A day late and a doller short I fear. Have a friend who wants to hunt ruffies and has his late father's 1952 M12 with a full choke barrel. He's loth to alter the gun, so a 2nd barrel seems to be the most elegant solution. I've forgotten just exactly where to search for such a relic anymore. Any suggestions here?

Corson's may have one. Also quite a few barrels on GI and GB lately. No bargains tho!

My suggestion is to buy this set and make the choke what you want with
Orlen screw in chokes

https://www.ebay.com/itm/265205776561?hash=item3dbf7f00b1:g:64IAAOSwnhhg035E

Mike

p.s. or just cut the barrel to CYL at 26 inches

All good suggestions. The least expensive way to use the gun for grouse might be purchasing some spreader loads.

I would watch for one on EBay. They seem to be a fairly good number of them for sale most months.

I have one. Nickel steel, full choke, 26", needs a refin. Not pretty but undamaged. PM if you're interested.
I also have the action, bolt, trigger and uncut field stock less butt plate.

I have a complete front end,16ga 26" cyl pl. just add wood. assy required. pm me.
https://www.gunauction.com/buy/17142864

Don't forget to send Dave 10 bucks bObshe.

If it were my inherited M12- full choke- I'd shoot spreader loads. Interchanging barrels on any M12 is not the same as with a Remington 870 or Ithaca 37. If you ever wanted to sell or trade that M12, it will be worth waaaaay more than if you alter it in any way, shape or form. To cut down the barrel to "open the choke" is about like having a frontal lobotomy to cure prostate problems.. RWTF

I opened the full choke on my 1926 field grade 16 gauge model 12 because the original full choke was worthless for what I needed the gun for. It patterned like s%#t with spreaders too, polywads and hand loads. Shooting birds over pretty good pointing dogs…I never once needed the full choke, then again, “pillow casing” hard earned game birds was never my thing. I just don’t get my jollies destroying game birds.
I opened the choke to .010 and never looked back. No hard feelings either. It’s my gun and I’ll do what I need to it for it to work for me. I’ve taken limits of pheasants, Chukars, huns, Sharptails, ruffies, blues, & quail (bobs & valley).

Pattern the gun with spreaders and see what it prints. My feeling is that you’ll find what I did, the spreader patterns just aren’t gonna hack it.
See if one of those barrel sets can be fitted, if it’s possible, go for it. If that’s not an option, adjust that choke for what would work best for you.

but, if you build my extra bbl set im offering, it wont effect the original bbl set up. want to change chokes on the gun? just change bbls, like a typical 2 bbl set is meant to do.
see mine here...........

But….. there’s literally oodles of field grade model 12’s out there….they’re not collectors items, they were meant to be hunted and used.
I 100% support not altering a rare graded gun. Field grades are just that, meant for the field.

Having an additional barrel set fitted would be ideal, I agree. But sometimes it’s just not very practical (cost, parts availability, etc). The most economical and practical way to get that gun killing birds is to alter the choke for its intended purpose. Whether that means cutting a new choke, installing thin walls, etc.

mine is uncut and marked cyl from the factory. unlike most that are cut off fulls, that become cyl. and, my extension is unserialized. he can match it by number to his gun. his is a 52 and mine is a 55, so roll marks will be proper. sure, we arent talking collector guns, but itll be close and we are talking practical. wake up, decide what bbl, go hunt, come home. it would be a interesting set up...unlike most that are butchered already with screw in chokes and soldered on gizmos. we shall see if lloyds friend knows or will appreciate a unique set up opportunity when he sees it. hope he does.
the owner can swap takedown bbls faster than screwing in a screw in choke. the polychoke inventor learned this and challenged cutts with a faster product back in the day, and did well.
seems lately, the world has gone back to the cumbersome screw in/on method forgetting history. or lest we forget...leaving the wrong choke in during a hunt, leaving the right choke 5 miles back in the truck, bringing the wrong gauge choke, forgetting the wrench, or dropping it in the pond, making desperate hunters shoot without a choke in the bbl ruining the threads, having to soak the bbl in solvent to get it out after years of use, or shooting a loose choke and blowing the end of the bbl off. need I go on? let me know lloyd. thanks for the pm.

No, maybe you should actually back up. It's obvious to me that you have no actual experience with having done this this. I have, and my friend shot a Beretta Extrema all one afternoon in Cordoba, Argentina with no choke tube in place, intentionally. He was put on a stand that placed him in very close proximity to the doves, and didn't have a CYL tube with him. He killed over 1000 doves that afternoon. I cleaned the plastic out of his choke threads in just a few minutes with a bore brush. No damage at all. Don't you think 1200-1300 shells, without cleaning the threads, would have caused a problem if you were right?

Oh, and lest you think it was a foolhardy decision to do so, he is the owner of CompNChoke, and knows his way around barrels. He has threaded hundreds of older barrels for choke tubes, and cut off and re-threaded dozens where customers had blown the tube out by letting it get slack. He knows what ruins barrels, and what doesn't. And, I've also seen this done on a close rabbit target on the clays course many times, with no ill effects.

.......non-concentric installation of choke threads to bore line, non-concentric choke by design, dissimilar metal corrosion, alloy metal fatigue ..............

nope, id go with a 70 year old gun mated to a 70 year old bbl, designed by Winchester employees from a bygone era with proven fixed chokes any day.

ok, take care guys. see you in another 2 years if someone calls me back. I found other sites to hang out in.

Good grief. It’s a discussion board and we’re discussing viable options. Each point was valid. There’s no 1 answer for everything. Where is gets annoying is when someone comes along and says “this is the ONLY way” or “if you don’t do it MY way your a ham fisted clod and a ignorant gun butcher”.
That’s ridiculous. Especially when we’re talking about a gun like a field grade, non collectible model 12 that someone wants to shoot ruffed grouse with. If someone ever had the stones to tell me that I butchered my model 12 by opening a choke….I’ll just send them pictures of piles of dead birds along with a pic of my middle finger. Guns happy it’s getting used, and I’m happy it’s working the way I want it to. Win win.


Take your ball and go, if that’s what you want to do. No hard feelings here.

Thank you all for the unfailingly deep insight provided on the subject. I have armed my friend with the pros and cons of his many options for his inherited Model 12. I would be concerned about the fitting of the second set of barrels as well, but this individual is quite competent in that regard. Considering the time and trouble involved, I'd likely just buy a new CZ Bobwhite G2 in 20 gauge and have the triggers tuned as part of the warranty. You'd only spend maybe $200 more and have yet another option in your arsenal, but that's me and my biases.

theres enough utubes around showing its process. any smart guy with insight to guns can figure it out. Lloyd, double check our pm's and stay in touch via email. im deleting my bookmark again. cheers.

You girls need to get over it....

I notice no addressing of your claim of ruining a barrel by shooting it without a choke tube in place. No matter, I guess you won't read this anyway.

OBTW, if you do drop back in for a read, thanks for your service in Naval Aviation. I enjoyed the pictures on your blog. I was in a VA squadron myself, ATKRON 205 (USNR). So, we do have a little in common.

If the door hit both of you in the arse I wouldn't lose any sleep....

Just saying.