By Pete Fosselman
Special to Western Outdoor News
Growing up in a small town in Southern California, the local sporting goods store inventory often stirred my aficionado with firearms. My father was the “fire behind the firepower” Navy Aviation Ordananceman in WWII, but his post war career in the ice cream business didn’t leave much coin after the weekly bills were paid to purchase firearms. We had an old 5-shot magazine-fed Remington .22 in the house, but that was it for firearms.
Trips to my uncle’s house were more fortunate where an old-style vertical gun case, with glass doors, graced his den with several rifles and shotguns on visual display.
At a very young age, I learned how to reload shotgun shells at a neighbor’s house, and the subsequent trips to the trap and skeet range to use those shells introduced me to those respective games. The implements to shoot those shells were always borrowed. I shot Trap with a Remington Model 31 pump and skeet with a Winchester Model 12 with a Cutts compensator. For some reason, I drew a serious liking to that Model 12 over the Remington 31.
Many years later, I joined the Brea Rifle and Pistol club with a 100-yard rifle range that was converted to a pair of trap fields on Friday and Sunday evenings. The rest of the week, it was a dedicated metallic cartridge facility for rifles and pistols. I was shooting competitive trap at this time with a Browning Belgium Superposed with a Broadway rib. As the evening or afternoon shotgun shoots would come to an end, the usual “pot” shoots would begin from the 27-yard line. Invariably, they were won by a Winchester Model 12 with a full choke. Clay birds were often busted as they approached that 100-yard rifle berm, long out of range for most of the other scatterguns. I made a promise to myself that someday I would add a Winchester Model 12 “pot” gun to my collection.
In the mid 1980’s, when it was still legal in California for “handshake” gun sales, I came across a smooth barrel Model 12 at a garage sale. The metal all seemed to be tight and in excellent working order. The wood was another story, and that’s being polite. The two pieces appeared to be some very light-colored Birch. Dirty blonde would be a good color for description. A hacksaw blade was the tool of choice for the checkering, at about 8 lines per inch (LPI). If you’re following, the wood was gross, and the brushed on polyurethane coating did nothing to enhance the finish. But like I said, the necessary parts to build my specimen were in good working order.
As a yearly attendee at the Shooting, Hunting, and Outdoor Trade Show, commonly called the SHOT Show, I had become friends with Marty Fajen from the famed Reinhart Fajen gun stock company. One evening after the show, while having an adult beverage, I mentioned how my Model 12 was in desperate need of a serious makeover. She volunteered to help, but I procrastinated and didn’t take the bait. For the next four years, at our once-a-year social visit, we would discuss my Model 12 makeover.
After five years, Marty mentions that if I wanted some assistance, I needed to act rather fast. Turns out, Reinhart Fajen was in a “pending” sale and once that was completed, her offer would not be valid. She couldn’t exactly tell me the reason for the Code 3 urgency at the time, but the stalling stopped.
Within a week, my Model 12 was packed up and shipped off to Warsaw, Missouri for the Reinhart Fajen makeover. Knowing what I had paid for the piece, I insured it for $600. About three weeks later, I got an invoice that the Model 12 would soon be arriving, and it contained a breakdown of the finances. Glaring at me in the shipping costs was the insured value of $2,600. I thought for sure, that must be a typo, but the wait became even more anxious.
UPS finally pulled to the door one morning with the piece. Opening it, I was all smiles in amazement. The beautiful Turkish Walnut wood was stunning. The checkering was impeccable at a very fine 26 LPI Point-Pattern tripling that of the saw blade. It was truly a different Model 12 and sadly, it took me five years to get to this point.
Despite the metal all being tight and in good working order, it soon became the scuff on this fine firearm. And, if it was ever going to be my “pot” gun, it needed a rib to adorn the smooth barrel.
A few weeks later I took it to George Mathews Gun Shop in Downey. George and his son had a long-standing and excellent reputation for reworking Model 12’s, so why not? George sent the barrel off to be fitted with the traditional after-market Simmons rib and all the remaining metal was polished and reblued in true Model 12 match. It is gorgeous, and it functions flawlessly and shoots just fine.
The first trip to the trap range found me busting birds with ease, despite the stock being a wee bit long. I had sent Marty some measurements taken from measuring my Browning Superposed as a model. Turns out, the conversion from an over and under to a pump has the stock about a half inch long for my build. Despite not being a perfect fit, I don’t the heart to cut it down. It’s just too beautiful to remove any wood and shorten. My days of snap shooting are over so it’s not really an issue for me to make the adjustment.
I’m still using up a couple of flats of the old Federal paper target shells and the Model 12 just loves them. And when I bring it out to the range, it always draws a crowd of admirers. It’s like pulling a classic car into the donut shop on Saturday morning. Lots of lookers.
Some of today’s modern advertisements, when referencing high end firearms, often make the statement, “Not all fine art belongs on a wall.” This is true of my Model 12. It belongs in my hands and at the range.
