Antique shotgun — young hunter. As Travis Kort and I slipped into my duck blind, we uncased his gun. It was a Model 12 Winchester pump-in 12 gauge. A big gun for a beginner.
Travis is 14 years old. He had never hunted anything until this duck hunt. He lives with his grandparents, Michael and Jodi DeVries, who are members of my cowboy church at Canyon Lake. I had taken Travis fishing several times but he was eager to try hunting.
As we waited for legal shooting time to arrive, I looked at the classic Winchester. The gun had been passed down to him from a great-grandfather. Looking at the old gun brought back deep memories. My dad shot a Model 12 all his life. When we hunted squirrels in the big thicket, he always had the Winchester under his arm. Winchester introduced the Model 12 pump (technically called a slide-action gun) in 1912. It set the standard for pump action shotguns until discontinued by Winchester in 1964. Nearly two million of this classic shotgun were produced during those 51 years. I think it’s the best pump-action shotgun ever produced. The Remington 870 Wing master, which was introduced later, runs a very close second — 870’s are still being made.
