1897 in a box.

[99621]

So, the other day I had a very large, heavy box of gun parts left on the deck of my house. Seems a guy was cleaning up his late fathers estate and the dad had some gun parts. I have no idea who he is, this is not unusual, I have in the past received boxes of gun parts before so it's no big deal.
I am always looking for the screws, springs, common items. I really didn't have the time to look inside the box since I was working on a Bally 1114 slot machine, however something did caught my eye.

I saw a receiver (immediately I knew what it was) to a Winchester shotgun 1897, made in 1914, this was a significant find since the history of the 1897 shotgun and WWII. After that find, knowing what to look for I dug around the box finding about 80% of the parts ( approximately 80 parts total), the barrel is missing, and a few screws which can be expected, and the barrel can be sourced. The original finish is worn off, and the brown hue is beautiful for a 108 year old shotgun. These "main" parts can be extremely expensive so I really hit pay dirt.