I located an older Winchester Model 12 in 20 ga with 26” cylinder bore ribbed barrel for sale for $250 otd. It’s been refinished and has an aftermarket recoil pad installed.

What’s the Forum’s opinion on whether that’s a good price for a shooter for my granddaughter?

granddaughter? 20 gage? old world wood and steel? 250 out the door?
What are you waiting for, some one to give you a gun for the granddaughter? go buy the gun and give it to her. If it has sufficient metal at 26 inches, you can put in a screw in choke. And it has a recoil pad, if its not a sorbathane pad, swap it out for a real soft touch. I love 20 gage, its a perfect size with the 2020 shell technology and people around me have gone to that gage for turkey with special hand loads.

no brainer

Well to me it's a toss up with the cylinder choked barrel, which basically means no choke at all.

To be a practical hunting gun, I would think that the barrel is going to need to have a thinwall screw in choke tube installed (or maybe not with it being a 26" bbl), so tack on a hundred or so for that to be done.

Now it begins to sound like less of a bargain when you can buy a Mossberg 500 for around $300.

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Conrad
SWCA #1830 SWHF #222

At that price, I will take a truck load. Most bird guns are over choked. It sounds perfect to me.

Is that an orig length 26" bbl w/a solid rib and a cyl choke?

If I was looking for a M12, and if the refinish was acceptable, that's a very good price.

With 7/8oz factory 20ga loads in a cyl choke 20, you can bust clay targets out to 30yrds w/ease and take birds as well.

Nice shotgun.

It really depends on how nice the refinish is IMO and if the mechanics are OK. M12's are not fool proof and they do wear out.
Run some dummy rounds through it to make sure they feed and eject OK. That can be a problem on well worn guns.
Older M12 20gauges are 2 1/2" chambered as well (pre 1926 IIRC).

Good price, cylinder makes good rabbit and bird gun in thick cover. Decent 12 & 16g going from $300-400 around here. 20g will bring $100 more. Like somebody said decent m12/ 20g no brainer. 28g is much more. Model 12 is best pump ever built. Just in last few years price has dropped on them. They aren’t rare but we discontinued when Win went under in 1963. Most of the Boomer generation grew up in milled gun times but probably weren’t old enough to by one new. But they were the ones that drove m12 prices up. Now the new generations buy 870s and Moss 500 which has dropped the price of m12s. By the Cowboy market has drove the price of Win 1897s up.

Agree with Max. Most guns are over choked and the average shooter would be better served with more open chokes.
Most new bird hunters come in two flavors; shooting at game too far or just taking the close shots. My experience is that females tend to fall into the latter category.
I would let her try it out see how she does with it. As her confidence and ability progress to longer shots send the barrel to Briley and have a set of thin wall tubes installed. One cyl, an IC and a LM would do quite well in 20 ga.
That is a great deal on a very good and classic pump gun.

Give me an address and I'll swing by and look at it for you!

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Good shooting.

I bet if the OP patterns that gun, it will shoot tighter than he might expect. Guns made during the era of paper hulls and fiber wads usually shoot tighter with modern plastic wad ammo.

I've a 12 gauge Model 12 with a factory cylinder choked barrel. It's a skeet bird killing machine.

I'd buy the OP's gun is a heart beat. A 20 gauge with factory cylinder choke and a solid rib for $250? Are you kidding? Sign me up. I'd probably be tempted at twice the money.

And Model 12's are a pain to work on. Personally I'd rather have a Mossberg 500 or 870 Express with screw in chokes for a hunting gun. Collecting is a different story, but the quality of the refinish makes a huge difference and the cylinder bore guns don't sell well in my area.

I bought my 20 ga model 12 in October, 1963, second hand. It's still my favorite shotgun. Soon it will be 57 years.

Have a blessed day,

Leon

You know I have seen many posts on S&W were guy has bought a gun that was junk NIB. If he is looking at one he is cheered on into buying it. I can’t believe that there are negative posts on M12 Winchester the classic pump that all others were judged by. Yea M12s will wear out but it would be long after a Moss 500 or Rem 870. Yea, you need more tools than a Bic pen to work on a M12, but they aren’t hard to work on. The cylinder choke is no great handicap for most hunting. When I run into a good deal such as this I would keep it just as is. When you start fooling around having barrel threaded for internal chokes then your good deal starts to fade and you could have bought something more to your liking to begin with. No longer a $250 gun , it’s now $400. So unless you intend to Turkey or Duck hunt you should be in good shape. I use a Brn A5 slug gun for 90% of shotgun hunting of rabbits and birds. I bet the cyl 20 will bail a slug very well.

The gun has a vent rib.

The open choke is a huge attraction: I’ve never felt handicapped by an open choke. I’ve no practical use for a gun with screw in chokes: those I’ve owned have all ended up wearing the most open choke available. The ‘option’ to change chokes is a marketing plus, but not a feature that’s worth money to me. I wouldn't’ retrofit a nice old gun with such devices.

I bought the gun, but our background check system, which usually takes 15 minutes, is taking a few days so I won’t have the gun for a day or two.

I’ve put aside a few guns for my granddaughter: a M1100 LT, and a nice Ithaca sxs, both in 20 ga and a Parker in 16 ga O frame with Damascus barrels and skeleton steel butt plate (for later). I’ll add this one to the array. The granddaughter is a great excuse to get another gun!

Thanks for the feedback!!!

Sounds like a great bird and skeet gun. I'd trade you a nice Featherweight 12 Ga in I/C bore for it.

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H Richard
SWCA1967 SWHF244

buy it - asap - before somebody else does

It would be sacrilage to try and put choke tubes in a mdl 12. For over 100 years we killed everything with fixed chokes. My 12 ga mdl 12 is cyl bore and it works fine. Do some research.

BTW it would take a trash barrel full mossbergs to equal 1 mdl 12.

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S&W Accumulator

Mossbergs have no soul.. Get the Winchester.
She will thank you for it!

My best day of hunting/shooting ever was about 35 years ago when I was in my early 20s and I was dove hunting with my JC Higgins 12 gauge pump with a cut down barrel and open choke. Killed 14 out of the first 16 dove I shot at with one shell each. Now, it would take me 3 or 4 boxes of shells to drop 14 doves.

You are right, Mossbergs and lots of new pumps have no soul. They are a mechanical device to detonate a shot shell. They have enough slop in them that they have to have two action bars to keep them from binding. No Class, NO SOUL, when you purchase you are scraping bottom of the bowl.

Shot hand thrown skeet with several 18" & 20" shotguns=didn't miss many. Many vets used 26" open chokes for longer range in the jungle. She'll just have to learn to be quick!

Price is great=I paid that for a 30", full choked 12 gauge Model 12=cut it to 20" and is my house shotgun, during these trying times!

That is a great find and 20 gauge on top of it ...
I love the model 12's...
They are my favorites for sure and hands above the modern Mossberg and Remington 870's
I would buy it for sure
God Bless,John
Pics please once you get it home

Sent from my SM-S727VL using Tapatalk

My 12 ga mdl 12 has 2 barrel sets. 1 is a 32" full solid rib. The other is a 27" plain bbl cyl. bore.........Made in 1918.....102 years old and STILL RUNS like it was new. My 20 ga mdl. 12 was made in 1957 and has a 28" plain Mod. bbl.. The 12 ga (nickel steel) barrels still have the best shiny
mirror finish inside.......Something you never see on today's shotguns.

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S&W Accumulator