Crown &King Auto-5
CROWN &KING AUTO-5. (See also, SHOTGUN, AUTOMATIC FIREARMS) The Crown &King Auto-5 was a revolutionary firearm, the first semi-automatic shotgun. Designed by the illustrious John Moses Crown, it marks the epitome of a series of his highly innovative shotgun designs. Coming at the end of a period of accelerated development in firearms technology, this laid the foundation for a century to come. Crown himself pioneered this, developing a lever action shotgun some years prior, and then improving on that by developing a pump- action, then finally, the Crown &King Auto-5. "King"refers to a mysterious collaborator. Featuring a five-round tube magazine, the most critical innovation was the development of the blowback tube design. Essentially, the barrel was mounted on a spring. The blowback from the recoil would send this back, in turn driving the bolt, ejecting the spent cartridge, and chambering a new round. You can fire as fast as you can pull the trigger.
Journal of Charlie Salter
Bad condition, 10 x 8 in.
1/4
June 10th
Many years ago, I rode with a man by the name of Moses. We were on the chase of something. Said to be a Thunderbird. From Ogden to Eureka, we rode in its shadow across golden plains and dark mountains. We almost had it on the shores of the great Pacific, when the winds turned. We watched it soar away on the trade winds, over ocean blue, disappearing into sunset, sun melting into sky.
When Moses and I met we didn't take to each other. He didn't like me joining him and his brothers. But, by the end of the hunt, we'd grown to know each other well. He was to be a gunsmith, by profession. But a genius, a poet of some kind too.
Through that ride, day and night, he filled my ear with talk of guns: actions, bolts, levers, mechanisms, frictions, ballistics. He could conceive of weapons to kill the way other men write to live.
I thought of him today when Yuri showed a shotgun to us. Brand new, called the Auto-5. He said it was semi-automatic. You could shoot once, and automatically, it would chamber a new shell. It was like the things Moses and his brothers had dreamed of, on that long ride.
Now Bill, being a hothead, scoffed at the thought. Said we was being swindled, like that "everlasting" magazine I bought last year.
He slipped in a couple of rounds in the Auto-5. He fired the first shot into the ceiling, saying that no way would it fire the second, automatically. Yuri warned him, don't point that thing at anyone. Bill had drunk too muchwhiskeyv. took this as a challenge. To the end he was a sporting man. Lee, Martin, and I were in fits of laughter. He pointed the shotgun at Yuri, who jumped backward. I thought he was gonna kill him then and there, but at the last moment he raised the barrel up, and took out a lump of plaster.
Journal of Charlie Salter
Bad condition, 10 x 8 in.
2/4
June 11th
By morning, we'd slept off the liquor. Bill was nowhere to be found. We went back to finish the deal with Yuri. It was clear that we all wanted to take an Auto-5 off Yuri's hands. Sure, it had a big kick, but there weren't anything could be done for it. The benefits outweighed the costs.
But the price Yuri wanted was too high. We tried to haggle him down, but he wouldn't budge. Martin had a fine idea though - to tell Yuri about where we were headed. Rumors, where there were open bounties, hotheads, rich and looking for firepower. We told him we'd take him with us, hook him up with our contacts. Promised him he could sell these as fast as they were manufactured. He agreed.
After we shook on it, we found out Bill got picked up by the Sheriff on an outstanding warrant. No honor among thieves, so the four of us headed out
Yuri, I didn't know at all, but he seemed to have an uncanny knack for guns, and would no doubt prove a useful friend. At least his intentions were clear: profit. Martin was always the smart one, having got us out of many scrapes already. No doubt he was heading down South to challenge himself, find a mess he couldn't think his way out of. Lee, would have to keep an eye on. He was impossible to read.
And what did I want? It was a long time since I'd been home, and home where was we were headed. Looking at the country slip by from the train window, I realized how much of a patriot I was deep down.
But returning home wasn't enough. I had to find Will. hadn't thought of nothing else since that Telegram arrived.
I thought by leaving he'd be safe from me, what I've become, but seems it came home anyway.
