It's pretty beat, but it was free. Bluing is long gone, stock is cracked in two different places, etc. I'm thinking of mocking up a trech gun with it, but I don't know a lot about the originals. My main question is barrel length and finish. Were they ever issued with barrels under 18"? I'm fine with going the NFA route if necessary, and even if they didn't issue them with shorter barrels I still might anyway. Also, were the trech guns blued or parkerized?

Also, where can I get a heat shield and bayonet lug that's good quality? I'm fine with repro stuff, I'm not fine with garbage. And is there anything I need to know about installing them or are they pretty straightforward?


TIA

East Taylor LLC makes the heatshield you want. The IMI one is garbage. Be advised you'll have to put relief cuts in your barrel.

WWI model trench gun- blued, non take down, bbl flush with bayo mount. Also the stock had a higher comb.

WWII model- blued(rumor has it some were parked), take down model, bbl protruded slightly past the lug, different stock.

After an arsenal refinish I would imagine all guns were parkerized.

Trench guns were always 20".

You might have to get a different magazine cap also, depending upon the one that's on the gun.

If you post a pic of the '97, I can be of more help.

And if you want to go for an sbs, a trench gun is out of the question, barrel would be too short. You might as well make a Wild Bunch copy.

I knew there was a reason I came here. Looking at production stills, I'm not sure about all of the /97s, but the one that William Holden carries to the Battle of Bloody Porch sure looks to be sub-18", more like 14"-16".

Here's a good picture of it.

I'm starting to like this idea.

The ole 97 Winchesters are great guns, lots of fun and very fast. There is a pretty good write-up on the M14 Forum by a fella who took an ole hunting gun and made himself a trenchie clone.

There are a lot of little details when it comes to the different trenchies. If you're just piecing one together to have a clone and don't mind everything not being exact, a copy is not all that difficult.

This is an old cut-down 97 that used to be a FULL-choked 30-inch barrel gun. Gives you an idea of barrel length (as measured from the closed bolt face).



Canfield's book as well as Poyer's book are both great sources of info on Winchester trench guns. The WWI Gun which is built on a solid frame, has the barrel flush with the bayonet lug/button and a 6x29 hole heat shield, blued finish and high comb on the stock. There several different WWII 97s all built on take-down frames; as the above WWI gun but with a tad longer barrel, lower comb. Same gun with a 4x19 hole heat shield, then that gun with a Parkerized finish and lastly the arsenal rebuilt guns. A Winchester trenchie is a bit different in that it does not have a clamp at the end of the magazine tube securing it to the barrel and the magazine end cap is different. The bayonet mount takes the place of the clamp as the magazine end cap has a little tit that sticks into the end of the bayonet mount. You can do away with your clamp at that point, but will need that magazine end cap with tit (about a $35 part). This will leave the two larger holes (for the pin) at the end of the magazine tube (not a huge deal unless you really care about it).

The above mentioned hole...



William Holden's 97 from The Wild Bunch is cool too and as I understand it, a collector in Portland has it at Movie Madness. I’ve not gotten up there to check it out but would really love to. From the pics it looks like the barrel might be about 15 1/2 inches long.



If you're set on going the trenchie route, as mentioned the East Taylor LLC bayonet mount/heat shield is great; Have one for my Ithaca M37 trenchie project.

For cutting the barrel down I've been using GunCat (Rose Action Sports) here on ar15.com. Great work, reasonable prices and about 10-days door-to-door.

Best of luck on the project, would love to hear more about it and see some pics.

OP- do you have a take down model?

I could be wrong but I think Holden and the Mex Kid both carried SBS 97s. IIRC all the rest were riot length.

I would love to SBS my 97 but in my state it's a no go.