John looked like a character on Hee Haw, if a character on Hee Haw was not terribly silly. He carried himself like a grandfather. He was thin and always wore the same basic uniform — a pressed collared shirt buttoned at the neck and wrists, spotlessly clean bib overalls, and a ball cap. He had some chronic medical problems, so I saw him fairly frequently in my medical clinic. He also lived right down the road from me.
American troops wade toward Omaha Beach on the morning of June 6, 1944. John hit this same stretch of sand in the first wave at 0630 as a member of the 2d Ranger Battalion. Image: NARA
One day in the clinic, John was complaining about pain in one of his arms. I had him unfasten his shirt sleeve so I could take a look. I was surprised to find that his forearm was a mass of well-healed scars. When I inquired regarding the details, he explained that he carried fragments from a German potato masher grenade in that arm and that it still bothered him from time to time. That conversation led to some of the most fascinating stories.
A Shocking Introduction to War
I presume everybody has seen the extraordinary Steven Spielberg film Saving Private Ryan. That was John’s unit during World War II. He landed on Omaha at 0630 in the morning on 6 June 1944, as a member of the 2d Ranger Battalion. John hit the beach in the first wave.
Rangers trained relentlessly for assaults on fortified positions like the cliffs of Normandy. That preparation carried John through D-Day and nearly a year of continuous fighting afterward. Image: NARA
John obviously survived that horrible fight across the shingle and the subsequent bloody advance through the Bocage country. He was assigned to a reconnaissance unit in Patton’s 3d Army and met Patton twice. John told me that General Patton had a surprisingly high-pitched voice, but that he was as profane and flamboyant in person as the movie made him out to be.
John once overheard a conversation between Patton and Bradley as they were leaving a command post that went something like this: “Ike doesn’t know how to fight a damn war! If we keep slogging it out with these SOBs face-to-face we will never end this thing. He’s got to hit them hard, and he’s got to hit them in the flanks. That’s what’s going to get us to Berlin!”
Kitted out like a 1944 infantryman, the author is armed with the M1918A2 BAR. John carried a rifle like this one through the Bocage, the Hurtgen, and the Bulge.
John lost two toes during the Battle of the Bulge. He also battled his way through the hell of Hurtgen Forest. Throughout it all, he carried an M1918A2 Browning Automatic Rifle.
One Fruitful Combat Patrol
At one point, John and his squad had moved forward to gather intelligence on German troop dispositions. He found himself crouched down in a drainage ditch beside a rural road as massive German tanks roared by. He had no idea what kind they were, save that they were huge.
The BAR, a steel helmet, and a hand grenade: the essentials of a WWII automatic rifleman. John carried this kind of kit through some of the worst fighting in the European Theater.
A German officer in a motorcycle sidecar eventually pulled up and stopped right in front of him. The man stood up in the sidecar and began glassing the area opposite him with what was obviously a very nice set of binoculars. John found himself covetous of those binoculars.
Looking left and right to make sure that there were no more German tanks within sight, he stood up, drew a bead, and killed both the German officer and his driver with a full magazine from his BAR. Scampering up into the road, he retrieved the binoculars before leaping back into the ditch. His patrol leader then ran up cursing like a sailor.
John emptied a full magazine from this BAR to drop a German officer and his motorcycle driver during a reconnaissance patrol. He came away with a fine pair of binoculars and a furious lieutenant.
The Lieutenant explained in stark terms that their mission was intended to be stealthy and that John’s actions would likely bring down the full weight of the German Wehrmacht upon their heads. He said his patrol leader berated him viciously. Then he got a mischievous look on his face and said, “But I’ve still got those binoculars!”
The Voyage Home
When finally the war ended, John got tagged to make the trek back across the Atlantic aboard a troopship. Mid-ocean they encountered a ghastly storm that rolled the vessel relentlessly. John told me that was the most terrified he had been during the war. He believed that, after all he had been through, now he was going to drown in the middle of the frigid Atlantic Ocean. The storm eventually cleared, and, aside from some seasickness, he was no worse for the wear.
