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January 21, 2018
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Just picked up a 16 gauge Model 12 at a local consignment auction for $175.
SN is 678547, 28″ barrel, full choke. Barrel and receiver marked 2 3/4. Number near trigger guard is a 24.
Sometime in its former life it had a Williams receiver peep sight and an Uncle Mikes recoil pad added.
So far it has cleaned up ok. Wood is good, most blueing has gone to greying. I know it’s nothing special other than a shooter for the boxes of 2 3/4 16 gauge I can’t shoot in my 2 9/16 era 97.
The dating app on this site shows it a 1931 and the Winchester PDF that can be found shows it at 1934. Doesn’t matter to me on the date, was just looking for something that I knew could shoot 2 3/4.
If anyone is keeping track of this model, please feel free to add it to a survey.
November 7, 2015
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The polishing room date on this site is correct. That data came from the Cody Firearms Museum.
Reciever sight is curious, have you measured the choke?
Mike
January 21, 2018
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Have not measured the choke, just going by the barrel markings and no obvious indications it has been opened up.
The receiver peep site is a Williams (FP-12/37 maybe?) an looks like it has been there quite a while.
Also pretty sure the front sight is not original. It is a brass bead sight but looks taller. Certainly taller than the one on my 97.
Maybe changed out to make up for the higher receiver sight? The bead has a flat (painted white) that faces the shooter. It does make it jump out a bit.
Possibly one of the reasons I got it for what I did, besides being a 16, is that the barrel band had slipped out of position and was loose between the barrel notches and the receiver. Couldn’t rack the slide far enough forward to take it down. Barrel looked good through a bore light and who am I to tell competitive bidders it is a 2 minute fix with a screwdriver.
Only rust I found was in the take down barrel and slide threads. Not much and a brass brush and a few drops of Hoppes took care of that.
Not sure what the going rate is for a 87 year old 16 gauge working shotgun, but I don’t feel bad at 175 OTD and better yet, no paperwork. 
November 7, 2015
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I think you did well, congrats! My thinking was that the receiver sight was to facilitate using slugs and it’s my understanding slugs don’t work well with full chokes. I bought a takedown rifle at an auction a few years back, someone who didn’t know what they were doing tried to take it down shortly before bidding began and didn’t get it back together right. I had to repair the extractor and do some other minor repairs but I didn’t have much in the way of competitive bids.
Mike
