The Winchester SXP Trench shotgun – A gun with historical roots

Last year about this time, Ben and I picked up a pair of 12 gauge Winchester SXP shotguns. With a barrel length of 28 inches, camo furniture, and flat dark earth “Perma-Cote” metal finish, these are hunting guns. They immediately proved their worth as competitive clays guns in our hands in our desert trap shooting events. I used mine to top a field of 8 competitors in the first Desert Trap event that I shot it in, and Ben used his to top a field of 11 shooters in the shotgun stage of the 2023 club Turkey Shoot. Not bad!

In the course of learning about the Winchester SXP, a shotgun that I knew little about before deciding to get one, I saw that they had another version that appealed to me, the Trench model. I eventually decided that I needed to get one of those!

As with concealed carry, I have always been more of a “Fudd” – a hunter - than a tactical/defensive gun guy. Most of my guns usually had to justify themselves by having some plausible use for hunting or the outdoors, no matter how tenuous that connection might be. I had never owned a short barreled defensive shotgun before, though I suppose I could have justified such a shotgun as a turkey gun if it had inter-changeable choke tubes.

Going against that general bias of mine, over the years I had developed a strong interest in military surplus arms because their interesting history outweighed the hunting use justification for me. That’s why the SXP Trench model caught my attention. No it’s not a historical gun, but the configuration and pedigree has its roots in the famous Winchester trench guns that first saw service in WW1.

The First Trench Gun
Maybe you remember the famous story concerning the development of the .45 caliber Model 1911 semiautomatic pistol? At the turn of the 20th century, the United States had acquired the Philippine Islands from Spain as a result of winning the Spanish-American War. The Filipinos had been waging a war of independence against the Spanish since 1896. When the U.S. acquired the Philippines in 1898, that war of independence was now turned against us. In the U.S., that war is known as the Philippine Insurrection.

U.S. arms made famous during the Philippine Insurrection were the Krag-Jorgensen rifle, the M1911 pistol, and the Winchester Model 1897 riot gun. The M1911 was developed and introduced to U.S. service to address the weaknesses of the Colt Model 1892 .38 caliber revolver that was the standard issue U.S. sidearm at the time. Combat reports soon came in from the Philippines that the M1892 often failed to stop charging Moro insurgents at close range, even with repeated hits, before they could inflict great damage on U.S. troops with their large bolo knives.

The Army decided that caliber .38 was inadequate, and that a sidearm in .45 caliber was required. The Colt New Service revolver was adopted as the Model 1909 chambered in .45 Colt as a result, followed shortly thereafter by our first semiautomatic service pistol, the Model 1911 chambered in .45 ACP. The Moro Rebellion was finally quelled in 1913.

Classic Winchester Trench Guns
Top: Winchester Model 1897 – Bottom: Winchester Model 12

Nevertheless, during the Philippine Insurrection, John “Black Jack” Pershing saw that the most effective weapon against charging Moro insurgents in close quarters was a short barreled Winchester Model 1897 riot gun loaded with buckshot. When he became commander of the U.S. Allied Expeditionary Force (AEF) in WW1, he realized that such a shotgun would also be ideal for close-quarter trench warfare. The Winchester Model 1897 was again called into service. But this service came with a new requirement. The shotgun had to be capable of attaching a bayonet. The Winchester riot guns used during the Philippine Insurrection did not have provision for mounting a bayonet.

Winchester created a clamp-on bayonet mount for the end of the barrel that could mount the 17” bladed M1917 “U.S. Enfield” rifle bayonet, which Winchester was already producing, and was readily available in Army inventory.

Since the shotgun barrel is of a greater diameter than the muzzle of the M1917 rifle, the bayonet mount incorporated a solid false rifle muzzle for the bayonet to slip over. The rear of the mount featured the bayonet latching lug and a swiveling sling loop.