German military binoculars of the kind John liberated from a Wehrmacht officer in a motorcycle sidecar. He risked blowing his patrol’s cover to get them, and never regretted it.
John returned to his tiny little Southern town to a hero’s welcome. His mom threw a party, inviting friends and family from all around to celebrate his coming home unscathed from the war. He said they stayed up late visiting until everyone grew tired and gradually made their way back to their own homes. John’s dad wasn’t in the picture for some reason, so only he and his mother remained.
His mom then took him to his bedroom. She had maintained the space just as it had been two years before when he had left for Ranger training. Once she had him tucked in, she returned to her own bedroom, changed into her night clothes, and crawled in bed. For what happened next, I’ll use John’s own words:
“I lay there in the dark staring at the ceiling, and I just couldn’t do it. So I got up quietly, tipped out into the backyard, and got a shovel out of the woodshed. Then I dug a hole and crawled down into it, because I found that, after nearly a year under fire, I could no longer sleep above ground.”
His mom heard the noise and came out to investigate in her nightgown. When she saw her young son curled up in that hole and realized for the first time what he had been through and how it had changed him, she wept. We honestly just have no idea…
Fallout
When I knew John, he was well into his 80s. His wife had already passed years before, and he lived alone. I once asked him if he had struggled to cope with his wartime experiences. He just smiled.
The last quiet minutes before the ramp went down. John would survive what came next, but as his mother learned the night he came home, the war came back with him. Image: NARA
He said that the nightmares started soon after he came home. He would wake up in the night screaming about the things he had seen and the things he had done. He said it used to scare his poor wife to death.
John said that he still had those nightmares despite its having been more than half a century since the war. He said he would sometimes wake up alone in the night screaming. Then he said that he would realize who he was and where he was and that he was safe, and he would just go back to sleep.
Ruminations
John would have melted into any typical Southern crowd. He didn’t look like anything special. However, the man came home from World War II with two Purple Hearts among his many other combat decorations, having helped wrest control of Europe from a monster.
John spent his professional life in the timber business. He was an active member of his local church and enjoyed tending his expansive vegetable garden. I waved every day I saw him as I passed his house enroute to work. He died at age 88 after a long fruitful life. John was a invisible hero, a true warrior’s warrior hiding, as it were, in plain sight. I was proud to call him my friend.
Striking enemy ships with airborne munitions became a priority after World War I. While the challenges were monumental at the time, the rewards for success were too great to pass up. However, bombs and torpedoes dropped by early naval strike aircraft stood little chance against armored warships bristling with AA guns. Faced with this, the United States Navy sought a solution based in some of the most advanced technology of the era.
ASM-N-2 Bat glide bombs are carried on the wings of a Consolidated PB4Y-2 Privateer — one on each wing. Image: U.S. Navy
At the beginning of World War II, radar was coming into service with British armed forces. England shared that technology with the United States, and in 1940 the US Navy coined the term “radar” as an acronym for “radio detection and ranging”. At the same time, television technology was being refined and incorporated into military applications.
The desperate arms race drove technology farther and faster than ever before, and by April 1945, the US Navy deployed the ASM-N-2 Bat radar-guided glide bomb, the first automated anti-ship weapon to be used in combat.
Enter the Dragon
The concept of a TV-guided weapon arrived even before America was at war, as the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) proposed an anti-ship weapon in January 1941 that leveraged RCA’s television technology. Nicknamed the Dragon, the weapon used a nose-mounted TV camera to allow its operator to guide the glide-bomb to its target. The system worked well from a mechanical standpoint, but the early TV guidance technology was wonky, and the Dragon proved inaccurate.
