Beware of Old Farts with Model 12s....

Beware of Old Farts with Model 12s....

Its always wise to beware of the old farts who walk out on skeet field with a model 12 Winchester in their hands... Chances are they might be able to shoot it.... My father decided that they day had come for him to "smoke me" on the skeet field with a pump... He did just that with a plain barrel model 12, 12 gauge... To add insult to injury, the model 12 in question is mine....:eek: And he shot a straight with it... I need more practice to avenge this travesty!!! The NSSA-NSCA shooter of old is coming out and I can see that I will be challenged every week... I am glad the AA beast of old is coming back!!

P.S.
My mother thrashing him every week about getting smoked, might have added a little more motivation than usual...
 

BigJimP

New member
Not to pick sides here ....but " Thumbs Up " to your dad ...." Old Age and Treachery " ...will win in the long run...!

It isn't that I mind that the day is coming (maybe very soon) when one of my boys, or the grandkids, whips my butt out there on the clays fields...but darn-it, they're going to have to earn it !! ....but then I get beat by "old guys" most every week anyway ...( but some of those 70 + yr olds seem to be using the - count the best 25 out of 30 ...)...just saying, they might be forgetting a miss now and then.../ but what the heck ...
 

Spats McGee

Administrator
There are plenty of stories about old coots with beater guns outshooting some young'un who carries something fancy. There's a reason for that. When you've been shooting that beater for 40 years, . . .

Congratulations to your dad! Now be sure to challenge him to a rematch. :D
 

SPEMack618

New member
In that same vain.......

Two dove seasons ago, one of my fraternity brother's invited me to the dove shoot his grandfather puts on at the start of every season. This is what you might call a social occasion of the first order.

Rightfully fearing that Bryce and I might pee in the potted plantes, we were banished to the back most corner of the field, with Bryce's grandpa's elderly field hand. This gentleman must have been pushing sixty and waas armed with a much older single shot break action H&R 12 ga. Throughtout the day, I don't think he missed a single a bird.

Beware of the man who has one gun....he probably knows how to use it.
 

Old Grump

Member in memoriam
I'm 69 and have an Ithaca 37 in 20 gauge with a polychoke. Do I qualify?
Almost and if you do then I do with my Win 1200 and IM choke except for one thing. I can't see them little clay disks till after somebody smokes them. Now if they would make them clay birds double size and half speed and kept them no further out then about 12 yards I think I could play too. Maybe hang them from a string and move them out slowly. :D
 

PawPaw

New member
There are a couple of poly-chokes in my locker. My favorite is a Model 12, 20 gauge, made in 1949. It's nearly a perfect replica of the gun my grandad shot everything with. Doves, ducks, geese, squirrels, you name it. If it needed to be shot, the old man shot it with the Model 12.
 

shortwave

New member
300 Mag,

Thank You for the post.
It brought back many,many great memories of shooting with my dad...a lifelong shooter and my best shooting partner/instructor.

If you can, take him out so he can whip your butt every chance you get. ;)
 

Yankee Doodle

New member
Slightly off topic, but my dad taught me to live by three rules.
Bird hunting: Don't shoot 'em where they are, shoot 'em where they're
gonna be. (running 50 straight on the trap range was not all that uncommon for him)
Deer Hunting: If he's too far out there for an accurate shot, get closer. (never knew him to miss filling all his tags.)
Hunting in general: If it ain't gonna be eaten, leave it the hell alone. (speaks for itself)
Lord, how I miss that man .
 

Virginian

New member
I guess I'm the odd man in this thread. Don't like Model 12s, or Auto 5s, or PolyChokes, or Cutts. Tried them but they are just not for me. But, I'm still a fair hand with my bought new 49 year old Model 1100.
 

Dave McC

Staff In Memoriam
An old man with a Model 12 20 gauge without rib, blue or bead showed me something important long ago. It's the Injun, not the arrow.

And, you have no idea what I'd give to have Pop outshoot me one more time.....
 

markj

New member
And, you have no idea what I'd give to have Pop outshoot me one more time.....

Me too. Dad could pick up just about any shotgun and run a 25 round, he went 100 for 100 many times in the old days when Iwas a kid. Had trophys were taller than I was.

One time and only one time a covey of quail got up, I shot 5 times had 5 quail. He said that was some shooting, next time leave me one. Was the best thing I ever heard.
 

KY Jim

New member
I'll go ya one better, I had been shooting trap for a while and my dad could always out shoot me when it came to shooting cans or hunting but, I figured I had him when we went to the trap range cause he had never been trap shooting before well, I really thought I had him when he missed his first shot but, low and behold after that first one he never missed again the whole afternoon I think I missed 5 shots all together. No this was not a for real match just a practice session but, he still kicked my butt. BTW he was using his old A-5 Lt 12 he had had since before I was born. Plain barrel no poly choke just a straight improved Modified choke. I miss ya Dad. Posted In Loving Memory of My Dad, Frank J Hamm Sr. (1934 - 2007). We never had that rematch Dad.
 

SmokeyVol

New member
Guilty as charged

I have two Winchester Model 12s passed down from my dad that we slayed many birds with. Both are 12 gauge from 1953 with ventilated ribs and hand checkered skeet style walnut stocks and forends. One has a Polychoke and the other has a Lyman Cutts Compensator with an original Lyman wood choke storage box and a full set of chokes. Both have actions slick as greased lightning. Nothing beats a vintage Model 12.
 
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