Getting new shotgun.

[Pay Dirt Norvelle]

My side by side is getting a bit long in the tooth and I will be getting a new shotgun soon.  Does anyone here have any experience with the Cimarron 1897 Shotgun?  I will also be wanting to do Wild Bunch shooting and would like to kill two birds with one shot. 

[rbertalotto]

I have an 1897..............It's like being married to a beautiful Italian woman..............When it is good, it is very, very good. When it is bad............well, you know the rest.

Be sure to buy three of them.................one to shoot, one for back-up .....................and one at the gunsmiths!

My 1897 clone works great after a lot of smoothing, filing, and general slicking up............

When you get to the line, treat it like an old stubborn mule. This ain't no Remington 870! It needs to be manhandles to work properly. Slam that action closed, hammer that trigger......Make it work for its keeping!

Mine screws me up 25% of the time on the line......but it is 100% operator error...........But I'm not going to let it win.........A challenge I tell ya...............

[Bugscuffle]

I bought my 1897 off of one of the internet gun auctions for pretty cheap. What I bought was a 1939 takedown model. I found a really good used butt stock and refinished the whole stock. If you do need a new stock, Brownells has them as well As these guys: http://www.boydsgunstocks.com/Replacement-Stocks-Winchester-s/26.htm .
I reblued the whole thing. For the rebluing i had to take it all the way down, but that isn't a rocket science project. Here is the website that I used as a guide. Just follow the directions and you'll be O.K.
http://www.vintagegunleather.com/gun-manuals/pdf_W/winchester_97takedown.pdf
The gun that I bought was already cut down to a 22" barrel and that left about 3" of Full choke still in the barrel. That worked out just fine for me. Remember, if you want to curt it down yourself, cylander bore works pretty well for CAS.
I soaked all of the parts in acetone for two days and then cleaned them with alchohol and a brass brush. I then used Hopes gun grease to lubricate the parts and reassembled. the 71 years of people working the action had worn the action up to a butter like smoothness. The things to look for in a used gun are a clean bore, no cracks or missing splinters or deep gouges in the wood, no dents in the barrel or magazine tube, extractors in good shape (functional). Everything else can be either smoothed over with a wire wheel and a polishing wheel (i.e. minor rust on the outside) or replaced. A Dremel tool will be another good investment for this project There are a gazillion parts for these shotguns available from several sources, so don't worry too much about the small parts. Just look for a gun that has a good bore, sound wood and looks like hell. P.M. me and I'll send you some before and after photos.

[rbertalotto]

THANK YOU for that link to the take-down guide..........I looked for weeks on the internet for something like this. Strange that it never surfaced in a Google search.........Thanks again!

[Pettifogger]

Bugscuffle, "The gun that I bought was already cut down to a 22" barrel and that left about 3" of Full choke still in the barrel."  If it was cut to 22" there can't be three inches of full choke left.  The choke is only in the last inch or so if the barrel.

[Bugscuffle]

The barrel IS 22" and there is a choke in the barrel that is not a screw in type and Winchester never made a 22" barrel that I know of. If i am wrong then i must have one of the rarest Winchesters in the world because the serial number on the barrel matches the frame number. I was assuming that it was cut down. Am I wrong here?