Shown here is an ASM-N-2 Bat air-to-surface guided missile during development and testing. Image: U.S. Navy
In 1942, the US Navy struggled to counter the U-boats operating off the Atlantic seaboard, and a radar-guided bomb seemed a good solution for America’s thinly stretched defenses. In June 1942, the Navy began testing the Pelican, which used new “semi-active” radar homing technology. A year later, Western Electric upgraded the Pelican design with its “active radar” homing system.
Coupled with a 2,000-pound warhead, the upgraded Pelican achieved a 50% hit rate during tests at NAS New York. Additional tests and modifications followed, and the warhead was reduced to 1,000 pounds as the smaller explosive was shown to be sufficient for the expected types of targets. For a time, it seemed the Pelican would be the Navy’s production missile, but as the target types changed to surface vessels, the Pelican gave way to the Bat.
U.S. Navy technicians perform pre-flight checks on a ASM-N-2 Bat. Image: U.S. Navy
The ASM-N-2 Batwas a self-contained weapon system. While the Pelican required its mothership to continuously paint the target with a radar beam, the Bat’s onboard homing allowed much more flexibility with the launch aircraft. This early “fire and forget” system was considered a significant advantage in the face of enemy interceptors and AA fire.
Becoming the Bat
The Bat was a product of many fathers, with contributions by the National Bureau of Standards, assisted by the Navy’s Bureau of Ordnance, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Bell Telephone Laboratories. While the Bureau of Standards developed the Bat’s aerodynamic and gyroscopic stabilizing systems, Bell Labs worked with MIT on the guidance mechanism.
A close up photograph of a Bat glide bomb attached to the wing of a PB4Y-2 Privateer. Image: U.S. Navy
The Navy’s Bureau of Ordnance said in its final review of the system:
“Bat was the product of many hands and minds. Of the groups working, Division 5 sponsored the Bureau of Standards organization, which built and tested the airframes and servomechanisms, the MIT Servomechanisms Laboratory, and the MIT Field Experimental Station. The results obtained can amply sustain credit for all concerned.”
Throughout the development process, radar systems were continually upgraded, and this demanded ongoing modifications to the Bat’s operating system. Advancing technology “moved the goal posts” several times, and the necessary modifications needed to make the Bat a workable weapon system, often seemed more of a setback than an enhancement. Plans were established to produce nearly 500 Bat bombs per month in the late summer of 1945—but at the end of 1944, the development team feared the war would be over before their brainchild could see service.
Consequently, development was refined enough to build 72 Bat glide bombs by the end of March 1945. Along with a cadre of experts, these were sent to the Naval Air Station at Kaneohe, Hawaii for training. The ASM-N-2 Bat (or SWOD, “Special Weapons Ordnance Device”,Mark 9 Modification 0) using an NBS airframe carrying a 1,000-pound AN-M65 GP bomb was readied for combat.
There were two different tail types used during the Bat program. Both are shown here. Image: NARA
The Navy designated Number Two Wing, comprising squadrons VPB-109, VPB-123 and VPB-124, flying Consolidated PB4Y Privateer patrol bombers (the naval version of the B-24 bomber) as the initial Bat carriers. Other Navy aircraft were modified to carry the Bat, including the including the Vought F4U Corsair, the Curtiss SB2C Helldiver, and the Grumman TBF Avenger, but the PB4Y-2B Privateer was considered the best launch platform. The Privateer could carry one Bat under each wing in combat.
VPB-109 was sent to Hawaii to train with the new bombs, but only 10 days were provided to train the radar operators and ordnance teams. A few of the development team’s scientists accompanied the Privateer squadron to the PTO, helping to train the Bat operators and consult with the ordnance teams on assembly and maintenance.
The Bat Defined
The US Navy defined its radar-guided Bat in the following terms in its “Explosive Ordnance Manual”:
S.W.O.D. (Special Weapons Ordnance Device) Mk 9, or “Bat”, is a glide bomb. equipped with a radar homing set mounted in the nose. It is designed primarily for attacking. marine targets and is effective for night or day attacks upon shipping in any weather in which the parent plane can fly. The launching planes need not stay in the vicinity of the target and may release as many as four of these missiles in salvo.