The other iconic feature of the M97 trench guns was the perforated metal heat shield that extends over the top of the barrel and is attached to the bayonet mount. This allowed the soldier to be able to grab around the hot barrel of a recently emptied shotgun (5+1 rounds) to fight with the bayonet. These two features, the heat shield and the bayonet mount, distinguish a trench gun from a riot gun.

Other U.S. Military Trench Guns
Though it is not my intention to go into a long discussion of U.S. military combat shotguns here, for broader context, I think it will be useful to at least mention a few of them that fit the “Trench Gun” pattern of being equipped with a bayonet adapter and a barrel heat shield.

Remington Model 10: The Remington Model 10 was the other WW1 trench gun. The Model 10 was introduced commercially by Remington in 1908. Unlike the Winchester M97, it was a bottom-feeding, bottom-ejecting pump action shotgun of hammerless design. The Ordnance Department accepted a trench version of the Model 10 for issue alongside the Winchester M97 trench gun, though it was produced and issued in fewer numbers.

It featured a 23 inch barrel with a wooden handguard. The bayonet mount was similar to Winchester’s but was of Remington’s own design, and of course did not include an integrated metal handguard, as did Winchester’s.

Winchester Model 12: A trench gun version of the Winchester Model 1912 was developed in the waning months of WW1, but it was apparently never issued during the conflict. The Model 12 was Winchester’s first hammerless pump action shotgun design. It used the same bayonet mount and heat shield assembly design as the Model 97. It too featured a 20 inch barrel and a capacity of 5+1 rounds of ammo. The Model 12 trench gun would see wider use in WW2.

World War 2: In WW2, the War Department procured shotguns from a number of American manufacturers in three basic configurations: trench, riot, and training. The training guns were basically long barreled bird guns which were used to train aerial gunners how to lead fire against airplanes. As I mentioned earlier, riot guns were short barreled shotguns that were not equipped with a bayonet mount or heat shield. These were primarily employed as guard guns either in military prisons, or in prisoner of war installations.

WW2 guns of trench configuration were made by Winchester, Savage/Stevens, and Ithaca. Remington supplied shotguns of riot and training configurations during WW2, but apparently not any in trench configuration.

Both M97 and M12 Winchester trench guns were used during WW2. These were original WW1 production M97s and new production M97s and Model 12s. Savage/Stevens supplied Model 520-30 and Model 620A shotguns in trench configuration. Ithaca produced the Model 37 in trench configuration for the war effort.

The Winchester SXP Trench

As I wrote in last year’s story, the Winchester SXP is a Turkish-manufactured update of the Winchester Model 1200/1300 design, which are descendants of the Model 12. It is fitting that Winchester should come out with a shotgun that pays respect to the historical military Winchester trench guns in a modern commercial version. It is based on the SXP Defender series, but with styling cues that evoke the classic military shotguns of yesterday.

No, it does not have a bayonet mount. That is a bit of a disappointment, as that is one of the primary features that turn a short barreled shotgun into a trench gun. Furthermore, an owner cannot attach a bayonet mount himself, as the barrel is only 18 inches long, not 20. There is not enough room out in front of the magazine tube to take a bayonet mount. Oh well.

But the SXP Trench does come with a heat shield over the barrel. This heat shield features slanted elongated holes rather than the round holes of the originals. To clean the gun, you must first loosen the clamp which holds the shield to the barrel and magazine tube, before you can take the barrel off for cleaning. It’s an extra step, but really just a minor inconvenience.

Another disappointment was that the barrel is fixed cylinder bore. It does not have interchangeable choke tubes. This gun cannot be taken into the field to hunt turkey by screwing in an extra-full choke tube. I knew that before I bought it – that’s not something I learned once I got it home. That’s OK, I already have a turkey gun.

Besides just the joy of owning a retro-cool gun, I figured that I could use the gun for club 3-gun matches. It might not be the best choice from a pure competition point-of-view, but it would certainly be a fun choice for a milsurp-luvin’ dude like me. Like the originals that it harkens back to, the SXP Trench shares the same magazine capacity of 5+1.

