Home Forums Birds & Dogs Shotguns Help with old model 12.

I picked up this old model 12, 16 ga about 10 years ago. It was made in 1922 so it has the small chamber. It shot remington shells fine (had problems with others not ejecting because of longer crimps), so I bought around 50 boxes of 6's & 4's and figured I'd be fine for years to come. It brought home it's share of Pheasants and grouse for a number of years. Between the ammo scares, and my being a 16 gauge slut, that ammo was used up in other guns as well as it's intended purpose to feed the 12. In late summer I ran into a deal on a flat of Rem 16ga and bought 2, so I figured I was set again.
I took the gun jump shooting woodies, and couldn't hit a barn. It was something like 0-12. When I got back, I patterned it. The result at aprox. thirty yards was a perfect pattern about 20 inches to the left of the bulls eye. The only thing I can figure, is the wads in the shells changed and the"polychoke" ( Herters copy of one) is grabbing the wad and throwing the shot column to the left. Does this even make sense?
If anybody has any knowledge please share. My plan is to find a gunsmith to remove this monstrosity from the end of the barrel and open up the ejection port. I believe this gun was refinished in the 70's to early 80's, due to the recoil pad/ stock characteristics. I suspect that the vent rib was added then also but I am not sure.






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Could be. Try it with different ammo. Or if you reload, use the old-style fibre wads instead of a plastic shotcup.

Remington's seemed to be the only factory shells that would eject, some federals did but not all.I've never reloaded for the 16. I looked into it, many moons ago and decided that components were to scarce. Anybody have thin walls installed and the port opened on their model 12? Who smithed it? I'm just concerned about the vent rib matching up, and the thickness required. It would be beautiful if I could just run what ever the gun liked to pattern instead of being constrained on both sides of the barrel.

Winchester shells should eject.

Nice looking gun, good job on the added recoil pad. I have one similar, it has 2 S/Ns and the 2 9/16 chamber. I bought a case of 2 1/2 inch shells from RST, but the gun does not easily eject upon being fired, I have had it at a "Winchester" gunsmith for 6 months but as far as I know, he has not had a chance to look at it yet.

I had my older Win 12 16 gauge opened up not noticible at all and now functions with any brand of shells.

The early Win 12 16 gauge had a shorter ejection port I measured them side by side.

Heres some talk about it.
http://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/topics/8796719/Re_Model_12_16_ga#Post8796719

Opening up the ejection port is not a big deal. You might be able to get Redneck to do it for you. Ahlmans in Watertown Minnesota can do it. I am all for getting rid of the potato on the end of the barrel. Ahlmans probably install choke tubes too. I don't know if Redneck does them.

The gun shooting left may just be plastic in the potato. Make sure it's cleaned out well using a brush and carburetor cleaner.

Components to load with are more available than presses and dies for 16.

Reloading presses are readily available. Any MEC 600 can be converted to 2.5" 16ga. We have a local guy out here that picks up old MEC's and refurbishes them and sells them. I called him about a 16ga and he just took one of the 12 guages he had there and converted it to 16ga it came to $100. total as I already had the 2.5" conversion plate. I took a piece of hardwood and cut it to 2.5" and drilled two 16ga holes in it and use that to cut shells to 2.5", just stick the shells in and the quarter inch that sticks out slice off with a butcher knife. It doesn't take long to have � couple hundred shells ready to reload.

Reloading components and data are available from Ballistic Products they have 2.5" specific data with fiber and plastic wads.

I use my short chamberred 16's for everything from doves to coyotes. I have two drillings, a French sxs and a Marlin 90 with short chambers.

Thanks for your replies. I'm going to get a hold of Redneck next week. I also found the name Mike Orlens off the internet, has anybody had work done by him?

I had Mike open-up the chokes on two shotguns about 15 years ago and was very pleased with his prices, quality of work, and turn-around time.

send it to mike and have him do the work you need and have him install choke tubes while it is there. He uses a piloted tooling system for the install and you will have whatever degree of choke you want. I have the tooling for several 12 gauge systems but I send all my other gauge work to mike. he is quick and good.

RE polychoke: had one of those for a while. Anytime I accidently bumped that thing, point of impact would change .

Have the straightness of the barrel itself checked while you're at it. They can get bent. Maybe have the rib checked as well. Could be a bit off.

It's packed up, and will head to Mike tomorrow. I'll let you know how it turns out.