so last time we talked about how winchester took the concept of a lever action and developed it into one of the most popular rifles of all time

and we heard about how they met a guy named john moses browning

future patron saint of all gun owners

well the next thing they collaborated on was equally groundbreaking

this is the winchester 1897 pump action shotgun

looks pretty normal right

like many old hunting shotguns

except this is the original

the culmination of the pump action even being invented

so lets see how it started

kachunk

ok so remember how the lever action guns were based on a previous design by spencer that wasnt very good

well guess what

spencer made goofy pump actions too lol

this guy has a habit of good ideas with goofy implementation

so it was a new concept and he ended up having this clunky system where the bolt gets shifted all around and up and down

just look at this flippy flap nonsense

so browning took the concept of a sliding pump except made the action way more straightforward

spencer and his partner roper sued but lost

and winchester went on to make a bunch

the first version was the 1893

but was quickly replaced by the 1897

the 93 came out right around the time of smokeless powder becoming popular

and it turned out it wasnt strong enough for the new hot stuff

so winchester strengthened the design and offered a free swap

turn in your 93 and get a 97 free

most people took advantage of this and winchester destroyed all the 93s that got turned in so nobody would blow themselves up

as a result they are super rare

the easiest way to tell the difference is the straight opening on the newer 1897 compared to the extra cutout on the older 1893

there are other minor differences too like how the 93 was chambered for 2 5/8" shells

because size matters lol

so the gun was very successful

they built it for 60 straight and produced over a million of them

and they came in a number of variants too

different barrel lengths and takedown models

and military models with short barrel and heat shield and bayonet lug

and lets talk more about military use heh heh

so this was extremely popular in wwi

you jump in a trench and rapid fire laying waste to everybody

these guns are hammer fired

and they dont have a disconnector

so if you hold the trigger down the gun will go off the instant you slam a new cartridge in

fires five rounds of 00 buckshot as fast as you can pump it

yikes

in fact it was so yikes the germans protested and said they were illegal because they caused so much suffering they violated the hague conventions

and said theyd execute any americans caught with one

and the us is like thats cool

and well execute anybody with a flamethrower

so the germans knew they lost that battle

kinda like how they went on to lose the war hahaha

ok so how these work is pretty simple

the slide has transfer bars and goes backward

moving the bolt back and cocking the hammer

ejecting the spent shell out the top and feeding a new one from the tube underneath

a difference compared to todays guns is the bolt that slides back out of the receiver to cock the action and the big ol lifter that drops down

today everything is usually internal

overall id say theyre not the most available shotgun nowadays but they are out there

looking online im seeing between 800 and 2000 dollars excluding fancy engraved ones

and they work almost as good as modern guns

they were used in so many wars and police forces for many decades

and pump actions in general continue serving in all sorts of roles to this day

all because of the success of the winchester designs of the 1890s

pretty good for something a hundred and thirty years old

pew pew

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