Another interesting choice that Winchester made in designing this gun, is the “corn-cob” pump handle. While the round wooden foregrip with circumferential grooves is the correct choice for historical looks, the fact that the grip is extended is the part of the design that is curious.

In the rest of the SXP Defender series, the foregrip is abbreviated. That is, when fully pulled back, the rear of the foregrip meets the front of the receiver. In the SXP Trench, the rear portion of the foregrip overlaps the front of the receiver when it is fully pulled back. Initially, I loved this feature. It is my preference on hunting pumps so that there is no possibility of pinching my palm between the receiver and the foregrip.

There’s a downside though. Because the forend overlaps the receiver, you cannot mount a side-saddle ammo holder on the left side of the receiver. Shooters have developed techniques to quickly reload a shotgun from a left side receiver mounted side-saddle.

The picture above is how the gun comes when you bring it home. The photo at the beginning of this story is how I decided to set it up for me. The first thing I wanted to do is attach one of my military-style, but not historically accurate leather slings. The shotgun comes with no sling attachment points. I had to drill into the rear of the stock to attach a sling swivel stud. Then I had to replace the magazine cap with one that had a swivel stud.

Next I wanted to mount a red dot sight on it. No way is that historically relevant, but who cares? I had a certain 80 yard steel slug target in mind that Gerhard sets up in the Big Boar shoots. A Weaver/picatinny rail is available for the SXP. The shotgun comes drilled and tapped, ready-to-go.

On to that, I mounted a Vortex Venom 6-MOA red dot sight and went out to the desert to sight it in with 1 ounce slugs. After a few shots and a few tweaks to the sight adjustments, I saw this:

Good to go.

Finally, I wanted to be able to store extra ammo on the gun somehow. As mentioned, the left-side receiver side-saddle was not happening. I had to settle for a right-side butt-mounted shell carrier. This was a cheapy from Amazon, but seems to work.

It consists of a Velcro fuzzy-side sticker that attaches to the stock and a Velcro hook-side elastic shell loop “card” that fastens to the fuzzy sticker on the stock. The best I can do for reloading is to grab the shells one at a time, and thrust them one by one into the magazine. Not competition-pro fast, but quicker than fishing them out of a pocket.

Gerhard called another of his last-minute “off-the-books” desert matches by email – a 4-Gun Shoot (CF Handgun, RF Handgun, CF Rifle, and Shotgun) for January 27th. That was my first opportunity to try out the new trench gun in a competition. I’ll spare you all the details of the 4 guns, but here is the shotgun stage plus the overall Match Total.

It turns out that my red-dot zeroing for the slug stage worked as planned. What screwed me up though, was that the birdshot at the 5 pigs on stands at much closer range did not work. If I remember, putting the red dot right-on the pigs resulted in the patterns centering too low. It was only after I raised the dot to the top of the pigs, that they started going down for me. In my practice and sighting-in, I neglected to check where the birdshot patterns were hitting after I zeroed the slugs. I assumed too much - lesson learned. Thankfully, my performance on the other guns raised me to a second place finish overall.

While the gun waits for its next chance to shine at a club match, it sits patiently in the corner next to my bed, hosting 11 rounds of Hornady Critical Defense, 8 pellet, 1600 fps, double-aught buckshot – 5 in the magazine, 6 on the buttstock shell carrier, empty chamber. I guess that I am a defensive shotgun guy now.

Other Modern Commercial Trench Guns
Today, Winchester is not the only company that markets a Trench-type commercial shotgun. I was able to identify five more that sport at least a perforated metal heat shield and wood furniture, evoking the spirit of historical trench guns of the past.

Much of the historical detail I mentioned in this story came from Bruce N. Canfield’s book, Complete Guide to United States Military Combat Shotguns. I have to give credit where it is due. It contains far more detail than I breezed over here. It is well worth reading if you have any interest in U.S. military shotguns. I highly recommend it.

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