Post by hunter on Oct 21, 2019 5:53:51 GMT
Pump Shotgun
My Grandmother received a Winchester Mod. of 1912, full choke 20 ga. pump shotgun as a present shortly after it left the factory in Feb. 1913. She was an avid Quail hunter, trained bird dogs and also hunted duck, geese, and turkey. She owned a boarding house during the “Dust Bowl” and Great Depression. Her shotgun and a 30–30 Mod 94 Winchester kept her, her husband, her 4 kids and a big raft load of Arkies traveling across Oklahoma on their way to start over, fed regularly on game. Hard times got hard ways and her guns were a large part of what got them by.
She gave me that shotgun in the summer of 1959, and lived to see me win several turkey shoots with it. It’s still my favorite of all the guns I’ve ever owned. I have other guns I carry now days in the field, but they are just shotguns.
That model 12 is special. It turned 100 a few years ago but it’s still going strong. I don’t shoot skeet much anymore, but when I do , it gets a good workout and it even now, if I can see it it’ll hit it. You can’t ask for better. Other than the usual care and maintenance it is exactly as it left the factory, just minus all the bluing. The only time it’s ever seen a gun smith was because my older cousin took it apart, and told Memah if she’d give it to him he’d get it fixed. She gave it to me instead and it took a gunsmith friend less than 15 minutes to put everything back together, and he let me watch and learn.
By my reckoning that’s 114 years of reliability just in one pump gun. Outside of maybe a single barrel, I doubt you’ll find much better. I have a Mossberg 500 pump that answers the door after midnight with me even now. I did have a sweet 16 once upon a time and an 1100 also but I traded them off long ago. I’ll stick with my pumps, sometimes the latest and greatest just don’t measure up to what you already have. That’s why pumps will still be around when that mod. 12 has it’s 200th birthday and I’m a distant memory. I have friends that still swear by their granddaddy’s mod 1897 Winchester pump. Would you trade a 56 Chevy, even for a newer Datsun? Some things are Classic!
