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A Victory! You have to be kidding, right!?!

CMP to Sell Winchester 1897 Trench Guns: Collectors Take Notice

Alongside surplus M14 rifles, the Civilian Marksmanship Program says it expects to receive Winchester Model 1897 Trench Guns—one of the most iconic and sought-after U.S. military shotguns ever issued.

CMP to Sell Winchester 1897 Trench Guns: Collectors Take Notice

Alongside surplus M14 rifles, the Civilian Marksmanship Program says it expects to receive Winchester Model 1897 Trench Guns to sell to American citizens. (Courtesy of Rock Island Auction Service)
August 08, 2026 By David Fortier

The Civilian Marksmanship Program’s announcement that it expects to receive surplus M14 rifles understandably dominated headlines, but another revelation from CMP CEO Gerald O’Keefe may have collectors even more excited.

During recent discussions regarding the upcoming M14 sales program, O’Keefe indicated the CMP also expects to receive an unknown quantity of Winchester Model 1897 Trench Guns. While few details have been released, the mere mention of original military 12-gauge pump-action trench guns immediately sent collectors into a frenzy.

Unlike the M14 program, where quantities are reportedly measured in the tens of thousands, few observers expect large numbers of trench guns to become available. If they do arrive, these shotguns could represent one of the most desirable military surplus offerings the CMP has ever handled.

Close-up of Winchester Model 1897 shotgun’s action and leather belt holding cartridges.

The military Trench Gun was built on Winchester’s popular 1897 sporting shotgun which was designed by John Browning. (Photo by David Fortier)

A True American Military Classic

The Winchester Model 1897 needs little introduction among military firearms enthusiasts. Designed by John Moses Browning and introduced in 1897, the exposed-hammer pump shotgun became one of the most successful repeating shotguns ever produced. More than one million were manufactured between 1897 and 1957, serving hunters, law enforcement officers, and soldiers around the world.

The military “Trench Gun” variant became legendary during World War I. Equipped with a 20-inch barrel, ventilated steel heat shield, bayonet adapter, and sling swivels, it provided American troops with devastating close-range firepower in the trenches of France. The shotgun remained in military service through World War II, Korea, and even Vietnam. Its reputation was built not only on reliability but also on speed.

Because the Model 1897 lacked a trigger disconnector, soldiers could hold the trigger to the rear and fire each time the action closed while pumping the shotgun. This capability, commonly called “slam-firing,” contributed significantly to the shotgun’s fearsome combat reputation.

Now, to be fair the practical usefulness of slam-firing can be debated. However, if we set the hype aside, the Winchester 1897 does have a lot going for it. I have been a “97” fan for many years and own multiple examples.

The things I like about the design are its slim size, due to its compact action. The loading port on the bottom of the receiver is huge, making it easy to stuff shells in. The action is smooth and fast.

Manufacturing quality is very good. The guns handle, shoulder and point well. Are they perfect? No, they are a bit complex and the design dates from the 19th Century. However, they were designed by John Browning and remain hugely popular all these years later.

Winchester Model 12 and 1897 Trench Guns in profile on white background.

Right Side view of a Model 12 Trench Gun (Top). The Winchester Model 97 (bottom) was the iconic World War I Trench Gun and also saw action during World War II and after. (Courtesy of Rock Island Auction Service)

Why Collectors Are Excited

Original Winchester 1897 Trench Guns have long occupied the upper tier of U.S. military firearms collecting. The problem is authenticity. For decades, collectors have had to navigate a market filled with rebuilt guns, modified riot guns, reproduction heat shields, replacement bayonet adapters, and outright fakes. Finding a documented and original military trench gun can be difficult, and prices have reflected that reality.

That is why CMP involvement is generating so much interest. The organization has built a reputation for selling genuine U.S. military firearms directly from government inventories. If original trench guns enter the CMP pipeline, buyers may have access to documented military examples with a level of provenance rarely available on the commercial market.

