[Jeff Higgins]

Another retired ME here, and a shooter. I'm here to tell you that there are essentially NO gun manufacturers working on "new" designs for any sort of break action shotgun. Or any sort of a firearm for that matter, save for the odd new pistol or military small arms. Any "new" guns use proven, established designs that are older than any of us, endlessly copying expired patents. And there really are no more than a handful of different designs to boot. Very, very bad place for any sort of an engineer to look for real engineering work.

As an aside, I got promoted into management as well. Companies like to do that to "reward" good employees, seeing it as a step up the ladder. I lasted less than a year before I asked my manager for a meeting, wherein I slid my management credentials across his desk to him and said "I quit". I simply could not stand working with employees' problems, of which there were an endless variety. So I went "back to the drawing board", literally. This was before CAD had taken over. I was much, much happier solving engineering problems than other peoples' life problems. Much better at it as well.