Winchester Model 12, 12-gauge; Can you tell me about this gun?

Pics or it never happened....

If you clean it, don't ruin or change anything of the finish.

I would shoot it from time to time and keep it on the shelf the rest.....

You really need to search out the serial number, date of manufacturer, etc

Then try here http://homesteadfirearms.com/appraisals/12winShotgun/default.htm

and on gunbroker

They are worth between 300 and 3000 depending on model

rayikeo2 said:

What did your Dad tell you? He surely filled you in on some details!
The Model 12 Winchester was and still is one of the best, most reliable and most saught after shotguns ever produced by Winchester. Yours looks to be in excellant condition and worth a premium price. Those guns were used for Duck hunting and Trap shooting. Don't sell it if you have kids to pass it on to as it will only gain in value. You can shoot it but don't abuse it or scratch the wood. Nice gift from your Dad, keep it as long as he is alive. He would be very disapointed if you sell the heirloom.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the feedback...

I still need to get more detailed info from my Dad on the gun.
What I do know is:
1. He bought about 65 years ago (I need to try to get a precise date)
2. He bought it at the "Country Merchant" on Telephone Rd which is either in Pearland, Tx or near the border-line in southern part of Houston.
3. He told me he paid $99 for it. It was before the days of Sales Tax. He said he remembers handing the clerk a one hundred dollar bill and got $1 in change.
4. He bought it to go Duck hunting.
5. He told me of a few times that he went Duck and Goose hunting with a buddy on the east side of Galveston bay and in the shallow lakes south of Baytown and in the Anahuac area of Texas. (I need to get a more precise number of times he went hunting with this gun. However, I got the impression it was only a handful of times.)

I never remember my Dad going hunting as I was growing up. One day I asked him about his hunting experience.
After I was a young adult, he told me a story of going Duck hunting with a buddy. He left on Friday after getting home from a full work-week. He left my mom to tend to 4 young kids (I was the youngest) all weekend, then came home late on Sunday evening from hunting with a dozen or more dead Ducks that all needed to be plucked and cleaned. You can only imagine the reception he got from my Mom. Well, as the story goes, he never made that mistake again. And, he never went Duck hunting again. The good news part of this story is that they are still married after 69+ years and it will be 70 years in Oct'2012. (They are both eighty-eight.)

Happy New Year

FYI...
After doing a little more research, I found this web site that has a cross reference of Winchester Model 12 Serial Numbers to Year of Manufacture.

I have not been able to confirm the accuracy of this cross-reference table, so, use with care.

McHenry Sportsmen's Club - Winchester Model 12 serial numbers

Oh.... And, I just found another web site to cross-reference Winchester Serial Numbers to Manufacture date.
Winchester Dates of Manufacture

These two web sites point to the same year (1957) for my Model 12.

Note: The Winchester Shotguns that are commonly called "Model 12" are officially "Model 1912" (the year this model was first manufactured).

P.S. I'll need to question my Dad again about his memory of when he purchased the shotgun he just gave to me.
He told me he bought it 65 years ago, which would be 1946. Meaning the gun had to be manufactured 1946 or earlier. However, the Serial Number cross-reference points to a manufacture date of 1957. I'm thinking his eighty-eight year old memory is a bit fuzzy.