I traded a Rem 742 for this old piece today. I know it has a ton of issues. I’ll list what I know is wrong and let you guys tell me the rest.
Missing guard & bayonet mount
Butt pad wrong
Poly choke added (guy said he deer hunted with this for the last 25 years)
Finish almost looks black not rich blue.
OK, what else? Does this old thing have much value? Are the missing parts around and would it be worth the effort & money to try to correct the defects/missing parts?
November 7, 2015

Could be worth something to the right person as a parts gun if you don’t want it for a shooter.
Mike
Well despite the fact that you guys think this shotgun is a lost cause I have moved forward with it’s comeback. Handguard found and installed and choke removed. What I need to finish the project is a correct butt plate. Were these hard plastic or steel? I read where they were plastic but seems odd for a military ver. shotgun.
Thanks, Charles
nascar fan said
Well despite the fact that you guys think this shotgun is a lost cause I have moved forward with it’s comeback. Handguard found and installed and choke removed. What I need to finish the project is a correct butt plate. Were these hard plastic or steel? I read where they were plastic but seems odd for a military ver. shotgun.
Thanks, Charles
Where in the world did you find a proper handguard?
Not plastic, but composition.
No they were Not plastic, Or composition. Instead, they were black hard rubber. There were also a small number of the early WW I Trench Guns equipped with the checkered steel butt plates that Winchester used on the Model 1897s before switching to the black hard rubber as the standard butt plate.
Bert
WACA Historian & Board of Director Member #6571L
Bert,
I think you and Big Larry are talking about the same butt plate material. In the 1920 catalog for the Model 97 Winchester calls the butt plate material “Composition Rubber”. I have seen them also referred to in the catalogs as simply “Hard Rubber” and “Composition Butt Plate”. I believe the references are all the same material. The material change to cellulose acetate butyrate (a mixed ester) occurred in 1938 for many of the .22 models and some of the center fire models. The cellulose acetate has a tendency to shrink over time whereas the previous composition hard rubber did not.
Best Regards,
WACA Life Member #6284 - Specializing in Pre-64 Winchester .22 Rimfire
JWA said
Bert,I think you and Big Larry are talking about the same butt plate material. In the 1920 catalog for the Model 97 Winchester calls the butt plate material “Composition Rubber”. I have seen them also referred to in the catalogs as simply “Hard Rubber” and “Composition Butt Plate”. I believe the references are all the same material. The material change to cellulose acetate butyrate (a mixed ester) occurred in 1938 for many of the .22 models and some of the center fire models. The cellulose acetate has a tendency to shrink over time whereas the previous composition hard rubber did not.
Best Regards,
Jeff,
You may be correct. In the literature for the 1917 production Riot and Trench Guns, it has listed as “Hard Rubber”. I think of “composition” butt plates as the late 1930s material you describe. The Model 97 made the same transition in butt plates as the .22 models.
Bert
WACA Historian & Board of Director Member #6571L
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