Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Winchester Collectors Winchester Model 12 Restoration - 1957

Ladies and Gentlemen:

Over in the Savage Collectors forum, I showed photographs of a 1953 Savage 99 R that I restored.

I did not want to shirk my responsibility in the Winchester line.

Here's a 1957 Model 12 that I restored (modified a bit). It is now rust blued and has a boiled linseed oil finish. The shotgun has a 28 inch modified choke barrel. I did all the work myself.

This is without a doubt the most accurate shotgun that I've ever shot.






Sincerely,

Chris Bemis

Very nicely done.

Been thinking about having the same done to one of mine, but then I thought I would no longer want to hunt it in bad weather, or just stick it in the corner upon coming home if the day was fair. I wouldn't want to just lay it on the ground where ever it was convenient when resting or gutting a bird. It's field days may end and it would become a gun for clays only.

You do nice work and I appreciate your skills. Maybe I'll have it done, but I doubt it.

Well done...it looks like NIB condition.

I have a 1954 Model 12, 28" modified choke barrel that could probably use a redo, but the small nicks and thinning blue reminds me of the good times while carrying it. Maybe one of my kids will see things differently when it gets passed on.

Your statement about the good times you had with this gun is why I campaign so often to leave the gun in its original condition. When refinished they are beautiful but lack history. I knew a gun guy that had a nice pre 64 model 94 with the butt stock looking like it argued with a chainsaw. Asking why he didn't fix those ugly gouges, he informed me he never will. Seems he got them while shoving the butt of the gun down a mountain lions throat while trying to extricate himself from a sticky situation. That gun has character and history in spades. But I have too I have many guns that have not a scratch and enjoy them. But when my grandsons want to see grandpa's hunting guns, those have many scars from many adventures.

Dear stuvwxyz:

Actually, I agree with you in most cases.

I purchased this Model 12 a few years ago, so it has not built up the requisite bumps and scratches to lend it emotional character.

Nevertheless, the Winchester 1950's original varnish leaves a lot to be desired. Winchester's 1950's bluing on the other hand was well done.

What I found though is hunting with a rifle or shotgun that you have re-done is really cool. I still don't baby them.

Sincerely,

Chris Bemis

YALIE, I often have to suggest complete refurbish jobs to friend who bring me their guns for advise. These mainly have been subject to neglect not from a life well lived. Just last week I inspected a Mossberg 22 rifle that belonged to my friends grandfather. After standing behind the leaking barn door for over 20 years the gun suffered not from hard use but neglect. Two entirely different things. Only a complete makeover would make this gun serviceable again. And by the way you did a great job on your refinish project.

Good Hunting
STEVE

Agree. For one that was abused and could be brought back, a restoration would be nice.

You did a very nice job, the blue looks spot on and no over buffing, corners nice and sharp. Wood looks good also.
Here is a pic of my original 56 30" full choke, I can't seem to miss with it either. Really shows how close you got the bluing.

Great looking guns in this thread.

looks great , good job

"Chris Bemis" is a name in the gun world I associate with impeccable manners and ethics.

Glad to see him posting here.

Looks clean, nice job!!

Dear Augie:

They really are beautiful, aren't they?

That mid-1950's Model 12 stock design is absolutely perfect. I will use it as a template, when I restock my 1951 and 1979 A-5's and a 1973 Superposed.

Sincerely,

Chris Bemis

Dear Clarkm:

Thank you, but I do have my dark side, too.

There are a few factory stocks, barrels and one action that have met my wrath over the years (Scots' temper, I guess). Or it could be from wrenching on cars since I was 15. If you're not bleeding, swearing and throwing things, then you really aren't fully involved in an automobile.

But I have a five year old granddaughter to keep me in line:



Sincerely,

Chris Bemis

Chris, we share the same profession, I've been a mechanic for 40 years,kind of a love/hate relationship right now.
We also appreciate the same firearms, I have a love for vintage Winchesters and Belgium Browning A5's among many others.
I'm in MD,that Model 12 I posted was found in the used gun rack at Shyda's in Lebanon PA A few years back.

Dear Augie:

Actually, wrenching on cars is just for fun. The profession was law, but not anymore.

