"Don Pyeatt" wrote in message
...
Armament appears to be a 12 gauge.



Looks like he's the pilot as well!

Shotgun looks like a modified A5 Browning 12 gauge shotgun. Looks like an
extension to the (normally 4-shot)mag-tube; probably 10 rounds??

The Browning A5 is a recoil-operated semi-auto, and can produce some pretty
tight patterns with a full-choke barrel. I shot a feral pig(Years ago) with
ours using SG ammo at about 20 yards, and the pattern barely spanned 6
inches on the pig.

Our A5 was one of the first production run, and I think it was made just
after 1900. However, I think that ribbing along the top of the barrel is
some years later in the evolution of the A5.

No doubt I could be wrong, but that receiver looks suspiciously similar to
ours, and it would make sense to have a semi-auto if possible for that sort
of work...
You could probably do some serious damage if you were using the right ammo,
and were close enough!

I wonder if it was being used for air-to-air work, or ground attack. Air to
air makes more sense, as you would be pretty exposed getting low enough to
do any damage to ground forces. I wonder if he was excited the day they
upgraded him to a machine-gun??

An interesting pic!