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21 - 40 of 58 Posts
IainGT said:
The only time I shoot my 12ga. SKB is when I run out of 16ga. shells.
Do you reload for your 16's? I used to reload for my 12's, but figured it was not worth the time of effort when I can buy a box of 25 target loads for $3.00 US. The best price I've found for 16 is $3.99 for Remington Game loads. Bought some #6 for hunting and #7 1/2 for clays. I recently aquired a Stevens model 620 pump 16ga that I yet have to shoot. It's a neat old gun that goes back to the time of the model 12. It also has a unique take down action. I paid $100. I doubt that the same gun could be made now $1000.
 
I use a MEC 650 to reload my 16ga. shells with & it cuts my cost almost in half.
$8.00Can. on sale, usually $1.00 more, for Rem Dove Loads is the best price I've found up here, reloads cost me a little more than $5.00.
I highly recommend "The 16 Gauge Manual" from Ballistic Products (http://www.ballisticproducts.com/) if you decide to reload.
Another good site for the 16ga. fanatic is http://www.16ga.com/
B.T.W., The black Rem SP hulls reload quite nicely but the purple Federals are better.
I haven't tried Cheddite or Fiocchi 16ga. hulls yet but Fiocchi 12ga. hulls reload very well.
 
hopperdamage said:
Found a like new model 12 16ga mod choke. Looks like it just left the factory. $599. Too much for me right now. Nicest model 12 I've seem. It's a standard field model. Is this a good deal?
I can't say good or bad. But if it's like you say I would buy it in a heartbeat.
 
I just paid $550 for a 16 gauge Model 12 with an IC barrel and thought I'd done OK, but have discovered that the magazine tube is probably a 20 gauge! If I can get the dealer to make it right, I think it was a good buy. A like new for $599 is a good deal. If you are not interested, put me in touch with the seller!
 
currantly i have 2 model 12's both 12 gauge. one is a 1929 field grade 30 inch full choke with a simmons rib, the other is a 1942 trap grade 30 inch full choke with factory rib and monte carlo stock. i've shot 99's with each. i've owned over 10 model 12's but these are the ones i've kept. nothing and i do mean nothing smokes the clay birds like them model 12's. i've won more meat, money, and trophys with my model 12's when i was the only one in my club shooting anything other than a remington.
 
I have one that is actually a model 1912. It was built in 1914. It has a 30" full choke barrel with a mat rib. It also has a straight English stock on it. What a dream to carry and to shoot. All I've had to get done is get a gunsmith too tighten up the takedown junction and it's good to go. How many gun made today will be clicking along when they are 90?
 
I cut my teeth on my grandfather's Model 12 20ga. My dad and his brother often speak of the moment of ownership transfer when my grandfather gave away his only shotguns: 2 Model 12's, 1 20ga, 1 12ga, both plain barreled 28" versions. My father said, "I know which one I want." As did my uncle. Gramps thought he was going to have a war on his hands as he guessed they would both want the 12ga. Not so. On his way to get a quarter, my dad and uncle compared notes. Thirty years later its in my gun cabinet, complete with two shims tacked on as I grew up. Always have said I'd restore it, but alas haven't.
My dad really spoiled me looking back. He only shot M12's and A-5's. I've moved on to Beretta O/U's for the most part because I like having two chokes, but that transition is a new one. At one time I had 3 original M12's and a Browning repro. 28ga. My wife is now wearing them on her ring finger. Oh the things we do for love. But don't think I don't milk that from time to time. Long live the Winchester Model 12!
 
I just found a winchester model 12 new in the the box never shot for 700 dallors!! I going to buy it i think, i be looking for one for so so so so long!! Well i started liking whinchester 12 since my dad showed me his, i like the looks i get at skeet/trap ranges when i pull it out and me a young kid take on 2700 dallor guns and people say u ain't half bad, Its 20g but its not a skeet barrel now all i got to do is find a barrel!! damn i love this gun picking it up tomarrow, BRAND NEW!! MY FIRST NEW GUN, i have a remington 1100 skeet but model 12!! SO SEXY!!
 
I've just become a proud owner of a couple.

My Dad has always shot a M12 12 ga., dated to 1916. I just picked up a 12 ga. from 1922, very very nice condition. Stock refinished is all that isn't stock. Field grade, but a real honey.

As long as I was there, the guy had a 16 ga. (1961) and a 20 ga. (1935). All very nice and all seemingly glad to come home with me.
 
"The Greatest Hamerless Repeating Shotgun Ever Built" How many, well not enough! LOL

22 - 12 ga., from 1914-1985 (One 2 barrel set, one 3 barrel set)

7 - 16ga. from 1920-1958

12- 20ga. from 1912-1992

1 - 28 ga.

Plus 4 1/2 Md 42s (one is a 2 barrel set)

From Plain barrels, Solid rib, Vent rib, (2 Pin, 3 Pin, Last style)
Field Grade, Special Field Grade (Donut Post Rib), Deluxe field Grade, Trap, Skeet, and Pigeon Grade. Plus extra barrels, barrel assemblies, stocks and enough spare parts to rebuild them all if ever needed. And still buying more!!

Once heard that a Winchester Salesman, had over 300 when he passed on, sounds like a good number to "shoot for"!

