1897 Winchester with ordinance mark

[handloader357]

I recently acquired an interesting shotgun. It's a 30" full choke field grade 1897 Winchester with a flaming bomb ordinance mark on the receiver. Also, this is a full frame gun, not a take down. It's an E series manufactured in late 1919. Judging by the wear on the finish, the barrel appears to be original to the receiver.

I know there were plenty of 20" riot and trench 97's, but I'm curious as to why the military needed a 30" full choke field/trap gun. For as old as the gun is, it's in decent shape. Anyone have a rough guess on how much value the ordinance mark adds? Has anyone else run across a similar configuration 97 with an ordinance mark?

Honestly, I don't care too much as to what it's worth, I just think its a cool old shotgun.

Thanks!

 

[Fred Fuller]

Troops just wanna have fun, too - and there were recreation facilities made available on every installation large enough to have one. They had skeet/trap clubs... those clubs had club guns that were government owned, and there you go.

Sporting type shotguns were also used to teach the rudiments of leading targets to aircraft gunners. They moved from traditional skeet/trap shooting, to shooting clays from the back of moving trucks. Those shotguns were government owned as well.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ts5gsZy8JH0

- Remington Model 11 in training fixture, from http://bayourenaissanceman.blogspot.com/2008/07/weekend-wings-25-air-gunners.html

Could be other explanations, but those are the most likely.

 

[rule303]

Can't say I have seen that on a field grade 97, but I have seen it on a lot of model 12's, Remington, Savage, and High Standard field guns. Like Fred Fuller said, a lot of them were used to train aerial gunners leading up to WWII, but the 1919 mfg date makes you scratch your head.

 

[Fishbed77]

Sporting type shotguns were also used to teach the rudiments of leading targets to aircraft gunners. They moved from traditional skeet/trap shooting, to shooting clays from the back of moving trucks. Those shotguns were government owned as well.

My grandfather, a B-29 Superfortress gunner, recounted stories to me of them training by shooting clays from the back of moving trucks. The shotguns they used were Remington Model 11s.

I saw a government-marked Model 11 at a gunshow a few years ago and was tempted to purchase it as an homage to my grandfather, but alas, the seller wanted far more than it was worth.

 

[AethelstanAegen]

a lot of them were used to train aerial gunners leading up to WWII, but the 1919 mfg date makes you scratch your head.

There were indeed aerial gunners in 1919 as well, not as many as WW2 certainly, but some planes had a swiveling machine gun on a rear seat.

 

[peacemaker45]

Reminds me of the line from Catch-22:

Shooting skeet eight hours a month was excellent practice for them. It taught them to shoot skeet.