the browning auto-5 or remington model 11 was the first successful semi-automatic shotgun ever made. it was made by john moses browning, who also made the model 1887 and model 1897 shotguns. while it was reliable, it had a very hard kickback. even though the model 1897 was slower because it was a pump-action shotgun, most people liked it better than the auto-5 because it did not kick back as hard.