I shot once in a while in the mid-1970s with a young native man at the Sand Lake Club south of Anchorage who had a two barrel set Model 12 Heavy Duck with 28- and 30-inch barrels. Story was his Father had been a guide for some Winchester executives shortly after WW-II, and Winchester gave him the gun as a thank you gift.

The Winchester Special Ventilated Rib introduced in the 1954 time frame, was a Simmons Rib installed by Winchester.

https://i.imgur.com/XwLVolQ.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/BXmKvg9.jpg

The Model 12 Heavy Duck arrived today . In a lot of ways it looked better than I anticipated . The rib just might be what’s considered factory . When I got home I took it out and shot one round each of factory 3” buckshot # 1 , 00 and 000 at 25 yards . Amazingly they all shot nicely in the full choke barrel .

Nice Model 12, the rib is not Winchester installed. It should have proof marks on the left side of the barrel and receiver. This is a Simmons installed rib.

i have a book that recommends full choke for buckshot....i have yet to find the perfect choke and gun for shooting buckshot... charlie

Buckshot causes GREMLINS :rotf:

I've read stuff that claimed big buck meaning 0 or larger you needed IC or cylinder .

Now I've loaded EVERY size from 00000 down to #4 in 10 gauge guns and 90% of the guns I've shot the stuff in were tight and tighter then well you understand . Anyway I've gotten very decent results with the bigger buckshot in the tight tight barrels .

And the small stuff like #2 and #3 buck has pretty much only done well in the tight tight barrels .

But bear in mind my parameters for buckshot are 25 yards on paper and rarely if ever do I shoot buck at a deer over 30ish yards . So the doggers that shoot deer on drives at 60+ yards would have no intrest in what I do and that's perfectly fine , I do what I try and do to please myself and so far it's worked relatively well :whistle:

For 12 gauge double loads I've pretty much settled on 0 buck only in 2 3/4" handloads . In the 3" 12's I shoot whatever factory I have on hand #1 , 00 or 000 .

For the 16 I've had wonderful results with handloaded #1 but I may see how 0 works if I get a chance to mess with it this spring/summer .

In the 20 gauge I've loaded both #2 and #3 with excellent results in my Parker VHE and Sterlingworth both are M&F .I bought some Euro #1 buck loads for the 20 they shot well enough for deer inside 30 yards but didn't print as well as my handloads on paper . Down the road I may try and make a decent #1 20 gauge handload .

In the 28 I was fortunate and got decent #1 , #2 and #3 buck handloads right off the bat . And I'm 2000% sure that is about as small as I go with the buckshot thing . Only other option is if I get a nice old hammer 8 gauge Irish gun I'm kinda after . And if I acquire that I'm 99% sure that one will get big buck :cool:

By no means am I disagreeing with you as I assumed it were a Simmons rib whether they put it on after the gun was built or they put it on before Winchester sold the gun as I've been told some were done .

Anyway all the Model 12's I've seen in the past with Simmons installed after the fact ribs had Simmons etc stamped on the side of the rib ,this one has no such stamping on the side of the rib . But the Winchester proof mark on the barrel is not in the position normally associated with a rib being attached for the factory .

Incidently I just received a copy of Dave Riffle's Model 12 book this AM and to be honest it shed no light on any of my questions about Heavy Duck Model 12's .

The most comprehensive information about The “Winchester Special “ Vent ribs can be found in the model 42 book by Ned Schwing.
It cross references the rib verations to the year by the serial number ranges.
Not only were there different posts, the matting also changed over the years.

There were some Winchester factory built Model 42s that have the Simmons marking on the rib. There were no such Simmons markings on any Model 12. The matting on the pictured Model 12 are not like any factory vent rib Model 12. A great gun for sure.

I removed the WIN factory plug from the gun last night . I dare say that had probably been in it since Mr. Asher acquired three gun new . And as advertised you can get five 3” shells in the Mag tube . I took it out this morning , thought we were going to get snow/sleet and turned into freezing rain so when I retired from my tree at 08:30 the Model 12 and my AR-10 were covered with ice :whistle: Thought I had a picture of the model 12 covered in ice but just two of my AR .

When do you have time to run a gun store???