Winchester 1897 malfunctioning

[NORTHOF60]

You didn't say what gauge the shotgun is, or shell length you are using. Have you verified the chamber length? If you try to chamber a 12 gauge 2.75 " shell into a short chamber, say 2.0", everything might look good on the outside, but the action will not lock properly (and yes, you can still fire it).

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[vintage hunter]

You didn't say what gauge the shotgun is, or shell length you are using. Have you verified the chamber length? If you try to chamber a 12 gauge 2.75 " shell into a short chamber, say 2.0", everything might look good on the outside, but the action will not lock properly (and yes, you can still fire it).

A C prefix will be a 12ga and all 12ga 1897's had 2 3/4" chambers.
The 16ga was introduced with the E series in TD only, they had 2 9/16" chambers until the mid-late 20's, IIRC.