Winchester Model 1897
Posted: Thu Mar 01, 2012 10:01 am
My Winchester 1897
http://www.milesfortis.com/church/akc12.htm
Here's an article i found online about the Model 1897
This may be the all time classic repeating shotgun. Winchester introduced the Model 1893 that year, made some revisions on the locking, and introduced the improved gun in 1897.
The '97 Winchester continued in production until 1957, and while serials of past one million exist, numbering took up where the 1893 left off. Slightly short of a million of the '97 left Connecticut. A study of serial numbers is interesting: production slowed drastically after introduction of the non-Browning designed Model 12. A good half the production of the shotgun took place before 1920.
I will go out on a limb and break production of the gun into 3 major types: 12 gauge solid frame; 12 gauge takedown; 16 gauge takedown. I see far more of the 12 gauge takedown models than any other.
THE SHOTGUN
My battered ’97 is an amalgamation of 2 guns. The action is primarily from a 1903 gun, including the receiver. The buttstock, barrel extension and barrel have been taken from a 1907 gun. At the time the gun was built, a few internal parts from both guns were beyond hope, so spares were installed from at least 2 other guns.
The original ’07 gun was rough indeed externally, and had been used to the point the raceway guiding the bolt in the receiver was enlarged. The bolt face occasionally slipped sideways enough that the extractor hung on the ejection port. A skilled welder could build the track back up, but this old pig wasn’t worth that kind of money.
I later stumbled, literally at a salvage yard, onto another gun. It was as rough externally as the first, but mechanically much tighter. The owner was looking to move it as a parter, and had grown nervous about selling it because all would be customers talked about shooting it. He believed it needed to be parted, and I bought it as such for $35 cash. It came with a straight grip stock, very appealing visually, but regrettably oil soaked beyond usage.
The two guns were detail stripped, the pieces eyeballed, measured, and the best bits were re-assembled on the ’03 receiver. The vast majority of action parts are the ’03 gun, the barrel, receiver extension, and wood are the ’07 gun. The resulting gun has a little flex at the threads allowing the takedown, but my checkup @ Miles Fortis Gunsmithing pronounced it entirely useable. Most of the internals still displayed the lovely original bluing, and showed the superb fit and finish which nearly bankrupted Winchester in the early ‘60s. And, my, there are a lot of internal parts.
That part of the project was complete, praise be to Allah, for detailing a ’97 Winchester is not for the faint of heart.
The 1907 gun came with a barrel cut from a 30" full choke to an 18 5/8" cylinder, cut by Miles' father, and quite well indeed. This shotgun throws patterns which are quite open, but wonderfully even.
THE MECHANICALS
The ’97 is a complex machine. A massive shell carrier slipping into a cavernous cut on the bottom of the relatively small bolt accomplishes locking.
The receiver is relatively small, and is much shorter than most modern pump shotgun receivers. This is accomplished by having most of the bolt physically outside the receiver for most of the loading cycle.
The shell carrier seen below the receiver is the locking piece in the action, and it carries the hammer, mainspring, sear and sear spring inside. It is a mammoth and complex piece of work.
The outside hammer is a touch one comes to appreciate. You can carry it with one round chambered, the hammer on half cock and thumb that hammer back in a hurry. Of course, you can flick off the safety on a tang safety gun just as fast, but somehow that big hammer sticking up there is reassuring.
Another touch, very much of its period, is the lack of a disconnector. If the trigger is held down while the action is cycled, the chambered round will fire the moment the action closes. I’ve never found a use for this feature, but there are some who love it. It shares this feature with a number of other fine pump guns: The original Winchester Model 12, earlier Ithaca 37s, and Winchester Model 42s. I’m no engineer, but I see no way a disconnector could be fitted to the ’97 action. Because of the potential liability that represents, I predicted that this gun would never be reproduced but was taken aback upon seeing magazine advertisements for new specimens made by NORINCO & supposedly soon to be available for shipment to your favorite dealer.
PERFORMANCE
Nothin’ to cry over there, it works just fine. It feeds factory 2 ¾" non-magnum ammo perfectly, patterns well for its purpose, and retains the stereotypically terrifying cycle sound these old actions carry. Usually this is compared to freight cars hitching, and the comparison is fair enough.
I met a man once who had covered the 1968 Democratic Convention as a reporter. During the course of the riots, he somehow got from behind the police lines to in front of them. At one point the police approached, and he watched them with their slide action shotguns (likely Ithaca ‘37s). He declares the sound of pump shotgun is the most terrifying sound in the world, and that he wishes never to hear it again. The ’97 reiterates this point.
http://www.milesfortis.com/church/akc12.htm
Here's an article i found online about the Model 1897
This may be the all time classic repeating shotgun. Winchester introduced the Model 1893 that year, made some revisions on the locking, and introduced the improved gun in 1897.
