M12 Trench Gun Question

A local shop has a WWII era WRA M12 trench gun for sale. The serial is 9629xx and it's parked, Cyl. marked and has an unmarked 4 x 19 hole heat shield. It appears to be a converted riot gun as it has the barrel ring just behind the bayonet adapter. There's a TE on the left butt stock, U.S. on the right receiver and flaming bombs on both receiver and barrel. The only odd thing is the forend, which appears to be beefier than the WWII type and has only 14 grooves. Condition is excellent, with little use after the rebuild. Assuming this is a legitimate conversion, does $1200 sound reasonable? I know unaltered trench guns are very pricey, but have no idea on re-works. Thanks for any opinions.

Can you get pics of this one? Hang on, there's a few here that can tell you for sure...

Jim - all I had with me when I saw the gun was a flip phone which takes pretty poor pictures. I did take photos of the bayonet adapter and the forend, but probably won't be able to figure out how to get them from the phone to the computer. Let me see what I can do though. Thanks!

If you can email them to yourself or me then they can get up here...see your PM for an email address... Can you swing by them and get pics today? Or soon? It would sure help most of us...some of the real experts don't need them though.

Think I figured out how to post pics. Hope this helps.

Attachment 89451Attachment 89459Attachment 89465

There was an order after WWII to convert riot guns to trench guns. This gun appears to be one of the converted guns. They used a sleeve on the barrel underneath the bayonet adaptor to make the adaptor fit correctly. Do you know if these gun has the sleeve or not?

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Originally Posted by GeorgeG

I figured out how

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Yes you did George...good enough.

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Originally Posted by Tom Doniphon

Do you know if these gun has the sleeve or not

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You can see the sleeve behind the bayonet mount in the pic Tom...

I had a close look at the muzzle end of the gun, but couldn't see any evidence of a sleeve there. Must be missing something! Does the forend look OK for a rebuild and do you think the price is in line? Thanks

Jim, I can't see a sleeve there. I do see the band on the barrel for the takedown lever.

George, I've seen one other TE marked converted riot to trench gun that had the same type forend. Don't know whether it was put on the gun when it was converted or not.

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Originally Posted by Tom Doniphon

the takedown lever.

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That's right, that's what it is...

Tom - there might be a third example of the odd forend out there. I was doing some more searching and found a web site called exordinanza.net that has pictures of another Toole rebuilt M12 trench gun. This one does not appear to be a conversion, but does have the same forend. It looks like this might be a legitimate piece worth buying. Does the pricing seem reasonable?

TE would be Tooele Army Depot in Utah. They rebuilt a lot of shotguns after WWII. The park color on that shotgun looks like a Tooele. For $1200 it is a deal, I would buy it.

Thanks again for the comments and opinions. Looks like a buy to me.