The airframe consists of plywood sections which are fitted around the Bomb AN-M65. Control surfaces consist of an elevon on each wing which can be moved to control pitch or bank. There are no control surfaces on the tail.
Shown here is an engineering drawing of a later variant of the Bat glide bomb. Image: NARA
In order to ensure destruction of the intelligence system the Demolition System Mk 122 is used.
Installation of the Fuses Mk 235 and Mk 236, with their outside windmills and flexible arming stems, is standard.
Control: This missile has its own radar transmitter and receiver. When the target is located on the scope of the monitor unit in the plane, it is put into the range step of the missile’s scope and is automatically kept there. At the correct instant, determined by a glide ratio scale, the missile is released and is guided to its target by the radar signal in its own scope. The guiding. radar supplies corrections to the servo system, which is also controlled by a gyro pilot, the device which maintains flight attitude
I am certainly not a rocket scientist, so found portions of the wartime Bat operator’s manual to be helpful in describing some of the more technical aspects of weapon system.
A TBM Avenger, which was a TBF Avenger manufactured by General Motors, carries Bat glide bomb in flight. Image: U.S. Navy
Theory of Operation:
In SWOD Mk 9 Mod 0 the basic flight control of the air stabilizer is accomplished by two rate gyros (a pitch gyro and a turn gyro) which close and open contacts, operating the clutches of the servo. These air-driven gyros are powered by a Venturi tube projecting into the air stream.
A third gyro, designated “bias gyro”, sensitive to yaw motion only, is included in the gyro panel for the purpose of effecting a damping of yaw oscillations or hunting. A self-contained S-band radar transmitter and receiver is used to illuminate the selected target and to receive the returning echoes from it. The transmitter radar pulses from the antenna are directed by the rotating parabolic reflector so that the beam scans a cone-shaped area directly ahead of the missile. The returning target echoes are received by the same antenna, and the amplitude of the returning echoes varies with the directional pointing of the antenna beam. The returning target echoes are distributed by a commutator, mechanically coupled to the parabolic reflector, to four channels so that as the antenna beam is pointed down, right, up, or left, the returning echoes are segregated by quadrants. The echoes in each quadrant are converted by the directional control circuit of the radar into a direct current voltage which is proportional to the amplitude of the echoes of that quadrant.
The complete missile is suspended from the parent plane by means of a special bomb frame equipped with a standard bomb release unit such as Bomb Rack Mk 51 Mod 7. Sway braces are provided to keep the missile in a fixed position on the plane until release. The bomb fuses are mechanically armed after release by air vanes attached to the fuselage of the air stabilizer. Arming wires attached to the bomb rack release the air vanes at the time of drop-away in the conventional manner.
The Bat operator’s position in the PB4Y-2B Privateer bomber. Image: NARA
The Bat was considered breakthrough technology at the time, but even so it was fragile, sensitive, and sometimes downright wonky. The operator’s manual offers several “easier-said-than-done” tips for successful use:
“The parent plane should be straight and level for the last five seconds of the time that the SWOD Mk 9 is being readied for release. This permits the BAT to drop away normally on its glide path. The dropping aircraft should also be heading directly toward the target. Preferable air speed at the time of release is between 180 and 200 knots, with 140 knots as the minimum and 210 knots maximum.”
Land attacks were particularly tricky, given that ground clutter easily confused the radar guidance system:
“Isolated target which gives a strong signal from 10 miles distance and is at least 2 miles from any equal or stronger signal.”
Meanwhile, overwater attacks were little easier, enemy ships rarely cooperated with adequate spacing.
“Target over water must be isolated by ½ mile from targets of equal or greater strength.”
Finally, the care and maintenance of the Bat demanded gentle handling and preferably a clean, dry, and temperate environment.
