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Lighten it up with composite stocks.






DMc : )

Just picked up a 1959 Winchester 12 16 gauge in 99% condition this morning at LGS. Beautiful wood and possibly never fired after factory. The pre 64 M12's are possibly the best deal in the whole gun world right now. Glad nobody likes them anymore.....

It is very easy to change the fit on a pump gun with a stock bolt.

Buy one of the shotgun laser boresighters, less than 20 bucks on the Internet.

Install it and mount your gun repeatedly with your eyes closed. Then mount and open your eyes. If the bead and laser dot are one you are good to go.

Likely they are not...

Loosen the stock bolt and insert a small piece of credit card stock between the stock and receiver. If the bead is left of the laser dot the shim should go in the left side. If the bead is too low the shim should go on top. You can stack two shims but I try to avoid going higher than that on the first go around.

Take the gun out and shoot it a bit with clayigeons or a patterning board or butcher paper/cardboard to verify what you did with the light.

When satisfied, carefully disassemble making note of shim location(s). Wax the receiver and stock bolt, plug holes in the receiver with clay and make a small donut around the stock bolt hole and install the shims with epoxy.

Cure, then remove the clay before shooting.

Weatherby sa-08 in 20 ga.

My favorite upland shotguns are the later Winchester Model 12s in 16 gauge. The frames are the same as the 20 gauge guns.they handle great, weigh around 6.5 pounds and have the range of a 12 gauge. The guns with modified chokes usually are closer to light mod in reality. The post war transition, flat forend and large fore end guns have better stock dimensions than the pre-war "nickel steel" guns. The market is soft for them right now. If you don't shoot steel, they are as good ad it gets for the price in my opinion.

Just saw you found one. Sorry for the unneeded comment.

I introduced the cast off on my 870 by using successive narrower strips of painter's mashing tape inserted between the stock and the action building to the thick side on the edge. It only took a few strips to get to where I needed to be. Once there, I trimmed the exposed excess with a razor blade. Sounds delicate, but it has lasted about thirty years. Did the same with a Benelli Montefeltro before they came out with changeable inserts to do the same thing. My Superposed 20, the Benelli 20, and the 870 12 now all have a very similar drop and cast. I can go from one to the other without missing a beat.

Best wishes,

Jack

Used shotguns in decent shape are easy to find, should be similar in Canada. Just back from a MI uplands hunt. The younger Son likes vintage guns. We brought two older pump 16 Gage's, a Model 12 & 37. They worked most excellent with the 4 grouse we bagged.

If you don't mind lining up ammo ahead of time, don't overlook the 16 ga, plenty of used ones around.