The '97 Winchester continued in production until 1957, and while serials of past one million exist, numbering took up where the 1893 left off. Slightly short of a million of the '97 left Connecticut. A study of serial numbers is interesting: production slowed drastically after introduction of the non-Browning designed Model 12. A good half the production of the shotgun took place before 1920.
I will go out on a limb and break production of the gun into 3 major types: 12 gauge solid frame; 12 gauge takedown; 16 gauge takedown. I see far more of the 12 gauge takedown models than any other.
THE SHOTGUN
My battered ’97 is an amalgamation of 2 guns. The action is primarily from a 1903 gun, including the receiver. The buttstock, barrel extension and barrel have been taken from a 1907 gun. At the time the gun was built, a few internal parts from both guns were beyond hope, so spares were installed from at least 2 other guns.
The original ’07 gun was rough indeed externally, and had been used to the point the raceway guiding the bolt in the receiver was enlarged. The bolt face occasionally slipped sideways enough that the extractor hung on the ejection port. A skilled welder could build the track back up, but this old pig wasn’t worth that kind of money.
I later stumbled, literally at a salvage yard, onto another gun. It was as rough externally as the first, but mechanically much tighter. The owner was looking to move it as a parter, and had grown nervous about selling it because all would be customers talked about shooting it. He believed it needed to be parted, and I bought it as such for $35 cash. It came with a straight grip stock, very appealing visually, but regrettably oil soaked beyond usage.
The two guns were detail stripped, the pieces eyeballed, measured, and the best bits were re-assembled on the ’03 receiver. The vast majority of action parts are the ’03 gun, the barrel, receiver extension, and wood are the ’07 gun. The resulting gun has a little flex at the threads allowing the takedown, but my checkup @ Miles Fortis Gunsmithing pronounced it entirely useable. Most of the internals still displayed the lovely original bluing, and showed the superb fit and finish which nearly bankrupted Winchester in the early ‘60s. And, my, there are a lot of internal parts.
That part of the project was complete, praise be to Allah, for detailing a ’97 Winchester is not for the faint of heart.
The 1907 gun came with a barrel cut from a 30" full choke to an 18 5/8" cylinder, cut by Miles' father, and quite well indeed. This shotgun throws patterns which are quite open, but wonderfully even.
THE MECHANICALS
The ’97 is a complex machine. A massive shell carrier slipping into a cavernous cut on the bottom of the relatively small bolt accomplishes locking.
The receiver is relatively small, and is much shorter than most modern pump shotgun receivers. This is accomplished by having most of the bolt physically outside the receiver for most of the loading cycle.
The shell carrier seen below the receiver is the locking piece in the action, and it carries the hammer, mainspring, sear and sear spring inside. It is a mammoth and complex piece of work.
The outside hammer is a touch one comes to appreciate. You can carry it with one round chambered, the hammer on half cock and thumb that hammer back in a hurry. Of course, you can flick off the safety on a tang safety gun just as fast, but somehow that big hammer sticking up there is reassuring.
Another touch, very much of its period, is the lack of a disconnector. If the trigger is held down while the action is cycled, the chambered round will fire the moment the action closes. I’ve never found a use for this feature, but there are some who love it. It shares this feature with a number of other fine pump guns: The original Winchester Model 12, earlier Ithaca 37s, and Winchester Model 42s. I’m no engineer, but I see no way a disconnector could be fitted to the ’97 action. Because of the potential liability that represents, I predicted that this gun would never be reproduced but was taken aback upon seeing magazine advertisements for new specimens made by NORINCO & supposedly soon to be available for shipment to your favorite dealer.
PERFORMANCE
Nothin’ to cry over there, it works just fine. It feeds factory 2 ¾" non-magnum ammo perfectly, patterns well for its purpose, and retains the stereotypically terrifying cycle sound these old actions carry. Usually this is compared to freight cars hitching, and the comparison is fair enough.
I met a man once who had covered the 1968 Democratic Convention as a reporter. During the course of the riots, he somehow got from behind the police lines to in front of them. At one point the police approached, and he watched them with their slide action shotguns (likely Ithaca ‘37s). He declares the sound of pump shotgun is the most terrifying sound in the world, and that he wishes never to hear it again. The ’97 reiterates this point.