Didn't know they were making them in Turkey. I guess I shouldn't be surprised to learn that though. My only concern with the fact that it's made in Turkey would be factory parts and repair support for the next 30 years or so on the off chance something broke (and if I were younger, I'd be worried about more decades than just three). It gets really tiresome not being able to get parts you need to fix something. I hate to see any product appear, disappear, then reappear from a different manufacturer (in the case of the 1300, as an FN product), disappear again, then reappear again back under its original name but from a different source. All those gyrations don't give me a great deal of confidence for parts or factory repair support.
Sorry, but that's one of the reasons I prefer 870s. With over ten million of them out there, and with the line still in production, finding another 870, whatever parts/accessories I need and someone to do repairs/alterations I can't manage on my own is not likely to ever be a problem in my lifetime.
lpl
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The 1300 was made in the New Haven, Conn., Winchester plant until it closed in January 2006. At the time, Winchester management agreed with the union not to make the 1300 for three years. Winchester re-engineered the gun, renamed it, and found a Turkish vendor to produce it. Those guns are coming into the country now in 3-inch, 12-gauge, both as an 18-inch, cylinder-bored Defender model and a field gun with a 26- or 28-inch barrel. My test gun was a field model with a 28-inch barrel.
The SXP is not a Turkish-designed gun with an American brand. It’s a gun made to Winchester’s specifications in Turkey. The new gun combines the lines of the popular Super X3 semi-auto, the old fast-pumping action, and several significant improvements over the old model. Says Glenn Hatt, Winchester product manager: “This gun will function better than any 1300 ever made.” --
http://www.americanhunter.org/articl...-super-x-pump/