1897 slide action handle length question

[Sonny.Frechette]

I recently acquired an 1897 solid frame shotgun with the non-3 hole slide action handle on it. Bubba had got ahold of it at one point and extended the length of the slide action handle by detaching the main sleeve and brazing it further ahead a full inch. He then installed the worlds ugliest (and unnecessarily long) homemade slide action handle. I’ve separated the brazed sleeve and am going to put it back to original length. However I’ve noticed this will make it about 1/4” shorter than the slide action tubes on my take down models. My thought is to make it the same length so I can use a standard aftermarket handle, but my question is did the solid frame models that used the non-3 hole slide action handle have a slightly shorter slide action handle than the take down models?

 

[Painkillers]

Interesting, tagged.

 

[straightshooter]

Not sure. But, I measured an early production solid-framed trench gun (12 ga.), an early production take-down field gun (16 ga.), and a late production take-down field gun (12 ga.), and all three of them measured 6 3/4".


ETA: If, by non-3 hole you mean the corn cob grip that is not held on by side screws, then the trench gun is a solid frame, non-3 hole version.

 

[Sonny.Frechette]

You bet, by the non-3 hole I mean the type holding the wood bandle on with the screw cap, which would be the style on the trench gun. I finally got around to pulling the slide action brazing apart, and was able to line up how the side was originally assembled. It appears the handle on this one was roughly a quarter inch shorter than the takedown version I have. I think I’m going to mig weld it back together to accept the slide handle from a takedown version for convenience until I can find a complete replacement as there was a bit of damage done to it when it was brazed and then taken apart again.