Only Winchesters
 
I have two model 12's one is a Browning copy in 20 gauge...the other belonged to my dad...I acquired it about two years before he died..1989...I traded a SX-1 for it...I take it out pheasant hunting every year on one of my last outings along with a box of his vintage Blue Peters paper shells that I found in the house after mom passed...just for the record 3 1/4-1 1/4 #6's. He bought the gun when he was 14 years old...that would be 1934 for $27.00 from an old neighbor that farmed nearby...later, sometime in the 1960's he had an old friend that worked at Herter's in Waseca, MN that talked him into letting him put on the Vent-Rib. They did a really nice job on rib too, although the blueing is sort of a plum color...I have heard that is common on reblues of that Nickel Steel. While "Ray" and I went hunting with some friends last Sunday afternoon in the snow of Southern Minnesota and we didn't fire a shot, this time. We did flush six hens that were in gun range, and without a dog no less. I just recently found out through one of the on-line when was your gun built websites that Winchester made it in 1925. With the Bis/Tungs matrix and other shot claiming to be OK in these old tight choked workhorses, I just may have to see if old Ray can still hit Mallards. This gun killed many deer when dad was still using it and only the good Lord knows how many ducks, geese and pheasants! If anyone has advice on the safety of the "new" shot in these relicsI would appreciate hearing about it. At 55 years old and no children the real problem is, when I am done using it, who do I pass it down to?

Hairy
 
Good morning Hairy Clipper: Well the "Plumb color" is from the "bluing solution". Many different brands have been used over the years. When Winchester would use the "Dilute" solution for the parts that they hot blued, they would have to raise the temp. to about 300 degrees, to keep it from turning. Barrels in that time frame were "rust" blued, and didn't have the problem.

Now onto your shot question. Yes Bismuth and Tungsten/Matrix came out for the older guns. I quit using steel shot in 1995, and switched to Bismuth, it is so close to lead it's hard to tell the difference. When the geese are working, I take my Md 12 Duck gun out, and shoot 3 in. Bismuth BBs. Over the years, the geese have figured out that standard steel can't hurt them if they stay at about 45-50 yards high as they fly to their feeding spot or resting spot. However they aren't safe with Bismuth. I shoot #4s for ducks, and on the way in from the blind, I've shot a number of pheasants over the years with it too! Buy some and take your "old" Md 12 out you will like it! Regards Dave
 
only winchesters...Thanks for the insight on the plum color and the shot...I have not hunted waterfowl since the non-tox law went inte effect...that must be 1991 or so...sure do miss it...an old friend of mine and I have been wanting to use these older shotguns that we have but have been waiting until the jury comes back on whether or not we shoot this "new" stuff in the older tight choked "antiques". Being a Model 12 lover it seems odd to call it an antique, as it is still the best pointing, most reliable shotgun that I have ever used, although my L.C. Smith 20 gauge is a close second. I sold all my decoys back then...between a huntin' buddy and me, we would put out 12 or 13 dozen on a bay in a nearby lake...a few confidence decoys and didn't even bother to call...just watch them come in. It does take a while to pick up that many blocks and in those days the limit was 4 ducks...I went to the courthouse yesterday and picked up Minnesota's waterfowl laws, even thought the season is over...Gosh! Six ducks...I guess the good old days are now! 20 Snow Geese! I think if this new shot works good and ol' Ray can still hit em, I better buy another freezer! Anyway, thanks for the insight.

Hairy
 
"...until the jury comes back on whether or not we shoot this "new" stuff in the older tight choked "antiques".

I don't know the official line on this, I only know what I have done. First M-12 to shoot steel was 30" full opened to a loose modified. I have fired several cases of steel through it, no porblems. My hunting buddy bought it from me this year. I now have a simmilar gun but with a matt rib. I did the same thing, opened it up to a loose modified. I used a piloted expanding reamer turned by hand and piloted on a rod form the chamber end. Profesional barrel tools from a now deceased gunsmith that specialized in shotgun work. I then polished the choke with a split rod and wet dry paper. My partner and I have been shooting tungsten in both guns this year. Maybe 100 shells through each. I can detect no scrubbing or increase in the barrel diameter behind the choke. The recovered wads show no perforations. I think it will work out fine.

I look at it this way, I am not shooting fancy collector grade guns. If I did damage the barrel I would not freak out. They are $250 to $300 guns. If the barrel did bulge enough to cause a problem I would install screw in chokes. Just circumsize that 30" tube down to 27" and install the tubes. Frankly I don't think it will be a problem.

The tungsten shells are wonderfull. The ducks fall down like wet rags and are stone dead.
 
Hairy Clipper said:
only winchesters...Thanks for the insight on the plum color and the shot...I have not hunted waterfowl since the non-tox law went inte effect...that must be 1991 or so...sure do miss it...an old friend of mine and I have been wanting to use these older shotguns that we have but have been waiting until the jury comes back on whether or not we shoot this "new" stuff in the older tight choked "antiques". Being a Model 12 lover it seems odd to call it an antique, as it is still the best pointing, most reliable shotgun that I have ever used, although my L.C. Smith 20 gauge is a close second. I sold all my decoys back then...between a huntin' buddy and me, we would put out 12 or 13 dozen on a bay in a nearby lake...a few confidence decoys and didn't even bother to call...just watch them come in. It does take a while to pick up that many blocks and in those days the limit was 4 ducks...I went to the courthouse yesterday and picked up Minnesota's waterfowl laws, even thought the season is over...Gosh! Six ducks...I guess the good old days are now! 20 Snow Geese! I think if this new shot works good and ol' Ray can still hit em, I better buy another freezer! Anyway, thanks for the insight.

Hairy
 
I own a 1918 Model 12 20 ga. I hunt with it almost every weekend for pheasants and other upland game. I own several other shotguns but the oldest is by far the best as far as weight and coming to the shoulder is concerned. Not the greatest gun for waterfowl (when lead was legal to use) but for upland game, it would be hard to find a better gun.
 
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