M1897 Trench Gun

The M1897 Trenchgun is a shotgun featured in Call of Duty 2, Call of Duty 3, and Call of Duty: World at War.

Call of Duty 2
The M1897 Trenchgun is usable by every faction. It carries six shells in its magazine and packs a one shot kill at close or medium-close ranges. Because of a relatively tight eight-pellet spread, accuracy is not an enormous issue in the ranges that it is effective in. The slow ADS speed and poor sights discourage aiming down the sights; simply point in the direction of the enemy and fire. If they survive the first hit, it is best to quickly switch to the pistol and dispatch them instead of waiting to pump the action again.

The Trenchgun's only flaw is the slow pumping action after each shot. The player should always make sure they are feeling confident about one shot killing the target before firing, because the target may be able to kill the player while the player is pumping the action.

Interestingly, the M1897 does not have any damage multipliers; a pellet will deal the same damage regardless where it hits. This may be to prevent a single pellet from scoring an instant kill headshot at close range.

Call of Duty 3
The Trenchgun once again holds six shells and is used by the Americans in the campaign and the Americans and the Germans in multiplayer. In campaign, it is mostly seen being used by Leroy Huxley in most levels as it is his signature weapon. It is only during the missions "Night Drop" and "The Forest" where it can be found in a bunker, and it can be used at the beginning of the level "Hostage". In multiplayer it is used by the player that selects the medic class. Like in other games it is best used at close range to medium range. It is less accurate than in other games so aiming down sights is helpful as it reduces spread. It is mostly used on close quarters maps, in buildings, or by people guarding the objective in the game as most maps have the objective inside a building.

Singleplayer
The Trenchgun can be used in Little Resistance, Burn 'em Out and Relentless. Like all shotguns, it excels at close range but is useless at far range, making it extremely effective in the mortar pits of Burn 'em Out and the tunnels of Relentless. It is advised to conserve ammo as the Trenchgun is a very valuable weapon. Sgt. Sullivan is often seen using it.

Multiplayer
The Trenchgun is a pump-action shotgun capable of Gibbing enemies and getting one shot kills at close quarters. Though not as deadly as the Double-Barreled Shotgun in face to face combat it provides more accuracy, range, and ammo than its counterpart.

It has a reduced 1-shot-kill range in comparison to the shotguns from Call of Duty 4, and is only effective at very close range. Steady Aim decreases the spread and can be very effective for increasing the range of the weapon. Stopping Power can be used to further increase the effective range by increasing the damage done by each pellet, thus, fewer pellets have to hit the enemy for a kill. The Trenchgun, like its counterpart the Double-Barreled Shotgun, is best fired from the hip rather than aiming down the sights. Using Sleight of Hand as a tier two perk reduces the amount of time it takes to reload the gun. Using Double Tap with the Trench Gun reduces the amount of time the player pumps the shotgun, resulting in a faster rate of fire.

For stealthiness, this gun can be combined with a bayonet as the attachment, Camouflage as the tier two perk and Extreme Conditioning or Dead Silence as their tier 3 perk. Many favor Juggernaut over Camouflage because in the event that the player is stuck in a reloading situation, it takes more bullets for an enemy to kill the player.

Nazi Zombies
The M1897 Trench Gun is often used in Nazi Zombies due to its better ammo capacity, and a tighter pellet spread than the Double-Barreled Shotgun. It has a longer reload time due to the individual shells being inserted into the magazine, which is its biggest disadvantage. After Round 12, it loses its one-shot kill ability however, against the Hellhounds, the Trench Gun it is always a one hit kill. In "Der Riese", the Trench Gun can be upgraded to the "Gut Shot" via the Pack-a-Punch Machine, giving it more power, a capacity of 10 shells, and causing it to reload 2 rounds at a time. The Gut Shot focuses the pellets into a closer proximity increasing the stopping power, making it an excellent backup close range weapon to have. This shotgun works best with Speed Cola and Double Tap Root Beer which makes it a very fast and very powerful weapon capable of clearing massive crowds easier. However, the ammo count runs out 3 times faster than a normal Trench Gun with no perks. In addition, the Gut Shot's guaranteed one shot kill to the chest ability will end around round 25 for zombies.

Call of Duty: World at War: Final Fronts
The Trenchgun appears as a Secondary Weapon in Betio Airfield and is found in other pacific campaign levels. Oddly enough, the Trenchgun can kill enemies in medium range as long as it is aimed at the chest.

Call of Duty: Black Ops
The M1897 returns in the revised World at War zombie maps, available in the special editions of Black Ops. It is virtually identical to its counterpart in World at War, however it can only be purchased from its outline on the wall, not from the mystery box. The Stakeout appears to be its spiritual successor much like the Olympia is the spiritual successor to the Double-Barreled Shotgun.

Trivia

 * In the PS2 version of Call of Duty 3, AI (most notably Huxley) will not pump the shotgun after firing, instead, they will stop for a second (like a cool down).
 * In the Xbox 360 version, Huxley pumps the shotgun even though he hasn't fired.
 * Attaching a bayonet on the Trenchgun and getting kills with it will not count towards the weapon dossier on CallofDuty.com.
 * Close range headshots with the Trenchgun can decapitate enemies, blowing up their heads entirely; limb-shots and/or body-shots up close will also dismember/disembowel them. Bayonet kills to the limbs or head can cut them off, unlike their rifle (and in the Type 99's case, MG) counterparts, which only cause sucking chest wounds.
 * Using a M1897 with a Sawed Off Double Barreled Shotgun in Nazi Zombies will give the player 120 ammo, whereas each weapon in multiplayer can only have a maximum of 60 individually.
 * Most PC servers in Call of Duty 2 ban the use of the Trench Gun as it is seen as 'noobish' due to its ability to one-shot-kill at even medium range.
 * A good combo for this gun in Nazi Zombie is to purchase Double Tap Root Beer to reduce pump time, Speed Cola for reloading, and Pack-a-Punch (Der Riese only). This will make the time to reload 12 shells the same as reloading 3 shells without Pack-A-Punch and Speed Cola.
 * Unlike previous installments, the Trench Gun of World at War gets rotated counter-clockwise during cocking.
 * Also, when using the bayonet with the M1897 when you stab somebody, you also fire the shotgun to pull it out, However this does not decrease the amount of ammo in your shotgun.
 * On Nacht Der Untoten, if you try to go up close to a zombie and get a headshot, the trench gun will hesitate somewhat and will not fire properly. To add on to this, sometimes it will fire three shots in rapid succession without pumping and doesn't use any ammo.