UPLS - Winchester 1897 Trench Gun

------- ------- The Winchester 1897 Riot gun with bayonet adaptor, Known after the war as the 'Trench gun', was an adaptation of the commercial Winchester 1897 to be more suitable for the trenches. How to Load and Fire: Insert 1-5 Shells (for 6, Insert 5, work slide then insert a sixth in) Work Slide (can do it manually or press "I" to do it) Fire (normal single shots, or slamfire) Slamfire will make the gun fire the moment the slide is all the way forward. Pressing "I" to work the slide is highly recommended with this :) The bayonet cannot be reattached once removed. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- While i don't know how many were ordered, what i do know is that they had ~5,000 on hand in June of 1918. ~4,000 were going to prison guards, and ~1,000 were off to patrol duty in no mans land, at the front. Later on its said they issued 50 shotguns each to the 32nd, 35th, 5th, 82nd divisions, and the 77th division got ~100-150, all divisions with 100 shells per gun. The Riot gun was found to be unreliable in the wet parts of the front due to its paper hulled shells, which despite being waxed were still a major issue. This is mostly due to improper storage as the soldiers had no way to carry them other than stuffing them into their pockets. While they did switch to full brass shells, these didn't make it to the front in significant enough numbers before the armistice It was also found to be ineffective beyond 50 yards, making it useful IN the trench, but not so useful when going over the top to get TO it. During the last couple months of the great war, most combat was open warfare, which didn't lend itself to the riot gun at all. However, the riot gun was reliable in dry weather, and some troops found it useful on night patrol. If they heard a sound out in no mans land, someone could simply fire off a shot in that direction and be likely to hit whomever may be out there, while at the same time being mostly sa