green okie,
The 11-48 was essentially a streamlined version of the model 11, which was a licensed version of the Browning square backed auto, but was much cheaper to produce. It uses the same type of recoil operation. This shotgun is very straight forward, and only thing that may be confusing is the positioniong of the recoil friction slide and ring. I had an 11-48 in 12 gauge, and it was a very rugged and reliable gun.