“It cannot be too strongly stressed that the SWOD Mk 6 Mod 1 (Gyroscopic assembly) contains gyro units which must be handled with as much care as normally would be given to a precision electrical meter. While units can withstand the mild shocks they will receive in transportation and normal use, they cannot be dropped or otherwise mistreated.”
The Bat in Action
As VPB-109 began operations on Palawan atoll during April 1945, the squadron soon found their greatest enemy wasn’t the Japanese, but rather the extreme environment of their Pacific island base. The sensitive mechanics of the new technology did not operate well within the extreme heat and high humidity.
Loaded onto the Privateers on the hot and sweaty Palawan runway, condensation soon formed inside the Bat’s radar brain when carried to their operational altitude (15,000 to 25,000 feet). Mechanical problems were common, and several Bats simply failed completely. Ground crews worked tirelessly to learn, adapt, and correct the problems.
TBM Avenger launches a Bat glide bomb Image: U.S. Navy
The Bat’s first combat launch came on April 23, 1945, during VPB-109’s attack on Balikpapan harbor. Eight of the missiles were launched at a large Japanese freighter—and immediately half fell out as inoperable. The remaining four did not strike the designated target, their radar confused by the land mass clutter behind the target.
Even so, a small freighter was struck at the pier, a picket boat was hit while patrolling the harbor, and two Bats slammed into a nearby oil refinery. The first Bat strike was not a resounding success, but the crews and their new weapon had drawn blood, and the radar-guided missile concept was being proven.
The Navy Bureau of Ordnance commented on the early Bat missions:
“It was evident, even to the Japanese, that something was brewing when the squadron arrived on Palawan. The Bats had to be slung outside the carrying plane, one hung under each wing, and that was a tip-off. What was afoot turned out to be the first use of a completely automatic homing aerial bomb in combat.
At intervals from May until August 1945, a number of Bats were released experimentally against the enemy. As Japanese shipping was disorganized by that time, the only available targets were small ships, usually in or near harbors. In spite of the increased difficulty this situation presented to the operators, good hits were obtained. From distances of several miles, well beyond effective anti-aircraft fire, the Bats followed moving targets relentlessly until destruction was accomplished. The most spectacular of the hits occurred when an ammunition-laden picket boat vanished in one terrific blast and when a hapless destroyer had its bow blown off.”
An ASM-N-2 Bat air-to-surface glide bomb caught in this photo just a moment before it struck a target ship. Image: U.S. Navy
By mid-May, VPB-109 moved to Okinawa. The conditions on Yontan Field were particularly soggy, and heavy rain greatly interrupted Bat operations. Also, the special tools, test instruments, and spare parts were lost when the squadron transport aircraft ditched in bad weather on the flight to Okinawa. Meanwhile, Japanese shipping was moving almost exclusively by night, and Privateers were forbidden to fly after dark to prevent being mistaken for Japanese night raiders.
Even so, VPB-109 made 13 Bat launches during its month on Okinawa—and three of these were hits. Privateer squadrons VPB 123 and VPB 124 joined the fight in July, and conducted several strikes on Japanese destroyers—with one direct hit recorded on a destroyer escort. VPB-109 launched the last Bat in combat on August 10, 1945, a near miss on a tanker off the coast of Korea.
There are few manufacturers that have a long-storied history in the defense industry as Winchester. Undoubtedly, few things are more formidable or reliable in battle than a 12-gauge pump action shotgun. Winchester’s Model 1897 has proven over time to be a reliable firearm for protection of America’s finest.
The Winchester 1897 shotgun is seminal Americana. Produced up until 1957, around a million copies entered circulation.
Eddie Mangione had grown up with literally nothing on a rural farm in Tennessee. Now he was a world away squatting in the fetid trenches of war-torn France. For Eddie the summer of 1918 had become surreal and otherworldly.
