Winchester 23 Heavy Duck
 

I had a Winchester 23 Classic in 28 gauge awhile and it was a pretty decent little gun I bought it brand new at Fairfax R&G many many moons ago . But I’m intrested in info on the Winchester 23 12 gauge Heavy Duck as far as dependability and parts availability .

I had that gun in 20ga and shot the bejesus out of it with no problems. I'd love to have that in 28ga, but to answer you question if I'm not mistaken they were built by the same folks who built the Browning BSS.

Supposedly the WIN 101’s were built in the same factory as the Browning stuff or so I’d been told , if that’s true it would stand to reason the 23’s were built there as well .

The Winchester 101's and 23's were built by Olin Kodensha in Japan. They competed directly with Miroku, the manufacturer of the Browning Citori, BSS etc.
Olin Kodensha also built the Winchester / Parker reproductions.

The Olin Kodensha factory closed permanently in the late 80's

Kodensha Firearms also manufactured the Classic Doubles shotguns for a very short time period from about 1987 to 1988.

Check out the article in Double Gun Journal in the Summer 2011 issue: The Japanese Invasion by Nick Hahn. It explains who built what in Japan. I just looked up and re read the article last night.

A buddy of mine bought a Browning BSS Sporter with the straight grip and the slimmer beavertail forearm to take some of the stress off his 1899 straight grip Quality DH. That BSS had Made in Japan in normal size letters and underneath that in very tiny letters was Assembled on Korea.