WINCHESTER MODEL 12 1946 12 GAUGE SHOTGUN,100% original, looks to be never shot before, blueing 99% condition - I think it's 30" full

plenty-hundred dollars

Sasha and Abby: Is it the 2 3/4" chamber or the 3" chambered heavy "Duck Gun"?
I'll see if I can help with an appraisal after that is clarified.
Cool guns these, I used to collect them but sold'em all turning the funds into pre-64 Model 70 Winchesters.
Good luck in your quest.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

Careful of a reblue and restocking job.

Unless you personally have knowledge of the guns history. I would be extremely skeptical......

1000 to 1150 at the most if legit to the end of the rainbow collector type with patience involved to sell it
As a gun to be used as a shooter.
900 to 1k max depending on how bad someone wants it.
If it was priced at 850ish. It should sell fast to a smart person.

LOTS of em out their in the 85 to 90%+ condition in the 500 to 750 range to include the heavy duck models.

JMO....

WOW... it's 2 3/4" I had no idea...

Very heavy gun all that I have handled, but well made. Would not want to use it for hunting all day.

just as soon a Model 31, but to each their own

How could I tell if it has been refinished? I know to look at the lettering ... how about the wood???

Post pics.

We'll tell ya.

Detailed examination of the wood.
Especially its finish.
How the comb line, heel and pistol or straight grip was done.
Factory replacement wood existed for model 12,s for decades from winchester.
Corn cob fore end should be heart wood
How the ribs on it were done
Bout a million 6 variations
Repo butt plates.

Matching serial number receiver and barrel assem.
In the same script and approximate depth
One of the big scams with #,s and markings now is electrolysis stenciling.
An outfit called "thors hammer" will make just about any marking you can send em a pic of.
But a good eye can tell the diff between thors etching and roll marking or strike marking specially with older firearms.
Etching of markings and numbers on modern guns is done routinely.

Unfortunatley model 12,s are one of the guns repaired, replaced,and redone. To be resold by scheisters/ snake oil salesmen.

And their were ALOT of em made and people like em.


Varmitguy said he collected em.
He could tell ya alot about em I bet.
What to look for good and bad.


Buncha pics on here of it would help ya.

More sets of eyeballs on it, the better for you if your planning on dropping the hammer on one.

thank you all... I will get some pics

The wood on the stock should be a little proud if original. A slight purple hue may be present in the bluing if reblued due to varying amounts of nickel content in metal of receiver.

I can’t attach pics. Can I email to someone?

This one has a checkered grip

Send em to me, pm with my e mail.

That's quite a find. I have one like it, but not nearly in that kind of shape. Nice, but not unfired by a long shot.

Posted for OP

Thanks Bill

Not a M12 expert, but either the fore end should also be checkered or the butt stock be plain/uncheckered. It’s not right.

You're quite welcome, a lot of guys on here have helped me out a lot.

I’m not a 12 expert but I’m not aware of checkered pistol grip unless they were diamond grade

I have not bought it yet

I’d pass on that gun.

Is it a deluxe model???

Buttstock looks like a new higher grade replacement. Receiver shows the typical takedown scratching on the left side caused by people who dont know how to do it. Corncob fore end appears original, as does the rest of the gun. I dont see any collector value here, and as a shooter it might bring 400-500 dollars. I bought several in that shape or a little worse for about $250 each, thinking they were a steal, and sold them all several years later for $275-300. Not a big market for 12 ga. 30" full choke 2 3/4" chambered model 12's . Sorry.

Lots of high edge wear on the bluing
Action bars
Mag tube
All have wear

Butt stock looks newer or replaced compared to heart wood corn cob fore arm
Finish on it looks correct versus the butt stock
Should have a shine with a grain texture.
JMO.
I think that buttstock has been replaced JMO.

Cant really tell blotching in the blue
But can see some different hueing when i hold on it and hit veiw pic.
Pic qual aint that good.

Aint no 99% unshot gun

Say 85 90 % overall, used, well cared for.


All just my JMO based on the pics which aint great.

Not having a set of real eyeballs on it is hard.

700ish dollar gun if all original.
550 max if stuff has been done to it

Thanks
Kind of what I thought but I know very little of these guns

That is a $300 gun with the Fubar'd un origional buttstock.

It the gun was 100 % origional amd complete, it would be about a $500 gun.

Yep, maybe a little more, but not much, on a mint original................not a lot of real collector demand for M-12's.

MM

Thanks so much to all. He wants $500 but I agree. Looks used and bubba’ed up

Let bubba keep it.

Best I can tell from the pic’s, it’s not actually original. Worth less than $300 IMO.