The Big Questions Remain

At the moment, there are more questions than answers. The CMP has not announced:

  • How many trench guns it expects to receive
  • Their condition
  • Whether they remain in original military configuration
  • Grading standards
  • Purchase limits
  • Pricing
  • A sales timeline

Quantity may ultimately be the most important factor. While approximately 100,000 M14 rifles have been discussed publicly, few collectors believe the number of available Winchester 1897 Trench Guns will be very large. If only a limited quantity arrives, demand could be intense.

U.S. troops training in a trench with bayonets affixed to their rifles during World War I.

The Winchester Model 1897 Trench Gun was a welcome addition to Doughboys fighting in the trenches “Over There” due to its compact size, fast action and terminal performance. (Public Domain)

What Will They Cost?

Nobody knows! That uncertainty has not stopped speculation. Unlike the M14, where CMP leadership has already indicated a price below $2,000, no pricing guidance has been released regarding trench guns.

Authentic military Winchester 1897 Trench Guns have become increasingly valuable over the past several decades, particularly examples retaining original finish, correct military markings, and original trench gun features. Depending on condition and originality, collector values can reach levels that place them well beyond the reach of casual buyers. Even nicely done reproductions can be quite expensive.

Whether CMP pricing follows current collector-market trends remains to be seen. Much will depend on condition, originality, and the number of shotguns ultimately transferred.

A Development Worth Watching

For now, the Winchester 1897 Trench Gun remains the surprise story hidden behind the larger M14 announcement. The M14 program will undoubtedly attract enormous attention due to the reported quantity of rifles available. The trench guns, however, appeal to a different type of collector—one interested in the iconic firearms carried by American soldiers through some of the most significant conflicts of the 20th century.

Marines with Trench Guns and a Thompson guarding the U.S. Mail as it is loaded into a 1920s vintage biplane.

The Winchester 1897 Trench Guns remained in service after World War I and five of them are seen here in the hands of U.S. Marines guarding a U.S. Mail airplane in the 1920s. (Photo Courtesy Chicago History Museum)

If the CMP does receive a meaningful number of Winchester 1897 Trench Guns, it could create one of the most significant opportunities in recent memory for collectors to acquire an authentic U.S. military combat shotgun.

Until more information is released, enthusiasts will simply have to wait. But if history is any guide, the words “Winchester 1897 Trench Gun” and “CMP” appearing in the same sentence are enough to ensure collectors across the country will be paying very close attention.

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You have to be kidding, right!?!

Playing Golf in a rain storm hmmm….. Why do I smell a Darwin Award in the making?

So let me get this straight okay? Its raining and instead of getting drunk at the 19th Hole Bar. These guys are out in the rain with a stuck golf cart. Where God gave one of them a “Are you really that stupid award”?            Comments anyone?

Thanks !!!!

Grumpy

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Real men

Some real hard looking men there!

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Paint me surprised by this This great Nation & Its People War

News Science Archaeology Shocking new evidence reveals true brutality of American War of Independence The American War of Independence was particularly atrocity-prone because it had a unique combination of features David Keys

A painting by Hugh Charles McBarron, portraying American troops in the American War of Independence

A painting by Hugh Charles McBarron, portraying American troops in the American War of Independence (Wikimedia Commons)

As the world prepares to commemorate this coming Saturday’s 250th anniversary of the American Declaration of Independence, new historical and archaeological evidence and analyses are allowing both academics and the public at large to more fully understand how and why the American War of Independence was even more violent than often popularly believed.

Research over the past few years has shed new light on the massacres, ethnic cleansing and extreme maltreatment of prisoners that occurred during the war.

Although most western European conflicts of the 18th century (such as the Wars of Spanish and Austrian Succession) were on much greater scales, they had much lower atrocity rates.

The American War of Independence was particularly atrocity-prone because it had a unique combination of features: it was an anti-government insurrection, a civil war and an ethnic conflict all combined into one particularly brutal war.

Because it was a rebellion, the British regarded American troops as treason-committing rebels and traitors and treated them with unimaginable cruelty.

Because it was also a civil war (the American population was split between pro-independence and pro-British camps), it was a particularly bitter domestic internecine struggle – and because both sides used Native American tribes as allies, indigenous people were subjected to extraordinarily violent racism expressed through appalling massacres, ethnic cleansing and, in one case, what would today be considered a genocide.

