MODEL 23 LIGHT DUCK|Winchester Shotguns|Forum|Winchester Collector

I don’t think any of the Model 23 guns were made without automatic selective ejectors.  The Model 23 is essentially a version of the Manufrance “Robust” model, made by Olin-Kodensha for Winchester. 

I once owned a Pigeon Grade Model 23 20 gauge with Winchokes and it was a fine upland gun for doves. However, I think the Light Duck version is far more elegant and closely resembles the Model 21 with its capped pistol grip and long semi-beavertail forearm.  

If your Light Duck is in as fine a condition cosmetically as it appears to be and is mechanically the same, I would for my own use either have the chokes polished out to something more open — perhaps IC and Improved Modified – or investigate having tubes installed. I am not a waterfowl hunter. 

However, the last time I looked on the Briley Website, the firm would no longer install tubes on side-by-side doubles. Briley’s last price for that work that I saw was five hundred dollars. Simmons used to do such work. I understand that it is an operation that, if done poorly, can alter where the gun shoots and not in a good way. 

Yes, I agree. I never did care for the “bag” grip of the 101 and 23 Pigeon Grades, even though i had a 101 PG 12 gauge as well as the 23. When I bought them, I had never seen the blue 23 guns. I can take the nitride finished receivers or leave them alone but my preference is for plain blue. The problem with the bag grips is their radii were too tight, unlike the semi-pistol round knob grips of the Browning Superposed. 

But the capped grip you see on the Model 21 is just right and that’s what your 23 has as well. 

I had always wanted a Model 21 Skeet Gun with a straight grip but when I finally got a 21, it was a Skeet Gun with a fairly open, uncapped pistol grip. It is a 1947 vintage gun but with the earlier 26″ barrels, pretty whippy and no tendency to follow through. The pistol grip gives me enough extra control to pull the gun through the target.