Shotguns That I Have Ruined!

B

Bake

New member
(I'm Hijacking this thread from SaxonPig. His thread was about (Collector Grade) revolvers, this one is about (Collector Grade) shotguns...)

This last Christmas my son gave me a NIB Winchester Model 12. He and I gave it a quick field stripping and oiling and headed to the range the next day. First stop was 16yd line, where I got 48 out of 50 (both misses were straight away at station #3:eek::o). Stop #2 was the 22yd line where I got 47 out of 50. By then, my left arm & shoulder were really starting to ache (I shoot right handed),so I never got to shoot the Skeet range, but I did pull for my son, and he got 49(straight) out of 50 with the Model 12...

I know in my head there are better pump shotguns, and better shotguns, but in my heart the Model 12 will always be #1...
 
Last edited:
I know in my head there are better pump shotguns,
Click to expand...

Maybe. I've always heard it said that the Model 12 was the best handling pump ever made. It's a shame that they don't make that same thing today with a modern 3" chamber, steel-shot proofed barrels, and a threaded choke. I'd certainly want one.
 
Maybe. I've always heard it said that the Model 12 was the best handling pump ever made. It's a shame that they don't make that same thing today with a modern 3" chamber, steel-shot proofed barrels, and a threaded choke. I'd certainly want one
Click to expand...


By '63 the cost of manufacturing was had gone thru the roof, and so was the MSRP. Then the BT99 game along in '69, it quickly displaced the Model 12 at the 16yd line. Within a few years the Model 12 became a classic with no place to go...:(

In '63, the list price was $259.50...(Average take home was between $4500. & $5700. a year, or $85.00 to $110.00 @ week),(as an E-3, I was getting about $86.00 @month)
 
Last edited:
I bulled around with an old timer one day. I wish I had caught his name, as I guess he was once a west coast great. He still had his m12 with him but not really the strength to shoot. Fun listening to his stories of shooting with Robert Stack and whipping Ljutic with money on the line, when he didn't know it was Ljutic. He had another m 12 he would have sold me for a song, but I felt I was taking advantage of him. As BigJim knows all too well, money isn't the everything to me. It's the only thing.
 
Heard a story about Roy Roger trying to bend or maybe unbend his Model 12's barrel in the parking lot just after a poor finish...Those were the "Good Old Days" use to buy and sell many a shotgun, rifle, or pistol in the parking lot, after big matches...:cool:
 
Last edited:
i don,t shoot my md 12,s as well as my other shotguns at the clays games, but to be fair i don,t use them as much. i think i,ll try to use one of my 12 traps more. eastbank.
 
Yep, Roy was another one of the guys shooting m12s. I believe it was Rogers that he said contributed a brand new m12 to be put up for raffle (not some special one belonging to Rogers). But those were the days when I watched him and Stack on the screen (Rogers when I was just a little kid. Loved The Untouchables, but I digress way OT.)
 
The story goes that Roy's favorite Model 12 was a used gun that he got off Clark Gable, after Clark had a really bad day (first time out with the new gun). Maybe he shot a 4, and then maybe a 6, :mad: and that's when Clark sold it to Roy. Clark was more of a Browning Superpose guy, or at least that's the way the story goes...:)

Right after Roy got the gun, he went back out on to the range (While Clark was watching) and ran 50 out of 50....
 
Last edited:
The good old days when popular actors owned and used guns. A number of others including Gary Cooper, John Wayne, etc, etc. There are a few today including Clint Eastwood, Johnny Depp, Bruce Willis,Tom Selleck, Chuck Norris and a few others that have a hard time getting their voices heard over the din of the anti gun rhetoric of the gutless Hollywood establishment. The anti gun group are the worst hypocrites and cowards in the world condemning guns but surrounding themselves with armed bodyguards. I would love to see what would happen if all of a sudden their bodyguards could not carry guns or any other weapons.
 
There was a time when the Winchester '97 was the epitome of repeaters - De Shootinest Gent'man used one. Times change. I never caught the Model 12 bug, just didn't click with my psyche.
I have never ruined a shotgun or any other firearm by shooting it, but I did lower the value on a few. A Colt 2nd Gen SAA, .44 Spl., nickel, NIB, unturned - but I did shoot the best group I ever shot with a single action with that gun. A NIB Remington 31 that was the slickest new pump I have ever shot out of the box, bar none, but alas it still didn't feel as good as a Wingmaster to me. A Remington 3200 NIB in the late 80s - nope, still don't like O/Us. A 2nd Gen. Colt Woodsman Target, NIB. Very sweet, beautiful little gun, but my High Standard shot better. Against my better judgement, an L.C. Smith. "They won't split the stock if the inletting is perfect." It had been restocked with a nice piece of walnut and the metal was 99.99%. I double checked the inletting. Sweet handling gun. The stock split and I sold it for less that it was worth even with that. I am sure there have been others. I never bought a gun that I didn't have every intention of shooting it from the start.
 
My father in law owned...a matched serial number set of model 12's...( one in 12ga, a 16ga, a 20ga and a 28ga ).....most in full choke and 28" barrels as I recall....

When he died in the early 90's ...they went to his son ( my wife's brother ) - who was a drunk and an idiot / and needing money to pay his reoccurring tab at the local tavern....sold all 4 of them to a local pawn shop for about $ 500...

I was able to purchase the 12ga, 16ga and the 28ga from the same shop...and I held the guns for my step son ...since they were his grandfathers.../ and gave them to him as a gift - from his mother and I a few yrs ago...to keep them in the family.

The model 12 is not my favorite pump gun ( I favor the Browning BPS )...but to each his own ....and Zippy is right - the model 12's won a lot of tournaments back in the day ( not that I am old enough to have seen it / but Zippy is ...:D )....
 
The model 12 is not my favorite pump gun ( I favor the Browning BPS )...but to each his own ....and Zippy is right - the model 12's won a lot of tournaments back in the day ( not that I am old enough to have seen it / but Zippy is ... )....
Click to expand...


That's funny, you sound like an "OLD FART"...:D :) :cool:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top