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Model 31 Remington Trench/Riot shotguns
31man
Member Posts: 13 ✭✭
Well I have quite a few model 31's and I was wanting to gain some information on the 31's that were used in the military. I have a 31 with a flaming bomb on the reciver does anyone no the signigigance of this emblem and if its a trench gun or riot gun? the serial numbers are 50xxx if that helps at all any information would be greatly appreciated
Comments
The Remington Museum states that a total of (9000) Model 31s were sold to the U.S. Ordnance Department during World War II. The majority of that number were long barreled skeet guns. The Riot Guns (no Trench Guns were made), have a 20.125-inch CYL bore barrel (marked on the left side of the barrel).
The goverment issue Model 31s are marked "U.S. PROPERTY" on the left side of the receiver with the flaming ordnance bomb symbol immediately following. The initials "RLB" (Lt. Colonel Roy L. Bowlin, Chief Rochester Ordnance District to 1942) will be found on stamped on the early end of the serial number range. The majority of the Model 31 Riot Guns will be found with the initials "FJA" (Col. Frank J. Atwood). Very few Model 31 Riot Guns will be found with the Ordnance crossed cannon cartouche on the left side of the butt stock. The correct serial number range for the Remington Model 31 government issue guns is 51,000 - 63,500.
All of the information I have provided above, was obtained from Joe Poyer's fine reference book "U.S. Winchester Trench and Riot Guns, and other U.S. Combat Shotguns"
Without more detailed information about your gun, it is not possible to determine if it is legitimate or not.
The only Riot guns we had were the very poor Stevens 620 Jamomatic Model which wouldn't stay fixed for any length of time. They were issued for guard duty in higher density areas. They were fired only for familiarization but were loaded and unloaded every two hours. This factor may have been the straw that broke the back of an otherwise lousy
design.
Well the gun does have the initals RLB with a flaming bomb following the initials on the left side of the reciever. The barrel is 26" solid rib marked cyl on the left side of the barrel. The wood forarm and stock are both checked the checkering matches all the 31's I have that are chechered. The forarm has the trap or big forarm nice wood.
You have one of the govenment issue Skeet guns.
The Army Special Services had all kinds of sports and recreation equipment including Remington 513-22lr rifles.
I'd check further to see if the wood is a replacement.
None of the shotguns our Division had had fancy or deluxe wood.
The only skeet gun I came across was a Model 12 with 20" barrel and Cutts Compensator.
Skeet and Trap teams stateside may have had better guns.
Does anyone no about how many of these government issue skeet guns that were produced?
As I stated in my first reply, Remington supplied a total of (9,000) Model 31s to the U.S. Ordnance Department, and the majority of them were Skeet guns... so, that means at least 4,501 of them were made. My best guess would be about 5,000 - 7,000.