doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Other Fine Firearms-- Model 12 Winnies??

Agreed.

Good skeetx, you better limit yourself to two shots on your west Texas quail....in fact, there might not even be enough birds for one shot next season! I sure hope the quail rebound in the High Plains.....leave your Model 12 at home and carry a double next season.

For myself, I find the 31 trumps the 870.

I might as well jump in. RWTF, IMO, an occasional posting about a classic gun like model 12 is okay with me. One of my dbl. gun shooting bodies showed up with a model 12 that was so nice .... I went out and got one a few weeks latter..... Then darn if he didn't show up with a model 97 and now I am restoring a 1897 black diamond trap!

I love any classic gun... Hell I love just about any gun!

Jerry

I never ran a skeet round with my Mossberg 500. Abominable, cat on a screen door trigger, sez I. Did kill the vast majority of my probable lifetime bird tally with it. Hurts to type that. Actually broke a bolt pin by way of field use - company mailed me the pin gratis, and I hammered it in with a ball-peen. Yup, a real artisan I am.

Ingrate, too. I literally gave it away on "long term, please don't ever let me see it again" loan to a brother. Had a slug barrel, too, and even that took some deer.

That was all before I knew what a M-12 looked like. 870s were more money, albeit "bests", reserved for trap fields. I mean, they had real figured walnut. My mentor never cleaned a shotgun. When, after several zillion trap rounds, his 870 quit he popped two pins, dropped the trigger out, hosed it down with WD40, slapped it together and finished shooting....seemed like 45 seconds. Years later I realized he could just as easily have thrown the entire trigger group in the trash and installed a new one for what....$125??

Now I have a safe full of 42s and 12s. Love 'em. Cannot imagine a Maine October without a 42 in my hands at least a coupla outings. My 16 ga prewar SR "full" M12 is the closest thing to a bankable phez gun in my hands.

My son won't start with a Mossberg. He's partial to a 16 ga M-12 "mod", and flat out loves shooting a repro 42 in .410 NSCA.

Sam

The only round of skeet I ever ran was with a 1905 vintage Winchester 1897. My dad had a whole "set" of 870's, and I am lucky enough to have his "bunny gun," the 28 gauge.

You should see my 9 year old shucking out doubles with his 870. He might not break a lot of targets yet, but everybody loves to watch him shoot. One guy said "I bet dad can't work a pump gun that quick." I told him "then you have never seen me do it."

CHAZ

Sounds like we have a "Legion of pumpgunners" here--There are Four/Five Shotgun Groups: Pump,Autoloader, Double Barrel (split group between the side-by-side and the over/under clans, and Single shot-- I didn't include the few bolt actioned shotguns.

I am 70, have shot several Beretta and Ruger O/U's, also a few good autoloaders- all that belonged to my friends-- But what pleases me the most is the feel of a good well balanced side-by-side- and I prefer 28" to 30" barrel length, 12 gauge and double triggers with a POW style grip and splinter style forearm. Some of this carries over to my love of the older M12's- the field guns with the 18 ring "corncob" forearms and the pre-1935 style buttstock with the graceful smaller grip- just fits my hands and mounting style a bit better-

I like the fine 1897 too-although as I use some of my M12's for waterfowling, and late season- the open brech cycle and exposed hammer are not quite my cup of tea- and yes, I do "backslide" to the ugly Mossenberg 835 12 I won at a DU Banquet a few years ago--

From a practical point of view, it, as the Germans like to say- "Machts Nicht"-- makes no difference- to the dead mallard or pigeon or rooster pheasant in the grass before you what make, model and gauge of scattergun brought about its demise--Dead is dead- and although not a clays man, we could postulate that same concept for a shattered blaze orange disc as well--

I just feel that, as long as I can afford to indulge my preferences, why not do so as to the type of shotguns I use--And there is something about a well-worn pumpgun in late October-- best example of that, IMO-- GSJ Fall 1977--One of the all-time best pheasant hunting stories ever published (IMO of course) John Hewitt's Kansas experience- "There's Always Tomorrow"- and the fine photo of a graying at the muzzles Lab, a barn door well weathered, a brace of deceased roosters and a well used (and I would guess, much loved by its owner) Remington M31 long barreled 12 gauge pumpgun--

As George pointed out the M17 by Browning was also copied and modified for the M37 Ithaca, my favorite tire changing apparatus, and the Browning BPS. It was also copied to a degree to create the M31, but with side ejection. You never know when a flat tire needs fixin'. M37s, M12 and M17s, 28 through 16 gauge:

Now there's a pump...the rest were just cheap bumper jacks at best.

Maybe "cheap" as in inexpensive, but the earlier Winchester, Remington and Ithaca pumps were well-crafted and handfitted in steel and wood. The M12's milling, machining and handfitting procedures couldn't compete pricewise with the lower cost of the 870s castings and stampings. The simpler design and construction of the M37 has been in continuous production since 1937 except during a period in WWII when Ithaca shifted over to 1911A production. Not (m)any US doubles have a 75 year run. My (former) Ithaca 1911A was the subject of one of the dumbest gun trades in history. It is another story too painful to recount.