M1897 Trench Gun

The M1897 Trench Gun is a 12 gauge shotgun featured in Call of Duty 2, Call of Duty 3, Call of Duty: World at War and Call of Duty: Black Ops.

Call of Duty 2
The M1897 Trench Gun 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 Trench Gun'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
"Trench gun. Powerful .12 gauge shot gun with six round capacity first issued to U.S. troops in World War One for trench assault and clearing. Brutal at close range."

- In-game description

The Trench Gun appears in Call of Duty 3 as the Winchester M1897. Once again, it holds six shells and is used by the Americans in the campaign and both factions 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 multplayer, it is only obtainable by playing as the Medic class. It is best used at close ranges only for a guaranteed one shot kill. At medium ranges, it can take up to four shots to kill an enemy player. It is less accurate than in other games so aiming down sights is helpful as it reduces spread.

Campaign
The M1897 Trench Gun is a pump-action shotgun and is often seen on the hands of Sgt. Sullivan. It can be used in the missions "Little Resistance", "Burn 'em Out" and "Relentless". Like all shotguns, it is useless at far range, but it excels at close 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 Trench Gun is a very valuable weapon. It is given a Bayonet Lug whether it has a Bayonet attached or not, unlike in previous installments.

Multiplayer
The Trench Gun 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 one-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 one-shot kill abilities 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 Trench Gun, 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. Juggernaut is a favorable perk 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 appears in Nazi Zombies, obtainable from off the wall and the Mystery Box. It is very advantageous to use here 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 two 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 three 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.

Weapon Attachments

 * Bayonet
 * Grip

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

Call of Duty: Zombies
The Trench Gun appears in Call of Duty: Zombies in all maps. It is available off the wall or out of the Mystery Box. It, along with its Pack-a-Punched version, functions the same as the console game.

Call of Duty: Black Ops
The M1897 Trench Gun returns in the revised Call of Duty: World at War zombie maps for Black Ops, available in the special editions of Call of Duty: Black Ops, and also available with the Rezurrection map pack.

It is statistically identical to its counterpart in Call of Duty: World at War.

It is held as if it had a pistol grip, although it does not have one. This can be seen when cocking after reloading.

Trivia

 * The M1897 is the first shotgun to be used in the series.
 * 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 360 version, Huxley pumps the shotgun even though he hasn't fired.
 * Kills with the bayonet with it will not count towards the weapon dossier on callofduty.com.
 * Using a M1897 with a Sawed Off Double Barreled Shotgun in Nazi Zombies will give the player 120 ammo.
 * Unlike previous installments, the M1897 Trench Gun in World at War gets rotated counter-clockwise during cocking.
 * This is Huxley's signature weapon.