Eddie had joined the U.S. Marines for all the timeless reasons young men join the Marines. He wanted out of his drab familiar world, and military service overseas promised adventure, exotic locales, and camaraderie. Like so many others before and since Eddie found that reality differed from the lies the recruiters peddled. The adventure was horrifying, the exotic locale was dank, rotten, and miserable, and the camaraderie involved watching his friends get torn to pieces by artillery. He had only been in the trenches a month.
His fellow Marines clutched their 03 Springfield rifles. These instruments turned the Marine rifleman into a deadly agent of chaos. Their French Chauchaut light machineguns were utter rubbish, but these beautiful Springfields were perfected tools of the riflemen’s art. Eddie’s backwoods Southern upbringing had ultimately put a different weapon in his hands. Eddie’s stiff terrified fingers curled around the walnut stocks of a Winchester 1897 Trench Gun 12-gauge.
Eddie’s mission was to knock incoming German hand grenades aside before they could land in the trenches. Pushing nine OO buckshot pellets per round and carrying five rounds on board, Eddie’s shotgun had successfully accomplished this feat twice already. Eddie’s reputation as a backwoods wing shooter had been well founded.
The enemy artillery barrage finally lifted after what seemed an eternity. Several ears were bleeding from the overpressure, but the Hun artillery had not adequately ranged the thin linear targets that were the Allied trenches. Everyone in Eddie’s platoon still drew breath.
From 1897 to 1957 over 1 million of these shotguns were produced and notably during World War 1 and trench warfare. Eddie’s story is not unique. It’s a small glimpse into the reputation that makes a Winchester shotgun a legendary trench warfare tool.
Hunting Arm, Combat Tool, Gangster Gun
John Moses Browning holding the Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR) at the Winchester plant.
The influence of John Moses Browning on the world of firearms cannot be overstated. He designed several familiar lever-action Winchester rifles, some of the most influential handguns ever built, and all of the successful repeating shotguns available in the first part of the 20th century. At the time of his death, the man held 128 patents for various firearm-related inventions. His repertoire spanned the spectrum from .25-caliber pocket pistols to 37mm aircraft cannons. His 1897 shotgun ushered in a new era in scattergun technology.
The 1897 was itself an evolutionary development of the previous model 1893. The 1893 slide action gun bears an esoteric similarity to its later sibling but came up in the era of low-pressure blackpowder shotgun shells. The Model 1897 incorporated a stronger steel receiver that better surrounded the gun’s bolt. The resulting weapon was proofed for higher-pressure smokeless rounds. The 1897 was available in both fixed and takedown variants.
Despite being born in 1907, my high-mileage 1897 Winchester runs low brass birdshot as fast as you can cycle the action. I’d be slow to feed it large quantities of buckshot or slugs, however.
Once broken down the 1897 Winchester takes up very little space. This feature allowed for easy storage or concealment, depending on which side of the law you might find yourself.
As a sporting arm, the 1897 was fabulously successful. The gun cost $25 new when originally introduced and could be had with barrels reaching out to 36 inches. The external hammer served as a manual safety, and the American walnut stocks exuded a lithe almost effeminate vibe. However, the lack of a manual disconnector meant that the gunner could hold down the trigger and empty a five-round magazine as fast as he could cycle the forearm. Extending a tab on the far end of the magazine tube and rotating the assembly allowed the gun to break in half at the front of the receiver via interrupted threads. As a result, the 97 could be tucked into compact spaces for storage or concealment.
The militarized version of the weapon was universally referred to as the Trench Gun. This variant started as a 20-inch barreled 1897 to which was affixed a sheet steel heat shield-cum-bayonet lug and sling swivels. In this configuration, the Trench Gun saw action in both World Wars as well as a variety of brushfire conflicts in between. Though the guts of the gun resemble a sewing machine for their complexity, the 1897 Winchester rendered reliable service and was well-received by the troops who wielded it.
