick.

revjen45 · Mar 10, 2021

Also note that with wear that safety can "jump" when you drop the bolt. You might want to check for this before you take the gun out.

Carcassman · Mar 11, 2021

Thanks for the advice and info. Just FYI, the gun won't be for sale anytime soon. My kids may make it part of an estate sale, but not till then. The more I think about the safety,, the more it kinda makes sense. I still think it is a poor location but there is a logic to it. If, in that location,. "off" was towards the trigger there would be too much chance of firing when one only wanted the safety off. Another interesting observation is that when cleaning the whole barrel was tighter than the M12. That somewhat smaller tube should help kill turkeys (at least one).