OF TITANIUM AND CARBON
Shotguns enter the 21st Century
Holt found the 105CTi is as light and lively as an old Browning
Double Auto and as soft shooting as an 1100.
New designs, new materials, it all came together in the Remington booth this year. The most difficult of all shotguns to design is a semiautomatic. It has to feed, fire, extract and eject reliably light loads and heavy loads — standard 23⁄4″ shells, 3″ shells and increasingly, those 31⁄2″ Roman candles — and do it all without a hiccup and without beating itself into a pile of worn out and broken parts.
It has to be light without dishing out punishing levels of recoil. It has to be simple and easily disassembled by its owner because no gun accumulates more carbon, unburned power, and general gunk than a semiauto.
It’s really a marvel of engineering and firms like Remington, Browning, Winchester, Mossberg, Beretta, Benelli and Franchi have kept us well supplied with new and interesting models for decades.
When it comes to new semiautos, the year 2006 belongs to Remington. Their engineers really outdid themselves. Their new creation is called the 105CTi.
Over at Beretta, Holt was impressed with the firm’s fully adjustable
3901 Target RL model for youths and shooters of small stature.
100th Anniversary
If the model designation sounds a little arcane, it is. The “1” is Remington’s model prefix for autoloading shotguns as well as signifying their first new autoloader of the 21st century. The “05” stands for the year of design, 2005, which is also the 100th anniversary of Remington autoloading shotguns. The “C” and the “Ti” are the symbols for Carbon and Titanium in the Periodic Table of Elements. This is a high-tech smoothbore coupled with 21st century nomenclature.
I had an opportunity to shoot the 105CTi for a full morning on the skeet ranges of Nellis Air Force Base and I haven’t been more excited since the day I first handled a Remington 1100 and a Browning Double Auto.
In fact, if I had to draw an analogy to describe the 105CTi, it would be it’s as lively, light and well balanced as a Twelvette Double-Auto and as smooth and soft to shoot as an 1100.
The new 105CTi bolt features a rotating locking ring behind the
bolt face and its tang rides inside a rate reducer.
Tour De Force
The engineering incorporated in the 105CTi is state of the art. To keep weight to a minimum and overall lines slim, the receiver is crafted from skeltonized Titanium. You wouldn’t know it because the Titanium is encased in a very eye-appealing, attractive, textured
carbon-fiber shell.
The second big surprise is the 105CTi is an ambidextrous bottom feeder/ejector. No, there is no side port to collect weeds, seeds or rain, sleet and snow. You don’t have to worry about dumping hot cases down your friend’s back when in a duck blind, plus the first shell loaded is automatically fed into the chamber.
The trigger is the best Remington has ever put on an autoloader. It features a roller sear and is factory adjusted between 31⁄2 and 4 pounds. Have you noticed how trigger pull-weights are getting lighter and more adjustable across the industry? You bitched, they listened.
The new bolt is interesting. There’s a rotating locking ring just behind the bolt face so the bolt reciprocates and feeds in a straight line plus all internal parts are slick with an electroless nickel and Teflon finish. The tang of the bolt fits into an oil-filled cylinder, or rate reducer, housed in the butt stock. It regulates bolt velocity when shooting either 23⁄4″ or 3″ shells and reduces felt recoil.
In fact, recoil reduction in this 7-pound, 12-gauge gun is one of its outstanding qualities. It’s easy on your shoulder. Not only does the rate reducer smooth out recoil impulses, the concentric gas system is simple and lightweight, the barel is overbored (.735″) and incorporates a long forcing cone. Finally, there’s a contoured Limb Saver-type R3 recoil pad screwed to the butt.
Fitted with either a 26″ or 28″ barrel, the 105CTi is fitted with one more hightech item — a lightweight, twin bead, ventilated rib made from carbon and aramid fibers. The aviation industry has really had an impact on modern firearm design. Look for the 105CTi at your dealers by the time you read this.
With its skeletonized titanium and carbonfiber-shelled receiver,
the 105CTi is a marvel of modern design.
Other Treasures
Benelli introduced the ultra, “Ultra Light” autoloader — a 6-pound, 12- gauge gun for those whose “average hunting day is measured in miles.” Marlin’s L.C. Smiths looked better than ever. Kimber’s new seven-pin sidelock O/U, the Marias, was gorgeous. Beretta addressed the youth and smaller stature markets with the 3901 Target RL autoloader. The gun’s stock adjusts down to a 12″ length-of-pull combined with a cast off/on and comb height adjustments. Savage will be importing a new line of double guns. Winchester’s new Super X3 was loaded with bells and whistles. Browning’s latest Cynergy offerings include 20- and 28-gauge models. The Guerini booth was always filled. All in all, 2006 is turning out to be a great year for shotgunning!
