Modified Winchester M12 Heat Shield

[thorin6]

Trying to figure out what was done here. I believe this heat shield is the correct 4-row one for the Winchester Model 12 and is marked with a W on the left side. It is on a M12 (Sn #1015227 with matching barrel and receiver) that was sold as surplus to the Oklahoma Prison System, and then sold from the Prison to the dealer that I got it from. According to him it has not been messed with since he got it from the Prison System. The stock is a Bishop (sling swivel slot has been filled in), the barrel and receive have been refinished, and the pump wood replaced (kept the original tube).

It appears the bayonet lug has been modified to accept an M5 bayonet. The stud for the barrel ring has been removed, the bayonet lug for the M1917 bayonet removed, and a new lug machined to fit the M5 bayonet. No other US bayonet will fit, and the removal of the stud for the barrel ring has left a hole that fits the stud on the M5 bayonet that would go into the gas plus on the M1 Garand.

The problem with this conversion is when the heat shield is on the shotgun, the magazine tube prevents the M5 from fitting on the lug unless the M5 is modified as well. So the question is who did this. Was this done by the arsenal when the Bishop stock was added and before it was sold as surplus? Was this done by the Prison system because they also picked up M5 bayonets as surplus? Or was it done in a garage or by a gunsmith after it left the Prison (not according to the dealer I bought it from, but you know how that goes).

Appreciate any thoughts.

[Tom Doniphon]

There were some modified W marked adaptors like that made for the Stevens 77E riot gun. They had a blued finish and used a different kind of screw than the screw. IIRC, these were sold to law enforcement and some may have been sent to Vietnam. My friend and fellow Military shotgun collector, JJM, has some information on these.

[thorin6]

I found some references to the Stevens 77E with the heat shields modified (or made,not sure) to accept the M5A1 bayonets, and some pictures of the mount. The references also referred to the Winchester Model 1200 as possibly being modified for the same reason. Nothing on the M12 but the profile is certainly the same. All I can think of is that someone (arsenal, armorer, prison, bubba) tried to replicate the Stevens 77E modification without thinking through the implications of the length of the magazine tube. I don't know if there is any more information out there.

[thorin6]

At this point I've not gotten much of a response, except for Tom (thanks), but after some more time searching the web, I have found a couple of pictures of Winchester Model 1200 Trench Guns with this modification of what appears to be a M12 heat shield to accept the M5 series (M5/M5A1) of bayonets. I am going to speculate that this was done at the arsenal (the fore-end has a "T" stamped on it) but not necessarily for this particular gun. When they were sold as surplus either at the arsenal or at the prison the heat shield was attached to this shotgun as they didn't need to use the bayonet attachment, but the heat shield is needed to keep the magazine tube in place on the Model 12 as it doesn't have a barrel band to hold the magazine tube straight. It is also possible that a shorter magazine tube was originally on this shotgun and a barrel band attached (so that it could accept the M5 bayonet), and the original length tube was put back on to bring the magazine up to full capacity. What ever the case, I don't believe this was a bubba or prison adaption, and what happened was a marriage of parts from the arsenal.
Regardless, it is a WW2 trench gun that has been through an arsenal, and the heat shield is (I believe) an arsenal modified original heat shield.

[JJM]

Back in the sixties many of the surplus hand guards were modified by a few companies for law enforcement use they also modified surplus M-7 grenade launchers for use on the adapters to launch tear gas grenades I have a few of the advertising pamphlets from that era on them they also made 12 gauge launching blanks also I picked up a couple of boxes over the years most of the guns that were advertised were Winchester model 1200 and High Standards

[scosgt]

In my opinion, not US military modded.