Model 1897 Winchester

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cunningham_alex

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My gradfather passed on the aforementioned gun to my dad. I recently found out that it was manufactured in 1900. I know that this is around the time that older "damascus" barrels were being phased out. does anyone know how the barrels on these models were constructed. My dad had been using the gun to rabbit hunt untill last year, we all thought it was from the 50's untill last week.
 
Welcome, and congrats on picking a grandfather with excellent taste in shotguns.

Do get it to a good smith for a checkover. Besides short chambers, some 97s are worn further than safety and sanity decree. Such probs are fixable.

Once you've the smith's blessing, go shoot it.....
 
The reason i ask about the barrel is due to the fact that i inherited a gun from my inlaws that has a damascus barrel. i found out that my brother in law shot it alot and he was just lucky not to blow his hand off. that particular gun was a 1907 AJ Aubrey and was ordered from a Sears Catalog. Apparently the damascus barrels have a tendency to come apart like tubes of biscuts when you fire a modern load, learn something new every day
 
Those old damascus barrels also seemed to weaken with time and were never designed to hold modern pressures. He is lucky indeed.

As to the 1897, is there anything on the barrel such as "nitro proof tested" or any markings other than the gauge?
 
IF the gun is 12 ga. and mechanically sound low base loads are ok. If it is 16 ga-watch out, the chmbers were too short before 1930 something (the later ones are marked 2 3/4") . I doubt if the 97 has damascus barrels- they are exceeding rare and are marked as such.
The forcing cone length is short on the early 97 12ga. guns but OK for at least low base loads. The gun should be looked over by an 1897 mechanic before you start seriously shooting it. There are quite a few good ones on the SASS sights these days.
 
1897

All 1897 Winchesters, in 12 ga, were 2 3/4" chambers from the start to the end. The early 16 ga had 2 5/8" chambers until around 1926. The 1893, whick looks very similar to the 97, had 2 5/8" chambers and damascus barrels were readily available. Damascus barrels were available on the 97, but were not very common. I've got a 1901, vintage, 1897 in a two barrel set, 26" cyl and 32" full. They're a swell gun; I've shot mine a lot. They look like a threshing machine when you crank'm open. You gotta love'em. :)
 
I've got two of them, both D models. Without looking it up, I think one's a 1905 model and the other's a 1908 model. I'll probably shoot 750 rounds or so through them this year, using light loads.
 
My aunt married some rich guy in ~1951.
His family owned a shipping company that had bought shotguns for the Seattle dock strike in the 1930's.
The guy died in 1962 and she died in 2005.

My brother and I each have one of the 1897s from that dock strike.
We both hunted with one in the 60's, 70's, and 80's.

If the take down gets loose, that can be adjusted.
The AGI videos are uneven, but the one on 1897 shotguns is just plain excellent. The old guy really knows his 1897s.

http://www.midwayusa.com/eproductpage.exe/showproduct?saleitemid=512818&t=11082005

Don't even think about taking that shotgun appart without that video.
We used to clean our shotguns after hunting by dipping them in gasoline.
We did not have that video.

I got a whole bunch of 1897 parts for cheap, bought that video, built a good 1897, and sold the rest of the parts.
The parts almost paid for the shotgun.
 
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