Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Winchester Collectors Anybody else got a Model 20?

I've had this cute little .410 single for years. Anybody else got one?

A friend has one that I borrow to teach the grandsons. What a neat little 410. All milled steel including the trigger guard. Back when Winchester was king.

We have one. My son broke his first skeet target with it, H7, two weeks before turning seven. Made him break every single skeet presentation with it before springing for a 391Y model. That was the deal.

He went on to take NSCA state SubJrCH and JrCH successive years.

Sometimes use the M-20 to kill red squirrels.

A M-20 puts a M-37 to shame.

Mine belonged to my great grandfather and was my dad's and then my first gun.Killed my first duck,dove,and quail with it.It'll get passed on to my grandson.

I got mine back in the 1970s from a guy in Rockford IL who needed a new clutch. It was in just the condition that I like--just worn enough to use but not too worn to look good. The stock had a few minor dents and that's all--varnish intact (still pretty much is), and the nice fluting on the comb and curves on the forend are still intact and not dinged much. It is an elegant little gun which probably cost a significant--in those days--few bucks more than the competition. Has a high four-digit serial that makes it an early one certainly made with a 2 1/2" chamber.

There's some question whether the Model 20 was made in 3" at all. I've never seen one marked for the "new" length and the model was discontinued before the 3" was officially offered by Winchester in the Model 42. But there may be some out there, and there are almost certainly some 2 1/2" chambered originals that have been "magnumized" by gunsmiths.

You CAN shoot 3" shells in many original Model 20s: they will chamber. But SHOULD you?

I don't know the answer to that but many of the 20s I've run across over the years have been "off face"--you could see daylight between the standing breach and the back of the chamber when the gun was closed and locked. I SUSPECT that was caused by the extra pressure generated by shooting shells that 1/2" are too long for the original chamber. Anybody know? I don't do it because 2 1/2" shells suffice for my .410 needs: shooting small game like squirrels, cottontails and jack rabbtis at close range and rats and snakes when they try to come live with us.

The Winchester Model 37 is a clunk, allegedly made partly on auto manufacturing machinery Winchester got a deal on back in the Depression. But it's a very reliable, strong clunk and certainly not challenged by the mighty 3" .410 magNUMB! The 37 .410 was built on the same frame as all the other 37s, so it is "heavy-for-guage" as the Brits say. But it's the .410 I take out into the malpais and don't worry that I'm gonna fall down and break it. The Model 20 is a little bit too dainty for that, IMO, and the 37 has a better stock shape for wingshooting, for me at least.

Years back Sherman Bell published an article in DGJ partially debunking the notion that 2.75" shells cannot safely be fired in any 2.5" chamber. The article upset Karen.

But many who shoot pre SN 500k Model 12s knew better, and were never fretting 2.75" 20 and 16 ga shells in nominally 2.5" and 2 9/16" M-12s. With 16s there is an ejection port issue, but that's another matter.

Some who bothered to measure noted that Model 12s have both a) abundant wall thickness in the forcing cone area and b) non-abrupt forcing cones that do not create additional constriction resulting in a bore obstruction.

Really, if there was a take-home from the Bell article it was to look at firearms as individuals. A very sharply cut, abrupt forcing cone in a very old gun with not much wall thickness is a different beast than a 20 or 16 ga Model 12.

You already know your Model 20 has abundant good steel in the forcing cone area. But I will not use 3" shells in mine. Half inch is not quarter inch, and the smaller bore/chamber diameters don't help things, in my view.

If I recall correctly (and that is getting harder and harder for my 80-year brain to do...) .410 chamber pressures are already higher than larger guages. Any truth in this?

2.5" .410 maximum average pressure (SAAMI) is 12.5k PSI. For the 3" .410 it's 13.5k PSI.

28 ga 12.5k PSI. 20 ga 12k PSI. 16 and 12 ga 11.5k PSI.

What I thought. Probably irrelevant in well-constructed guns.but I still wouldn't shoot 3" in a 2 1/2" chambered gun. Most of them are pretty old and worn.... Seniors deserve a little respect!