U.S. Winchester 12

Hi All,

New to this forum with a hell of a question.

I recently purchased a U.S. marked Winchester 12 / 12ga. This shotgun was made in 1943 and is marked on the receiver with US and bomb logo. Serial numbers match both receiver and barrel and barrel also has a bomb logo on top along with standard Winchester markings on left side of barrel. The stock also has a cartouche marking of WB. This shotgun is in overall great original condition Sounds great so far but here's the monkey wrench. The original barrel has a Cutts/Lyman compensator attached.
Question, did the military ever install these on there shotguns?, and if so why would they

Welcome to the forum, what length is the barrel? Got pics?

There was a shotgun overhaul program during WWII in which thousands of long barreled Model 12s had Cutts compensators installed for aerial gunnery training. I assume these guns have bore marks on the barrel. Model 12s with factory installed Cutts do not have bore marks on the barrel.

How long is the barrel on your gun, and does the barrel have a bore mark?

During WWII skeet shooting with shotguns was an important part of the flexible gunner's training. I have seen accounts where trainees had both shoulders black and blue from skeet shooting. (they had to learn from both sides left and right). The Cutts Compensator would have been a god sent. The skeet shooting training increased the students chances of hitting aerial targets by learning to lead the clay bird (airplane) and deflection. I understand that the student also used a skeet tower that would train them to shoot at low targets (below the horizon) as well as high targets. Later the students would move up to a semi-automatic shotgun (Remington Model 11) mounted on a pedestal mount with the M2 Browning spade grips and aerial sights. This arrangement was both fixed to the ground and later from the back of a moving truck. This is probably way skeet and trap shooting was so popular after WWII. I can see where this would be fun to learn!

--fjruple