First impressions of Marstar's new Winchester M97

jethunter said:
I'd buy one if it didn't have that king-sized ugly stamping on the barrel.
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Jethunter,

I was reluctant to get one for just that reason also - who wants to be the cowboy with the ugly shotgun? I was very pleasantly surprised when my new 1897 came this morning in the postal van. That was the first thing I looked for when i opened the double box - I could barely see the mark. You have to look for it, or feel it, but it does not jump out.

The wood was a lot better than I thought that it would be also. The bluing is good, and the pad makes it a good fit for me. I cleaned out the choke tube and put a blob of anti-seize on it.

I have not shot it yet as my holidays are on hold for cutting the lawn, weedwhacking, etc. I got some low noise/ low recoil 2 3/4 shotshells in Cabela's in Wisconsin when I drove thru this summer vacation - I shall see if the 7/8 oz. load at 980 feet per second feels different from the number 7's I have at 1200 ft/sec with ounce and an 1/8th. They were too much money to shoot all of the time, and I could not locate them in Canada anyway.

I am pleased with my purchase thus far.


Stewbud
 
I wonder if Murdoc over at arma coat could fix the abortion stampings ? If so I will get one... ( email on the way to Murdoc )

shame on Marstar for decorating this shotgun like a x-mas tree..
 
Seeing as this is the most recent (relatively speaking) and lively thread on the model, I thought I'd post this bit of info here rather than revive a *really* dead thread or start a new one for such a detailed topic.

A couple friends and I made a trip out in the woods for some shooting a few weeks ago. We took the M97 and two boxes of clays with us (along with two 10/22s, a Rem 700, an SHTLE, and an M305 recently upgraded with M14.ca parts :) It was a good day). After going through about 60 shells or so, the action slide on the M97 came apart. It appears that the action slide sleeve screw cap was yanked right out of its threads in the action slide! I had a look at it today and it looks like normal use would pop the screw cap back out because the threads were damaged

Has anyone else had this experience? I'm thinking of replacing my action slide and screw cap with Winchester parts, but I'm wondering if there might be compatibility issues. Otherwise, I might just have to weld that sucker on.

That aside, the shotgun worked great. Slamfiring was a lot of fun :)
 
Before you muck with it get in touch with Marstar about warranty.

I was wondering how this shotgun would work for clays. It's a riot gun length, but I guess those choke tubes would let you get a bit more out of it.
 
Mark-II said:
Before you muck with it get in touch with Marstar about warranty.

I was wondering how this shotgun would work for clays. It's a riot gun length, but I guess those choke tubes would let you get a bit more out of it.
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Absolutely - I forgot about their warranty. Thanks for that. It's actually my buddy's shotgun so I'll let him know. On the topic of clays, we've yet to do more experimenting with it. Two problems with our little excursion: 1) We didn't have a very open area so we were restricted in how far and in what directions we could throw the clays. 2) We suck. With that, I'm pretty confident that the shotgun would perform reasonably well with a little practice.
 
Pardon the necrothreadmancy, but I was wondering how you Norc 1897 owners are getting on with your guns after these past several months.

They a good buy? Troublesome? Gone in for warranty?
 
MarkII,

As of today I have 350 rounds thru my gun without any issues.

I got mine 'cowboy action ready' from a fellow in the West - and think that service and the gun are money well spent. Np troubles. Np warranty calls.

Not enough time to shoot!



Stewbud
 
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