A book published in 2023 (Memory Wars: Settlers and Natives Remember Washington’s Sullivan Expedition of 1779) reveals the ways in which indigenous and European-originating Americans have, over the years, remembered George Washington’s invasion of the Haudenosaunee [Iroquois] Confederacy, a military campaign now regarded by numerous historians and others as an act of genocide.

And last year, another US academic (Professor Joshua Catalano of Clemson University, South Carolina) published a study of the mass execution of dozens of Native American men, women and children by American pro-independence forces in the Gnadenhutten Massacre of 1782. The new research evaluates how myth-making and cover-ups were weaponised to enable frontier land grabs. And, over recent years, archaeological and ethnographic investigations have shed important new light on the 18th-century village where the massacre took place.

Other research (including two books: Relieve Us of This Burthen: American Prisoners of War in the Revolutionary South [2012] and The American Revolution on Long Island [2017]) has investigated disturbing new evidence about Britain’s treatment of American prisoners of war.

The disease-ridden prison ships in which the British mistreated American prisoners of war and allowed many to starve to death, have been compared to concentration camps by some historians.

Inside a British prison ship. At least 12,000 American prisoners of war died, while incarcerated in such vessels

Inside a British prison ship. At least 12,000 American prisoners of war died, while incarcerated in such vessels (Wikimedia Commons)

Indeed almost twice as many Americans died in those virtual death camps as in battle.

Around 30,000 African-Americans served in the war (on both sides), but research has revealed that, largely due to shocking racially discriminatory practices, their death rate was roughly four times greater than that of white troops.

Very recent research by US scholars (in 2022, 2023 and early 2026) has also shed important new light on how the British military almost certainly used or planned to use germ warfare (smallpox) against pro-independence Americans.

Significantly, over very recent years, several museums have been launched or expanded, providing coverage of the atrocities. The Museum of the American Revolution (in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania), which opened in 2017, includes material on the more appalling aspects of the conflict.

The American Revolution Museum in Yorktown, Virginia reopened in 2016 with equally objective coverage of the brutality of the war.

And throughout the 2000s, the very moving Prison Ships Martyrs Monument in New York was totally restored and modernised with new and detailed explanatory displays.

And, in London, the British Museum is launching an exhibition of three key artefacts linked to Native American peoples involved in the conflict (Declaring Independence: USA 250 will run from 30 June to 29 November in the Museum’s Room 3). The three Native-American-linked exhibits are:

  • The 1777 Washington Peace Medal (presented to a key native American ally of George Washington, but later confiscated by the British)
  • A shell-bead wampum belt used in 18th-century diplomacy between two Native American nations, who then suffered civil war, betrayal and destruction at the hands of both the British and the Americans
  • A ceremonial pipe-tomahawk, given by a British aristocrat to a pro-British Native American leader (Thayandenagaa [Joseph Brant]), who the British Crown had largely betrayed.
One of Britain’s key Native American allies, the war chief of the Mohawks, Thayandenagaa was given a ceremonial pipe-tomahawk, now on display at the British Museum
One of Britain’s key Native American allies, the war chief of the Mohawks, Thayandenagaa was given a ceremonial pipe-tomahawk, now on display at the British Museum (Wikimedia Commons)

And from mid-September, the exhibition will also include the only known ceremonial copy of the Declaration of Independence itself. It is owned by West Sussex Record Office, which will be loaning it to the museum. It will be the first time that the document has ever gone on general public display.

Research by Professor Danielle Allen of Harvard University suggests that it was given as a present by the American revolutionary Thomas Paine to an aristocratic British sympathiser, the Duke of Richmond in late 1787 or early 1788. Professor Allen has just published a book in the US on the subject, entitled Radical Duke (due out in the UK in August).

Significantly, the full-size ceremonial vellum copy of the declaration, due to go on display at the British Museum in mid-September, is actually much better preserved than the original 1776 Declaration in the National Archives Museum in Washington DC. Sadly, the writing on that original is no longer legible – but the one in Britain still is.

(I myself am just shocked by this. Seeing that both sides fought dirty etc. Bottom line – War means fighting and fighting means killing. Seeing that it’s always been that way and sadly it will always be that way! Grumpy)