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January 8, 2025
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Just picked her up. Think I got a deal. She has some dents and dings. Probably seen a lot of birds. But she was well taken care of.
January 20, 2023
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Outstanding, Adam! I’ve always thought the plain-barreled 16 gauge Model 12 was the real “Queen of the South.” A Parker was nice but the most highly skilled outdoorsman in our family, my uncle, favored Winchester pump guns and split bamboo fly rods. He was my childhood advisor in all such matters.
The Model 12 with a rib is handsome but the 16 wants to be light to carry all day. Heavy shotguns are suited for a waterfowl blind to moderate recoil, where you can sit down and rest it. Tramping miles behind a far-ranging ponter or standing and squatting repeatedly in a hot dove field call for a lighter gun.
I’ve seen your woodwork and so not worried about the dings. How is it choked?
- Bill
WACA # 65205; life member, NRA; member, TGCA; member, TSRA; amateur preservationist
"I have seen wicked men and fools, a great many of both, and I believe they both get paid in the end, but the fools first." -- David Balfour, narrator and protagonist of the novel, Kidnapped, by Robert Louis Stevenson.
January 8, 2025
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Full choke. Haven’t shot it yet. Just gave it a good cleaning. Bore had a cobweb but other than that it’s pristine. Through MEC I was able to get parts to convert a 650 20 gauge to 16 for a lot less than you can buy one. This will be my trap gun this summer and I plan to plant some sunflowers for an active dove season
January 20, 2023
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Well, you should get plenty of action. Sunflower seeds are crack cocaine for mourning doves. My problem used to be finding them in the 4-foot tall Sunflower patches without a dog.
My pal TxGunNut will tell you to have the choke polished out to MOD. I say save your pocket change until you can UPS the barrel down to Houston and let old Jess put in some internal threads for his Briley tubes. The single barrel fee isn’t murderous and — I promise you – actually increases resale value should you ever send the gun downstream. I’ve seen a high condition Skeet grade Model 42 with Briley tubes at auction and it looked a pool full of Piranah fish fighting over a live chicken.
If you have an Auto-Five with an Invector or Invector Plus barrel and buy Browning packaged tubes for it, they’re made by Briley and so marked.
- Bill
WACA # 65205; life member, NRA; member, TGCA; member, TSRA; amateur preservationist
"I have seen wicked men and fools, a great many of both, and I believe they both get paid in the end, but the fools first." -- David Balfour, narrator and protagonist of the novel, Kidnapped, by Robert Louis Stevenson.
January 8, 2025
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Zebulon said
Well, you should get plenty of action. Sunflower seeds are crack cocaine for mourning doves. My problem used to be finding them in the 4-foot tall Sunflower patches without a dog.
My pal TxGunNut will tell you to have the choke polished out to MOD. I say save your pocket change until you can UPS the barrel down to Houston and let old Jess put in some internal threads for his Briley tubes. The single barrel fee isn’t murderous and — I promise you – actually increases resale value should you ever send the gun downstream. I’ve seen a high condition Skeet grade Model 42 with Briley tubes at auction and it looked a pool full of Piranah fish fighting over a live chicken.
If you have an Auto-Five with an Invector or Invector Plus barrel and buy Browning packaged tubes for it, they’re made by Briley and so marked.
My Auto 5 is old enough it doesn’t have removable chokes. That’s something I’ll think about. Maybe have both done. I’ll say the model 11 is smoother than my 97. But that could just be my sample of 1 each.
January 20, 2023
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You may be able to find a good Miroku-built Invector barrel for your A-5 on eBay. I don’t know what the market price is these days.
- Bill
WACA # 65205; life member, NRA; member, TGCA; member, TSRA; amateur preservationist
"I have seen wicked men and fools, a great many of both, and I believe they both get paid in the end, but the fools first." -- David Balfour, narrator and protagonist of the novel, Kidnapped, by Robert Louis Stevenson.
August 14, 2021
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Nice. I just “stole” a nice one in 12ga for $300. How do you like the flat bottom, is the mfg date 47 to 56 there about?
January 8, 2025
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Steven Gabrielli said
Nice. I just “stole” a nice one in 12ga for $300. How do you like the flat bottom, is the mfg date 47 to 56 there about?
