The Model 12 16- and 20-gauges got their chambers lengthened to 2 3/4 inch in 1926. For some reason the 16-gauge Model 97s didn't get their chambers lengthened until 1931.
I shot NSSA Skeet with a set of Model 12/42s for a number of years. I had this fantesy about the Model 1897/97 in that two of my favorite research subjects, Ansley H. Fox and Harold B. Money (De Shootinest Gent'man) shucked Model 1897s for the big W back in the early 20th Century. Also, there were some great pictures of Plinky Topperwein on the walls of the Spokane Gun Club from her visit there in 1911, when she ran a 99 with her Model 1897. Guess she had an off day!! At any rate, I finally got a high condition, very late, serial number over a million, Model 97. My first experience with the 97 was that it had to be pumped very precisely. Couldn't get away with any sloppiness that one can with a Model 12 or Remington Model 31. Then, at The Nimrod Classic at Polson, Montana, a friend was shooting his in the pumpgun event, and got his thumb a bit out of position and the breechbolt gashed his thumb to the bone. That was enough for me. The next gun I saw that I could trade the 97 on, it was gone. Having owned one does give me even greater respect for Ansley's 25 straight with his Model 1897 at the 1901 Grand American Handicap at live birds!!
