CAS M97 shooters

J

Jbar4Ranch

New member
I received the ejector spring for my "new" circa 1914 M97 yesterday and put a couple boxes through it today with no more problems. Now I've got a couple of questions.

1) Assuming a right handed shooter, what seems to work best for you, holding the shotgun to your shoulder with your right hand on the pistol grip and reloading with your left, or holding it to your shoulder with your left hand on the slide and reloading with your right?

2) When initially picking up the staged shotgun, do you chamber one, then shove one in the mag, or shoot them all single shot? Also, after the initial two shots, do you load two at once just like the first two shots, or finish the string with single shots?

There's quite a learning curve with a pump gun compared to the coach guns I've been using for my first two seasons. :)
 
I've got a question too. I bought a repro and I'm trying to figure whether it is working properly. (It wasn't at first. A loose spring was preventing the hammer going into the half-cock safety position.)

I tend to rack a pump and hold the fore-end forward once I'm done. I have a Browning pump and a Rossi pump .22 that both work fine this way. However, with the 97 I have to pull the fore-end back firmly before it will fire. I end up wrestling with it quite a bit before it fires.

So: To operate the pump, fire, push the foreend forward a bit, pull back to eject, push forward to chamber, pull back so you can fire again. Lots of foreward and backward and foreward stuff. Is this normal, or is something bustedbroke?

Thanks.
 
Does it do this when you are actually shooting the gun? Recoil unlatches the action on a proper pumpgun and all you have to do is pull the trigger, pull the pump, push the pump. Lots of these Communist Chinese copies need to be worked on by an American to get them to shoot well.
 
Yup, does it when I'm shooting. I guess I should send it off for an action job.

If I had any sense I'd go for a double, but I just like the pump. And I'm silly enough that I wouldn't be comfortable buying, shooting, and altering an original. The old guns just feel "sacred" to me, somehow. I'm happier shooting stuff that doesn't have any historical value.
 
Nothing wrong with shooting an original. Parts are readily available, and an original "shooter grade" M97 usually costs less than a modern reproduction. I picked mine up for $250 + $2.30 for a new ejector spring. Original trench guns, now that's a different story... :eek:
 
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