favorite shotgun from before this decade

[mach1.3]

I have several from the early and late days.
1. My old Winchester M59 12ga. with WinLite bbl. My first 12 and easy to tote and light recoiling. Great dove, quail, pheasant, squirrel or rabbit gun.
2. My Dad's A5 12 ga.
3. My 1986 Browning Citori Lightning OU 12ga.

[Zebulon]

Though I no longer have it....and it breaks my heart to say it. The Remington 18" Rifle Sighted 11-87 Police.....I'd love to have a pair of them now.................. Zebulon

[Willie Lowman]

Browning Superposed

[spacecoast]

My 12-gauge Remington 870 Wingmaster from 1970, barrel shortened to 18.5". Note the extra "safety" that I've installed.

[Tommy Vercetti]

I've had a Winchester 1300 for quite some time now, it has a 22 inch barrel and only holds 4 in the magazine but I'm still a huge fan of it, my youngest son said he wants it when he's grown up

[SmokeyVol]

Winchester Model 12 is by far my favorite all time

[Mikey Idaho]

My grandfather's Browning Auto 5 from the mid 1930s that I've acquired. Does need some TLC though

Sent from my Verizon Galaxy S III using Tapatalk 2

[BigD_in_FL]

Just realized that MOST of my guns, let alone shotguns, are from before this decade.damn, this getting old sucks, I remember when I bought my target gun in 94.....( don't ask me what I had for dinner two days ago though), and now I realize some of my guns I bought go back to the late 70s.....:

[mach1.3]

The prettiest guns I own are a Beretta A390ST DU from 1991 in NIB condition
and a 1985 Remington 700 BDL in .22-250 in LNIB condition. The wood on either is spectacular. I also have a 2001 Browning Gold Hunter with great looking wood. All these guns from over a decade ago. Good walnut was a given twenty years ago, today it's a premium priced add-on. A new 2012 Browning Cynergy has good walnut but would have been considered less than Grade 1 in the 80s or 90s.

All my favorite shotguns or rifles are from the 1950-1990s.

[Sphawley]

Winchester 1200 was my fathers, still a great gun and so reliable...

[mach1.3]

Pardon me if I reminisce but my Dad and Granddad were always big Browning A5 shotgun guys. At one time we had 6 of them at the house in the gun cabinet---most midwesterns didn't have safes back then. Of course, in our small town we left our houses unlocked and our cars too for that matter most of the time.

Anyway I digress, we had a magnum A5 twelve, a couple three light twelves in various bbl lengths and chokes, a sweet sixteen(wish I had now) and a twenty gauge in perfect condition(was bought for my Mom and she never shot it). Ah, those were the days when every weekend during bird season we were out and about, after quail and pheasant. We always had a bird dog or two pinned up in the backyard--generally Brittney spaniels. Good bird dogs with soft mouths but their hind quarters collected burrs like crazy. Would have to shave them to get them off.

Ahhh, good times indeed. These are the memories I have when I look at my Dad's old Light Twelve A5 Browning.

[Scorch]

damn, this getting old sucks,

Yeah, but considering the alternative, it's a pretty good gig.

[WV_gunner]

I like my Marlin Goosegun. It's not practical for much but it's a fun gun. Being bolt action and having a 3 foot barrel makes it very long. It's 2+1 with a detachable magazine.

[SR420]

My favorite is also my one and only shotgun that I purchased in 1993

HK Benelli M1 Super 90 Combat

[chesterfield]

So hard to choose. I guess it comes down to three: a Remington 11 in 12ga, a Remington 11-48 in 16ga, and a Remington 870 in 12ga. Love my Remingtons.

[oldgael]

circa 1930 Ithaca 20 ga. double and 1948 Win. mod. 12 skeet 20 ga.

[bamaranger]

I'm gonna mention two.

One is a Savage pump marked "Model of 1921" that belonged to one of my Grandad's. A 28" full choke, solid ribbed 12 ga. I killed my first gobbler with it. Appearance wise it resembles a MOdel 12 Win, but they are not similar otherwise. It was my hunting shotgun up until age 21. Then it broke, and Taylor's Trading Post scared up some parts to patch it up, with a stern warning about the difficulty in finding same. I decided then an there to retire tho old gal.