It’s a ‘47.
January 20, 2023
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I didn’t think Italians liked flat bottoms — but I digress. You got an Auto 5 barrel for three hundred? Invector?
- Bill
WACA # 65205; life member, NRA; member, TGCA; member, TSRA; amateur preservationist
"I have seen wicked men and fools, a great many of both, and I believe they both get paid in the end, but the fools first." -- David Balfour, narrator and protagonist of the novel, Kidnapped, by Robert Louis Stevenson.
August 14, 2021
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No sorry my friend. I got a Winchester model 12 full choke 36 inch barrel. I think it was.
January 20, 2023
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If prices are what I think they are for such things, you didn’t commit larceny but close. That’s great to read.
I just finally got my genuine, made in New Haven, 1958 Standard Grade Model 12, twelve gauge, 28″ mod choke, in 99.999% condition. Uncut for a pad, my solution is AA Low recoil 7/8 ounce 990 fs — and a Browning vest with a pad pocket.
I swear I don’t think this shotgun had ever been fired before I shot a round of Skeet with it yesterday. Mike got it from Cabela’s consignment rack some years ago but never shot it. He’s already got a Diamond Grade I’d maim for. He put this one up for sale at our TGCA show in April. I went up there and deliberately left my checkbook home to avoid temptation….but Mike extended credit enough for me to carry it home. Dang!
This is the one I wanted in 1966 and Oshman’s only could offer me an egregious Model 1200 instead, which I refused..I later learned they are pretty good shotguns but the one I saw had burned-in checkering and aluminum didn’t have the heat treatments and alloys available now. (My Browning Double Auto Twelvette is a favorite.) I left the store with an 870 on the advice of the counterman.
So I finally got my real Model 12. I say real because for years I’ve been shooting a 1986 Browning/Miroku Model 12 twenty gauge, an excellent reproduction of Winchester’s Deluxe or Skeet Grade. And I’ll continue with both.
Perhaps some things are better after Decades of deprivation.
- Bill
WACA # 65205; life member, NRA; member, TGCA; member, TSRA; amateur preservationist
"I have seen wicked men and fools, a great many of both, and I believe they both get paid in the end, but the fools first." -- David Balfour, narrator and protagonist of the novel, Kidnapped, by Robert Louis Stevenson.
August 14, 2021
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You’re a true connoisseur of the scatter gun.
I typo’d it mines a 30’’, 1963 last year.
January 20, 2023
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I am beginning to think a longer barrel might help. I have the bad habit of stopping my swing to shoot crossing birds. Ive seen Skeet competitors tape lead weights to their barrels.
- Bill
WACA # 65205; life member, NRA; member, TGCA; member, TSRA; amateur preservationist
"I have seen wicked men and fools, a great many of both, and I believe they both get paid in the end, but the fools first." -- David Balfour, narrator and protagonist of the novel, Kidnapped, by Robert Louis Stevenson.
September 19, 2014
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Zeb, You also have the option of putting lead in the magazine ahead of the follower. If a 12 ga, fill a couple of 20’s with shot and hot melt glue them shut as well. Moves the balance forward, tho. Or learn to NOT stop your swing! a buddy with a cattle prod can do wonders!! Mike would gladly assist I bet. Tim
January 20, 2023
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Mike would probably not enjoy being reflexively buttstroked with his former Modek l2.
But I like the idea of replacing the wooden plug with an equivalent length of lead shot-containing cylinders– such as empty 20 gauge shells. Shifting the balance forward is for the good because you want the weight out front where it has a longer arm to multiply the momentum force.
That is something I really noticed about my stubby-barreled Model 21. The 26″ barrels plus no receiver length worth mentioning generate no sort of pull when you stop. It is fast to put into motion but there’s zero tendency to keep going.
In truth, my Browning Gold, a gas gun, has more forward weight than this 28″ Model 12, or so it seems. The Gold has a rib and the gas plumbing. What it lacks is soul.
- Bill
WACA # 65205; life member, NRA; member, TGCA; member, TSRA; amateur preservationist
"I have seen wicked men and fools, a great many of both, and I believe they both get paid in the end, but the fools first." -- David Balfour, narrator and protagonist of the novel, Kidnapped, by Robert Louis Stevenson.
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