MANUFACTURER – Winchester Repeating Arms Company, New Haven, CT
STATUS – Obsolete
SERVICE – U.S. Military, Police agencies, and commercial sales
This was the first short-barreled slide-action “riot” shotgun manufactured by Winchester. Based on the 1897 pump-action design by John Browning, the riot version differed from the sporting gun only by having a 20-inch barrel. The Model 97, as it was also known, was used by the American military in the both the Philippine Insurrection and the Mexican Border Wars prior to World War I. As the need for a repeating combat shotgun was put forward by the American Expeditionary Force in France, the Model 97 riot gun was fitted with a barrel shield that included a bayonet lug to become the Model 1917 Trench Gun.
One aspect of the Model 97 design is that the weapon often does not have a disconnector in the trigger mechanism. The disconnector requires the operator to release the trigger prior to each shot, to help prevent the weapon from firing out of battery when the bolt is not fully locked. In the Model 97, the trigger can be held back and each time the bolt goes forward and locks, the hammer is automatically released. This “slam-fire” action gives the Model 97 design the ability to fire a full load of six rounds in about two seconds by rapidly operating the slide action. Using standard ammunition, that puts fifty-four .33 caliber 00 buckshot downrange in two seconds. The effective rate of fire is slowed down by the design of the loading system. The tubular magazine has to be loaded with individual rounds, pushed up one at a time through the bottom of the receiver.
The success of the Model 97 design is demonstrated by the fact that it was commercially manufactured from 1897 to 1957 and built for the military for nearly all of that time. The weapon served from the Philippines to Vietnam with U.S. Forces as the M1917 Trench Gun.