I bought a Rem Wingmaster Mag in spring of 1980 and have hunted it ever since. It wears a different barrel than it left the factoy with, in fact, I have 3 barrels for it, 26" full, 26" IC and a 20" threaded slug barrel. Remington screw in chokes were not on the market when I bought this pump.

The slug barrel gets a turkey super full choke tube screwed in every spring, and with its rifle sights and a load of 3" W-W #5 shot is a very dandy turkey gun.

[eastbank]

remington 1900 doublebarrel in 12ga(steelbarrels) and three fox sterlingworths,two 12ga and one 16ga. eastbank.

[edm1]

I’m bringing this back from the dead…. I have my Grandfathers 1100. Those just fit me like a third arm. My dads nitro special 16 gauge got me on a 16 gauge kick, which purchased me a model 11 in 16 which also fits me perfectly.

[JasoninSD]

I can't believe I missed this thread a decade ago.

Anyway, my favorite shotgun is a 1910 vintage LC Smith in 16 gauge. It is like a death ray for pheasants.

[cdoc42]

Wow! What a tough question. Your favorite can be functional -assuming it is a factory purchase, one which happened to be the right fit and hit most often, what you shot at.
Or, it is one that you had specifically fitted, that turned out to be what you expected and it hit most of what you shot at.

It can be a favorite of your Dad's or a close relative that had an impact on your life, that fits and hit most of what you shot at.

It can be none of the above, but the bottom line is it hit most of what you shot at.

Given all those situations,

My Model 12, 16 GA pump is a favorite. My second shotgun because the first was a Sears Bolt action that malfunctioned and was replaced by the model 12 that hit most of what I shot at.

My AYA Spanish 20GA double that I happened to meet at Sears in 1971 for $50 that took the first 13 rabbits and pheasants I shot at. (When I saw it was an AYA I went back and they were all gone - or pulled).

My Ruger Red Label 12 GA O/U that does as well as those shooting Sporting Clays or Trap compared to any model with a multiplier of the cost.

My Win Model 12 is 12GA pump that has a 30" barrel as thick as a Cocoa Cola Bottle that belonged to an old hawk hunter when that was legal in PA with which I harvested a single Snow Goose traveling alone at 60 yards in the Eastern Shore 40 years ago.

My Savage Fox Model B double in 12 GA that my aunt sold to me for ten bucks when my uncle died took more rabbits than I remember when I was just starting to seriously hunt small game with my Beagle back in 1968.

So, it's not just about the shotgun. But the background that supports your desire to do what it is expected to do.

The "bads?" A 12-GA Weatherby Athena- an absolutely magnificent looking O/U that I couldn't hit my car with it; a 12_GA double S/S - fabulous looking, wooden stock right down to the butt plate. Made in Spain- cost me $1200 - light-weight - but I can't hit anything with it because it doesn't fit.

I hunted with my wife's brother-in-law who would typically buy his license the same morning we were to hunt in PA's first day of small game after we filled up with more beer the night before than I can possibly handle these days. He used an old break-open single shot 12 GA of an unknown manufacturer successfully until he ran out of shells and I gave him some Russian-made shotshells that paused his confidence when he found himself surrounded by the cloud smoke created by the black powder used to make these devils (known to me, of course). He missed the next several shots as a result. No fault of the shotgun.

So it all depends on many factors, many of which are beyond our control on a comparative basis. But most important seems to be similar to what OJ's attorneys said at his trial, "If it fits......"

[jrothWA]

Wear to start!!!!
Parker VH from Dad, Granddad's Rem1894, Uncle Al's DT Model 90 ,
My Win97 bought in1973, followed by the Red Label 20ga.[skt 1 / Skt2']

Newest onr is a Mossberg .410 security for the house. As I and the wife are getting used to it. [PS. I need a .401 filed barrel for woodcock / Grouse.]

[stuckinthe60s]

winchester model 50.

[4V50 Gary]

Rem 870. It's what I trained with but I also like the Itahca 37.

[LOLBELL]

Ithaca Model 37. 16 gauge