shotguns used by VIETNAM VETERANS

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oldmaninwoods

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I do military living history displaying gear and weapons from WW2 to VIETNAM. The hardest weapons is the shotgun I know that most were carry over from WW2 but in 1950 - 1975 new shotguns were out ,what was use in VIETNAM. I have a list of some WINCHESTER M 12, M 97 , REMINGTON M 870 , STEVENS 77e , 67e , 520-30 620 , SAVAGE 720 , ITHACA M 37 , any MOSSBERG 500A or HIGH STANDARD FLITE-KING.
 
One friend was in SEA early along, and had a M97 Winchester trench gun. He could still get brass-hulled 00 buckshot for it at the time.

Another was a recon team point man and carried an Ithaca 37. He liked that it would slam-fire and used that technique any time hostile contact was made.

Canfield lists:

Winchester 97, 12, 25, 1200
Ithaca 37
Remington 870, 870Mk1
Stevens 520-30, 620A, 77E
 
I SAW Winchester Model 12s and 1200s, Ithaca 37s, some Marines with 870 MK1 I think, and Stevens 77Es. I was in Saigon area ,Pleiku, Highland area, Hue/Phu Bai , Ashau Valley, Tri Border area (shudder) and coastal region between Da Nang and Phu Bai. I flew enough in P2vs to get an Air Medal and in Loaches and Hueys to get a rotary medal. I wuz there 68-71 in 2 tours and a short tdy and did a LOT of wandering . The ARVN had some interesting stuff and you could all ways buy or trade for it! I was a VN linquist and a 98C on first tour and a 97B and other duties on the 2nd tour. As I wrote before the Ithaca 37 I carried on 2nd tour and tdy was not issued and was LAPD origin. I found plenty of 12ga. brass buckshot everywhere. 9x19mm ammo was damn hard to get tho, you could only get it from Aussies basically so the Swedish K I bought from a departing SF trooper was sold to a Crew Chief in Da Nang. But I ramble. I never shot any one with the SG, I used a .45 and bagged one enemy for sure at 10 feet and an M-14 and think I hit a few at 100-200 yards.Scary stuff that war thing!
 
Those Swedish Ks must have been passed down from one guy to the next every rotation.

I have a buddy who had one the whole time he was in Vietnam, but he never could find a magazine for it.

Said he had the coolest single-shot 9mm in Vietnam though!!

rc
 
So, somebody used a 1300 in Vietnam 3 years after the war was over?

The 1300 wasn't introduced until 1978.
The Vietnam war as we know it ended in April of 1975.

rc
 
In the leg unit I was loaned to for awhile, their pointman carried a Win M12 and that lad was quite handy with it. Carried shells in an old gasmask bag and had reloading fast down to a heartbeat. I was impressed. That kid could shoot....

Wade
 
I know someone who is a Vietnam vet that carried an 870 with an extended mag.

The SEALs made very limited use of a select fire Remington 1100 variant known as the 7188, which was appearantly unsuccessful.

They liked them other than the high recoil in full auto and that they were unreliable in that enviroment.
 
USAF Firefighter. A 97 was part of our equipment. I saw a few other shotguns and recall a model 12 and what was either an A5 or an 11. A couple 37s too.
 
What was being run for buckshot? I see the brass hulled 00 {M19} being mentioned, but there much have been an insane variety of plastic and paper loads?
 
A friend of the family mentioned that he kept a 'semi auto Remington shotgun' (that's all he calls it, no further details or model numbers) across his lap when driving trucks in Vietnam.

As far as he recalled, it didn't have a shortened barrel, or an extended magazine, or anything.
 
but there much have been an insane variety of plastic and paper loads?
We were issued .50 cal ammo cans full of red plastic W-W Super-X 00 buck stateside in 68-69. The cans were marked with the load lot# and what-not, so they must have been coming from Winchester packed that way.
Thats all I ever saw.

rc
 
Saw those Red plastic Winchester buck loads too on various firebases in the Ashau valley. Those were the first plastic shells I ever saw BTW. I much preferred the brass shells however in the red dirt I wuz mostly in .
 
All brass for the most part, commercial Winchester for the rest.

Sorry, at the time I had lots of stuff to pay attention to besides ammo and shotguns.
 
I've got a buddy who's Dad is always talking about his days in 'Nam. He's become quite the alcoholic now, but when he talks about it, it sends some shudders down my spine. He told us one day, when we all took a trip to our make-shift range and as I was pulling out my Steven's Model 77F 20 ga., in his words "I used one just like that in the jungles, on'y it was a 12 gauge. I remember one day, we was walkin' along when those spooks ambushed us, an' I tell you what, I on'y had one hull left when it was finished."

He pretty much had my shotgun to himself that day (thankfully we got him out shooting before he could crack open a cold one). He was a pretty good shot, hitting about 90% of the clays tossed. He did some trick shooting too, pulling some Tom Knapp kind'a stuff, like ejecting a spent hole, hitting it up in the air with the butt of the shotgun, and hitting it in the air. I was pretty impressed, and can't do that myself.

I never knew whether or not to believe him, but reading some of these responses, I'm thinking he was telling the truth.
 
I did a short tour for my "senior trip" in 1971, when too much of the shooting was between Americans.... Had to do some travelling by jeep solo from Phu Bai to points north and made a point of trading for a sawed off pumper (think it was an Ithaca, but can't be certain) in such poor shape that I had someone stateside send me a few parts to get it running. Never used it, but it was meant to discourage hitchhikers. Kept 50 to 100 rounds on hand in a musette bag. Years later when I went into law enforcement I was forced to actually learn the ins and outs of shotgunning two legged.... Can't believe how ignorant I was with that first popper.

I was attached to the 101Abn and saw things that indicated a complete breakdown of authority in rear areas.... wholesale heroin usage with no attempt to conceal it, desertion under fire not prosecuted, terrible racial stuff... and the results of fraggings. Hope we never go down that road again. As an Army brat I'd been raised on bases around the world, always saw the sharpest most squared away career types as a kid. I never dreamed what I'd see in 1971... When asked I usually just say - everyone's Vietnam was different and leave it at that.
 
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