An original Winchester Model 1897 Trench shotgun. Photo Courtesy: Winchester Repeating Arms
Resurrecting the Dead
If your gun collecting proclivities wander toward rarefied stuff like period Western guns or, Lord help you, transferable automatic weapons then you’d best be shaved and prepped to hock a kidney to pay for your habit. However, in the case of cool old shooters like the 1897 Winchester, getting into a facsimile of the guns used by J. Edgar Hoover’s G-Men to bring down Dillinger and Capone need not be spendy. A million of these old scatterguns rolled off the lines before production ceased in 1957. That means high mileage used versions are plentiful and cheap.
I found a shopworn 1897 that sported an absurdly long 34-inch barrel, little remaining finish, and an ugly home-built stock extension for a cool $250. While that was indeed a good deal, these old guns float around auction websites for a bit more than that all the time. Given the gun’s advanced age I could transfer it straight to my doorstep via my personal Curio and Relic FFL. Where others might see dingy, tired, and ugly, I sensed a diamond in the rough.
To break the gun down one simply presses this rod to the other side and uses it to unscrew the magazine tube about a quarter turn. John Browning had a gift for such as this.
So long as care is exercised anyone with access to a table saw and drill press can do a professional job shortening a shotgun barrel. I touched up the cut end with my Dremel tool and fabricated a new front sight from a machine screw.
The gun was mechanically intact, and the takedown feature works as well today as it did when the gun first rolled off the Winchester line in 1907. The freckled brown patina lends the gun a pleasant been-there done-that ambiance. The inimitable American Walnut furniture ages better than Christie Brinkley.
Chopping the Tube
I have shortened a lot of shotgun barrels in my day and have found that all you really need to do it well is a table saw, a drill press, and a little patience. Run a cleaning rod down the barrel and mark the point where it meets the muzzle. This is the initial barrel length. If you want a fixed point like 18 inches for legality or, in this case, 20 inches for historical cred, just subtract that from your measured barrel length and make a mark with a Sharpie marker that far back from the muzzle. Wrap that spot in masking tape for a precise cut.
Mount up a fiber-reinforced cutoff wheel on your table saw and cut the barrel a time or two near the muzzle to get a feel for things. Tape an old towel over the top of your saw to protect the finish on the barrel. When you are comfortable with your technique, make your final cut in a single smooth motion. You can then dress the cut end with a Dremel tool and a sanding drum. If you are careful the pruned tube will look factory perfect.
The exposed hammer on the 1897 Winchester shotgun serves as a manual safety.
Brass front sight beads are available online, but I’m cheap. I typically chuck a machine screw into my drill press and grind the head down into a ball with a file. Carefully spot the hole for your new front sight with a spring-loaded center punch, drill it meticulously with your drill press, and thread the hole with a hand tap. Seat the new sight with red thread locker. Then go back with the Dremel tool sanding drum to polish the stubby end of the new sight flat from inside the bore. If you want real performance from your new shortened barrel you can have the bore threaded internally for a choke tube.
Cogitations
The end result looks like something Elliot Ness might wield on his late-night raids against Al Capone’s Speakeasies yet set me back a whopping $250. Should you be in the market for a really inexpensive hunting arm, these old shotguns really never wear out. My resurrected 1897 runs birdshot like a champ as fast as you can cycle the action even at 110 years old.
Care must be exercised while working the action to avoid scuffing your hand with the bolt.
The 1897 Winchester armed generations of American hunters, Law Enforcement Officers, criminals, and soldiers on their enterprises of sustenance, peacekeeping, crime, and combat. The gun’s takedown feature brings a capacity for
Originally only chambered in 12 gauge and 16 gauge, the Model 1897 cost $25 and barrel lengths ranged from 20 to 30 inches.
stowage or concealment not rivaled today. The restoration project also represents an inexpensive and fun way to kill an otherwise lazy Saturday afternoon.
For more information about Winchester shotguns, click here.