Man, I've bought and sold at Shyda's. I even remember when Sol ran it. Actually, I was there last week, looking for the unknown and rare .22 long rifle cartridge. No luck.

Send me a PM, if you wish, Augie, and we can talk some more.

Sincerely,

Chris Bemis

I couldn't agree more about the 1950s laquer leaving something to be desired. This is why so many pre 64s are "cleaned up" IMO.

Dear Horseman:

The cool thing about stripping and oil finishing those old Winchester stocks, is that Winchester used very structurally sound and dry wood to start with.

Although I've found the grain to be pretty much straight and a bit open, the boiled linseed oil finish brings out the color contrast like you can't believe. The factory lacquer appears to me to hide that contrast and color.

Here's an example from a 1948 Winchester 71 with a boiled linseed oil finish sanded to a 600 grit finish:





Sincerely,

Chris Bemis

That's beautiful Chris. I agree the factory finish can cloud good wood.

I just picked up a NIB 1949 SuperGrade a couple of weeks ago. The laquer finish is complete with dust nibs and sanding scratches evident below the finish. As much as I love old Winchesters I'm amazed how poorly the wood was finished. DUCO laquer was sprayed after a dunk in stain. Brownings of the same era were much better finished.

Dear Horseman:

What really took the cake, was a 1979 Browning A-5 that I will use for duck hunting.

It had the 1/2" thick polyurethane, severely cracked with age finish. It was a bitch to strip it.

Underneath the ugliest piece of walnut that I've seen. It appeared to be the transition point between the inside pith of the tree and the next outer layer. Of course, Browning had stained with red stain to hide the ugly transition.

Of course that puppy is on the re-stock list.

Next, we should discuss the interior machining on pre-64 Model 70's, but I'm sure I'll make an enemy or two here.

Shoot me a PM, if you wish.

Sincerely,

Chris Bemis

I have a 1953 12 guage and was wondering if you knew anyone on the west coast that could do the linseed oil treatment to my stock and forgrip ..maybe reblue the metal ..yours is beautiful would love for mine to be better than new like this .

Uncle Jack had a 20 gauge M12 from back in the 30's probably, but didn't hunt it much, so it was still in nice shape. It's mine now, but it too went through quite a transformation. First off that original thirty something full choke barrel was too long and over choked. It got cut and a Simons vent rib added. An over size safety was an improvement and the barrel thread needed to be tightened up. Re finished stock and hot blued. The reverse choke in the barrel didn't do anything and that was before the days of screw in chokes, so a vented Poly Choke went on it. I know, blasphemy like mud flaps on a Corvette, but the thing flat out works. I've thought about a nice O/U 3" 20 gauge for the uplands, but that M12 20 gauge points like an index finger, weighs near nothing and isn't getting replaced.

I realize this is an old thread. My input: I shot my first bird on the wing with my father's full choked M12 field gun mfg'd in '28. I spent much of my youth shotgunning with this shotgun and I have many happy memories afield with it. When steel shot was mandated for waterfowl, this shotgun rode the gun cabinet until I decided to have it converted to a trap gun, where I would once again shoot it. The field stock was replaced, a vent rib added and it was polished and re-blued. Every time I take it to the trap range, those memories come flooding back and I take great pleasure and pride in shooting it. Old trap shooters have looked at with nostalgia and relive their own memories of getting started with a Model 12. I also recently had my Krieghoff KX-5 trap gun's barrel re-blued when somehow the previous owner somehow damaged the bluing on the rib.

I just don't see how some feel that lovingly restoring an old shotgun somehow erases the memories one made with it. That certainly isn't the case with me. Rather than watch it further decay, restoring it to it's former glory is to me a sign of respect for it. People have many of their other possessions restored: furniture, cars, artwork, musical instruments etc. Why are guns somehow thought to somehow be diminished when restored? Many gun owners have a fit if their gun comes from the factory with a ding, dimple or minor mark, yet would seemingly prefer a used gun with dings, scratches, worn bluing and blemishes over one that's been restored to near new condition. I don't understand that.

Very nice '57 M12 restoration.

By coincidence I have a recently taken-off factory 29.75 inch barrel (F) from a '57, very good condition. If anybody needs one, PM me....