In 1934 the NFA was passed and shotgun barrels had to be 18".
A 4 masted schooner, the CS Holmes, with a home port of Seattle had sawed off shotguns for Seattle longshoremen dock strikes that ended in 1934.
The CS Holmes was commandeered by the US Navy and sunk in WWII.
My aunt married John Backland, former captain and owner of the C.S. Holmes ~ 1951.
In 1959 Backland gave a Win1897 to my father for Christmas.
He took it to Warshall's Sporting Goods in Seattle where they rebarreled the shotgun with a full length full choke barrel.
In 1963 I was 12 years old, fell down while dove hunting and got the muzzle plugged with dirt. When I next fired, that 1897 was short again.
My father had a poly choke put on for me.
My youngest brother got the shotgun.
For a cost of next to nothing, I found two 1897 basket case shotguns with enough good parts to make one good shotgun.
I got the AGI video on 1897s. There are ~ 100 parts in an 1897. That is double the average gun.
This is an excellent video.
In 2012 I inherited my childhood 97 from the C.S. Holmes. [I had arranged for my brother to get a different and otherwise minty sawed off 97 from the CS Holmes] So I have two short 97s now.