Another day, another gun...Winchester 1897

[Razor]

Picked up this Winchester 1897 Riot Shotgun today. Barrel measures a touch over 20 overall inches when I took it down. I don't know if it's a true Riot gun, but if someone cut it down they did a pretty damn good job at it. Bore is in great condition, and the action and lock up is nice and tight.


I'm thinking the rear receiver has been restamped, but really can't dicerne any obvious scrub marks on it. The stamped numbers on the rear don't match the front in terms of shape and size. Stock has been trimmed down a little bit and doesn't have the original butt plate on it, but length of pull is still good as I'm a pretty big guy (6' 4" 260lbs) and it feels comfortable to me. I'm in it for $350.00 which I don't think is too bad of a deal. I plan on calling Winchester this coming Monday to see if they can verify barrel length for me. Well, enough talk, here she is...

[xenophobe]

Check for signs of the bead sight being fucked with and the finish immediately surrounding it as well as the muzzle not being cut completely square. You can get papers on it for $60 if I remember correctly. At $350 you got a fair deal. Those are nice shooters. Riot and trench guns are routinely faked because they command a premium. Not really easy to tell looking at pictures on the internet. Take it to an expert or get paper for it if you just gotta know.

Oh, and Grats!

[Razor]

The area around the bead looks good, and it's smooth inside the bore also. End of the muzzle looks good too. I'm going to contact the Cody Firearms Museum and have them paper it. I'm willing to toss $70.00 to them to find out one way or the other. I went into this one assuming it was a fake, so I'm hoping I get pleasantly surprised.