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win. 1200 s/n 487000 prod. info.
- Thread starter buzz11648
- Start date
David Wile
New member
Hey Buzz,
How are things down in Chambersburg? I can be no help to you in learning when your 1200 was made, but that won't stop me from adding another question mark to yours. I also have a 12 ga. model 1200 that I have no idea when it was made. It has a 30 inch full choke barrel, drop dead beautiful walnut wood, and it still looks like new. My Dad bought it used from a neighbor and gave it to me as a gift in the early 80s. You indicated that your serial number was 487000. My serial number is L760414. Now, what is the "L" in my serial number? Also, do you think the 760414 would mean it was 273 thousand after yours? Beats me.
Best wishes,
Dave Wile
How are things down in Chambersburg? I can be no help to you in learning when your 1200 was made, but that won't stop me from adding another question mark to yours. I also have a 12 ga. model 1200 that I have no idea when it was made. It has a 30 inch full choke barrel, drop dead beautiful walnut wood, and it still looks like new. My Dad bought it used from a neighbor and gave it to me as a gift in the early 80s. You indicated that your serial number was 487000. My serial number is L760414. Now, what is the "L" in my serial number? Also, do you think the 760414 would mean it was 273 thousand after yours? Beats me.
Best wishes,
Dave Wile
model 1200 s/n
hey dave,
Thanks for the reply, as you can see i'm new to this forum. I moved to waynesboro about 4 years ago and it seems to be quite peaceful. I purchased the 1200 recently and disassembled, cleaned, inspected, and test fired it. It functions flawless except for the fifth round being hard to load into the mag tube at times. The barrel has some light surface rust external and some odd light spiral grooves internal? I like it due to the smooth action and metal trigger guard. Overall condition i would say is fair but i didn't pay a lot for it and thought it would make a good project and house gun. As far as the s/n the only info. i can find is prod. from 64 to 82 and a couple of military 1200 photo's. My guess is yours has a v/r barrel and is newer. Many books of info. can be purchased but i wanted to see if anyone would have any info. on this not so populiar model for some reason.
happy safe blasting
hey dave,
Thanks for the reply, as you can see i'm new to this forum. I moved to waynesboro about 4 years ago and it seems to be quite peaceful. I purchased the 1200 recently and disassembled, cleaned, inspected, and test fired it. It functions flawless except for the fifth round being hard to load into the mag tube at times. The barrel has some light surface rust external and some odd light spiral grooves internal? I like it due to the smooth action and metal trigger guard. Overall condition i would say is fair but i didn't pay a lot for it and thought it would make a good project and house gun. As far as the s/n the only info. i can find is prod. from 64 to 82 and a couple of military 1200 photo's. My guess is yours has a v/r barrel and is newer. Many books of info. can be purchased but i wanted to see if anyone would have any info. on this not so populiar model for some reason.
happy safe blasting
Al Thompson
Staff Alumnus
Hi Buzz, BTW, welcome to TFl!
I'm going to send this to Harley's forum - hopefully someone there has the answers!
Giz
I'm going to send this to Harley's forum - hopefully someone there has the answers!
Giz
David Wile
New member
Hey Buzz,
Welcome to South Central Pennsylvania. I was born in Lancaster, grew up in Middletown, and, from 1 June to 15 September, I love this place. The other nine months are just too cold for me, and I would rather be down in the Southwest somewhere in the desert living in our camper. My wife and I will head for Florida duing the last week of this month, and we will be there for about 6 to 8 weeks.
It sounds like your 1200 was a good buy. I don't know why your 5th round goes in hard though. Have you looked in the magazine to see if there is any kind of a short plug or something else interfering with the loading? No clue as to what the spiral grooves are in your barrel either. I would also guess that mine is probably newer than yours, but mine does not have a ventilated rib. It is just a plain real long heavy barrel. My understanding is that the 1200 was the Winchester replacement for their Model 12, and it was considered a lesser gun than the Model 12. I don't know if it was not as good as the Model 12, but the Model 1300 that replaced the Model 1200 certainly was not an improvement in looks. I sold my old Model 12 and kept the 1200 - simply because the wood on my 1200 looked so good.
If you would like to blast some claybirds in the back pasture sometime, give me a call at (717) 432-8732.
Best wishes,
Dave Wile
Welcome to South Central Pennsylvania. I was born in Lancaster, grew up in Middletown, and, from 1 June to 15 September, I love this place. The other nine months are just too cold for me, and I would rather be down in the Southwest somewhere in the desert living in our camper. My wife and I will head for Florida duing the last week of this month, and we will be there for about 6 to 8 weeks.
It sounds like your 1200 was a good buy. I don't know why your 5th round goes in hard though. Have you looked in the magazine to see if there is any kind of a short plug or something else interfering with the loading? No clue as to what the spiral grooves are in your barrel either. I would also guess that mine is probably newer than yours, but mine does not have a ventilated rib. It is just a plain real long heavy barrel. My understanding is that the 1200 was the Winchester replacement for their Model 12, and it was considered a lesser gun than the Model 12. I don't know if it was not as good as the Model 12, but the Model 1300 that replaced the Model 1200 certainly was not an improvement in looks. I sold my old Model 12 and kept the 1200 - simply because the wood on my 1200 looked so good.
If you would like to blast some claybirds in the back pasture sometime, give me a call at (717) 432-8732.
Best wishes,
Dave Wile
BADSBSNF81
New member
SN's started at 100,000 in 1964 Winchokes were introduced in 1969. By 1980 over 1,000,000 had been made.