Winchester Model 1912 Trench Gun

About the Winchester Model 1912 Trench Gun

The Winchester Model 1912 Trench Gun is the militarized combat variant of the Model 12 pump-action shotgun, a smoothbore 12-gauge designed by Thomas Crossley Johnson. Adopted by the United States Army late in World War I, it differs from the civilian Model 12 by a shortened 20-inch cylinder-bore barrel, a perforated steel heat shield over the barrel, an M1917 bayonet adapter, and sling swivels. Its slam-fire capability (firing each chambered shell as fast as the action could be cycled with the trigger held) and six-shell tubular magazine made it a devastating close-quarters weapon in the trenches and, later, the jungles of the Pacific.

Combat shotguns like the Model 12 Trench Gun proved so effective in trench raids that in 1918 Germany issued a diplomatic protest claiming they violated the laws of war, a complaint the United States rejected.

Winchester Model 1912 Trench Gun specifications

About 20,000 Model 12 trench guns were procured during World War I; more than 80,000 Model 12 shotguns (trench and riot) were purchased in World War II, primarily for the Pacific theater. Early WWI heat shields used six rows of perforations, reduced to four rows from 1942. Served through Korea and into the early Vietnam War until stocks were exhausted.