Steve thanks for the photos..I love model 12's and the more worn the better...this gun was a real hunters tool .

i saw a really nice model 12 a 20 ga today...price was 900a little to much probably but gun looked like new and no refinish that i could tell.if i woulda had a spare of 900 she woulda been mine.... charlie

I have a very sweet field grade 20 ga. No rib and I am definitely better shooting off the pipe than with a rib for sporting clays and for game with the pumps.

Also I am looking for a butt stock for a nickle steel 12 gauge that was my grandfathers gun. The gun is so well broken in that you just say "open" and the slide releases to the load/eject position.

I have a Winchester Model 12 in 20 gauge that I bought for my son after he was born in 1971. I sent it to Simmons to have a vent rib installed and then put it in a corner for when he was old enough to use it. He shot it a few times and loved it but then passed away when he was 24. I still have it but don't use it as much as I should. Maybe with all of this talk about the Winchester Model 12 I will get it out and use it for quail a few times this year.

Late Saturday afternoon I pulled out my M12 and off we went. No birds pointed or flushed so I didn't get to shoot it but just carrying it felt very right. Certainly not like carrying a well balanced double, but very pleasurable in it's on special way.

When I was turning 13 I spotted a 16 ga M12 in the rack of the local sporting good store and I begged my dad to get it for me for my birthday. He didn't get it for me but he did give me a 20 ga Wingmaster for Christmas that year. (he thought the 16 might be a little much for a first shotgun) I have loved and cherished that Wingmaster for 40-years but that 16 ga M12 haunted me for years. A few years ago I had a chance to pick one up and I didn't hesitate. I just wish I took it out more often.

Boy that was the thing a while back to buy a new gun and send it right off to Simmons. I have a 1940s 12 gauge full choke with a Simmons rib that is definitely my go to trap gun. I guess it shoots about 70/30 high and I love to float the birds on it . There is also something about it that I think just smashes clay birds.
The factory ribs are nice too. To verify factory one will see the proof mark offset to the left side near the choke roll mark because the factory rib sits where the mark normall is.

Yep, $900 is a little dear for a 20 gauge model 12, but a new Ithaca in 20 gauge I think costs around there. I just bought a bran new Wingmaster in 20 for $600. I saw a few nice 20's in Guns International yesterday for something like $500, but that ain't hay either.

I have a pretty nice 20 model 12, but it's got one of those Power Packs on it and I'm wondering if it would pass a plastic wad on threw. There is about a one inch gap between the muzzle and the base of the choke tube. It needs a good cleaning inside because she hesitates when I jack the action after a shot. I don't know if I'm up to stripping down another model 12 right now. I think I paid $625 for it 15 years ago....way too much, but that is the story of my life.

I'll have to break out my 20 gauge and take a pic of it along side the 12 and 16. A Model 12 20, is a fast little gun, but so is the Wingmaster and it is a much simplier gun.

Me Too!

Around here the clays, trap and skeet shooting is fantastic, with several nice clubs nearby. A great sporting clays range that the require that you rent a golf cart. The only hunting that I can find is off in Condon, OR and it costs thousands and thousands of dollars to shoot there...like $4000 for two days and three nites. So that's out.

Where I grew up we just drove out into the country and shot pheasants from within the brambles alongside the road, we'd get our limit. Stop the car and walk up, guns at high port. Bird flushes BANG got'em. No dog. We let hens go. All wild birds too and tough, you had to hit them hard with 5s or 6s. Tail feathers nearly as long as your arm.

I attended college in Emporia, KS and Simmons wasn't too far away. I'd drive there and oogle the Brownings and new Model 12s. I lusted after a Superpose with a full set of matched barrels. In those days, the early 60s I think they cost $600 with case. WAY out of my range.

My 12 has a clean barrel and about a 1/2" cast off so my eye lines perfectly up with the tube. It'd be a great trap gun, I think. Trouble is I also have a SBC and which girl do you want to dance with?

i love to hear about these old guns...ive got a model 12 12 ga thats got a cutts full choke on it...makes the gun look ugly but will put a lot of holes in a tin can or should i say aluminum can...these model 12 s sure handle good..would like to get a old 20 ga some day... charlie

Yeah, isn't that funny? I used to buy only pristine, like new guns; and that's fine, but today honest wear sings to me. Good guns hold up, even after hard use. I'd like to find a worn slick Remington 31, or one of those early Marlin pumps....they are something like 1900 guns. Model 43? Can't recall.

I agree, a worn smooth, silver, ancient shotgun is fun to own and cheap, usually, to buy. So you win both ways.

My GH is worn, no finish and checkering smooth. Good bore though, no cracks and she is a great shooter. Perfect.

I recall a Model 12, 12 ga that I saw at a gun show once. It was in fine condition, but had that Cutts out there and the barrel was short. So no one paid any attention to the gun, but I should have bought it. It was under $200. IMO the Cutts isn't so bad. Pretty ugly tho! LOL So you shoot it when no one is watching.

steve its funny you mentioning the old model 12 with the cutts on it i was just looking at it today...it was still ugly...but as you said i shoot it when aint nobody lookin and dont tell nobody...the model 12 is surely a fine gun... heh and i found the old humpback 20 ga pump gona try it out on crows soon..i can quit blamin my grandson now for gettin it... charlie

If it quits raining I'm on the trap range tomorrow morning. I am going to shoot a 1955 well worn Superposed that I bought a decade ago. Have yet to shoot it and it is well beat up. I paid way too much for it and just looking at it makes me mad. My fault, of course. No one forced me to buy the gun and I wanted a Superposed. Always have.

However, it is a long tang 3" gun with the original butt pad. Has 30 inch barrels F&M. The gun is worn white at the balance where everyone holds a Superposed and when I flip the lever she drops right open, all the way. So the gun is well used. I don't know what the chokes measure now. Does heavy shooting open them up? Seems logical to me. I'll try the open barrel first on trap and she how she works. Just for grins, I'll shoot it with Fiocchi spreaders at skeet.

The gun seems to fit me pretty well and it has a kinda high comb. Single bead. Solid rib. LOP feels right. My eye lines up a bit high, so I look down the rib, so she should shoot a tad high. I like that.

I have not taken a picture of it, or I'd post it. I'll do it tomorrow.

Some people avoid the Superposed because they are heavy and indeed they are heavy. They are also complex with a very interesting break down feature. The barrel slides off forward along with its forearm. Different.

When I was a kid I used to drool over Sterlingworths and never thought that I'd ever own one. Now I do, but she is far from fine. I wonder how she'll shoot?

Great Charlie! Tell us how that old 20 ga humpback shoots.