Approximate Serial Number "W" Marked Handguard/Bayonet Adapter Winchester Model 12

[Ironlip]

Tom's comment on the clearly wrong "W" marked handguard/bayonet adapter on the '97 trench in the thread below reminded me of a question I have had for a while. Does anyone have a database that shows, by serial number, when the "W" marked handguards/bayonet adapters began to appear on Winchester Model 12 trenchguns, or an opinion about when they began to show up? They were standard on factory parked Model 12's, but some blued ones had them as well. How early or late did they first appear?

[scosgt]

The W mark actually started because the armorers were mixing up the REPLACEMENT adapters. The OD of the barrels was different for the different makes.
My information is that all of the W adapters were actually blued, and during the rebuild program they were parked and put back in the wrappers. This excludes the adapters on the original parked M12's, they were probably never blued just parked when produced.
There can never be a serial number database because they were interchangeable parts, so there is no way to know what came on a gun. Years ago SARCO had tons of the W marked adapters, all replacement parts. Blued W marked adapters are pretty rare, because as stated they were all pulled and parked.

[JRice79]

Did all parkerized M12s have a “W” marked bayonet lug assembly? Could a later 1,035,000 have an unmarked lug?

[scosgt]

In a word, NO

[JRice79]

No not all parkerized M12s had a W bayonet lug OR no there is no chance a later S/N would have an unmarked bayonet lug?

[Ironlip]

Can't speak for scosgt, but 1035000 is very close to the end of production. The highest recorded Model 12 trenchgun in the Canfield book is 1035508. Blued W marked bayonet lugs show up at least as early as the 1025000 range based on pictures in my databse from auction sales. I have seen earlier numbered trenchguns with blued W marked lugs that appear to be original. While it is generally accepted that Winchester did not assemble Model 12's in serial number order, 1035000 seems too late for an unmarked lug.

Is your handguard/lug parked or blued? If blued, I would have to acknowledge that there is always the possibility that on the day your trenchgun was manufactured they worked their way down to the bottom of a parts bin and reached some blued handguards/lugs that had been covered up with the parkerized ones that matched the finish on the trenchguns at the time. If it is unmarked and parkerized, the odds favor it being an earlier handguard/lug that was parkerized during rebuild and placed on that trehchgun.

[k arga]

Anybody have a late parked handguard for a m12 they would like to find a new home for it?

thanks
kurt

[scosgt]

Again, with the exception of the handguards put on the factory parked guns, all W handguards were believed to have been produced as replacement parts.
Therefore, a W marked handguard is only "correct" on a factory parked gun. Any other blued or parked W handguard is a replacement. years ago
SARCO had bins of parked handguards. They were all re-done after production, they were originally blued but were parked for replacement use. Remember, at the end of WWII ALL combat shotguns were "brought into compliance", meaning the M12 was retained and rebuilt, the M97 was considered obsolete.
OF COURSE some guns never got the message, and M97's were in fact used in Vietnam. But that is the official story. And there are contracts to prove it.