Agree that stock is not original and the market for those guns is pretty soft.

If I really wanted it, I'd get a good smith to check it out.

It would not be worth $500 to me even if it checked out OK..

DF

sub $400 gun... easily... mix master

Here's mine.

Nice.

It's always great to have a nice piece laying there on your bed.

In a post-apocalyptic setting.. priceless.

Model 12s are great guns and of a quality not found in modern pump guns. This one is definitely not a collectable but is a shooter. If the seller is trying to pass it off as original or "like new" or never shot, they are lying to you and I would pass just for that reason alone. The corn cob forend did not come with a checkered buttstock and the colors are not even close. What it's worth as a shooter, only you can decide. But you can find nicer ones for $500.

I know some would say I overpaid recently for a 1954 Model 12 converted from a field gun to a trap gun. It has a Simmon's rib, it's been nicely reblued and has a nicely figured and matching checkered Monte Carlo trap stock. I paid $600 for it. I have a soft spot for M12s as my Dad had one and I shot my first bird on the wing with it. I shot this one at trap before buying it and it shot exactly how I like my trap guns to shoot. It's meant to be a back-up gun and I'm shooting it now while my Krieghoff is off to Ottsville PA having the barrel re-blued. My scores haven't dropped off, so, for me, it was worth it and I have no intention of selling it.

Here’s a collectible model 12

Yup.

For sure.

Not too unlike the cattle business. When cattle prices are down, a good cow still brings a premium.

This gun is valuable regardless of the market for M-12’s.

DF

👍👍👍
All the guns you show us are primo condition.

Need pics of your polish wbp fox AKM again!!!

OK, since we appear to have some knowledgeable folks here today, did I do alright getting this one for $50?

And, should I turn in into a dedicated turkey gun with some modifications perhaps? DuraCoat paint? Plain ol' Krylon? Just rust brown the metal? Maybe have the barrel cut and threaded for tubes?

See how it shoots with various non-lead ammo before doing anything with the barrel? (Cali, you know)

Seems by the serial number it was born a year after I was, I was kinda hoping to get lucky and find one made the same year as I was.







Yep, it's been poorly taken care of, but not by me. Got it to help out a friend, who's wife's ex got toasted by the cops, she didn't want the gun hanging around. Apparently not so well taken care of before and after the incident, imagine that.

So, ideas anyone? Boat anchor? Worth a little of my time? Sell it in parts and pieces?

Geno

In my book 1 st thing on M12's is real simple. Open the action see the joint between the chamber ring extension and the end of the barrel. See and feel if the joint is TOTALLY smooth and can't feel it one little bit. If you can, hand it back and walk away. Too many people who have owned a M12 take it down to clean it and use an abrasive of some type to clean the barrel chamber leaving it slightly larger than the chamber extension ring, doesn't take much and every time you use high brass shell the hull expands out past the diameter of the chamber extension ring and sticks or at least makes for very sticky extraction. If a guy wants to polish a model 12 chamber it needs to be done from the muzzle slowly and carefully while the chamber ring extension and barrel chamber are together in 1 piece by a PRO. It's the only pump out there beside the 97 with this retarded system. MB

If that gun is mechanically sound (and it looks like it is), you did extremely well on the deal.

A previous owner/handler ( maybe the po-po? ) had taken it down and reassembled the mag tube or something as I recall. I had someone familiar with them, from a local trap club where I was living at the time, recommended as an expert in M 12s, check it and show me how to put it together correctly.

Seems to cycle like a champ now.

Geno

If it works like it's supposed to, that's a pretty cool old gun.

Well, I've got a nice, well used Wingmaster Magnum that's accounted for a turkey and a number of upland birds, but the bluing is still fairly nice and shiny. I figured this M 12 would be a good project in making a "dull" gun, seeing as how the finish is already ruined.

Besides, a functioning 12g for $50? Another barter item if the SHTF? Another item to help hold down the fort?

Geno

Why do anything to it? It sounds like you've got it functioning perfectly. If you've got it well cleaned and oiled and maybe taken all the rust off, leave it as-is and use it.

Nice looking field gun, but looks to have been redone, but still a great shooter as they were great pumpguns.
Here is mine, SN is 5 digits, so sometime around 1915, It too was rebuilt into a trap gun by Simmons sometime in the 60's.
It's a back-up to my regular Kolar trap gun. Shoots the same POA and I had the trigger adjusted to be the same as my Kolar.
The Remington Model 31TG below it, is all original. 1946 make, one of the smoothest actions ever found on a pump shotgun.
The Model 12 was bought for $750, the Model 31TG was $850

Beautiful.

Do you have pics of the end label on that M12 box?