Recent Winchester M12 Sale Price

[TSMGguy]

This is a 1943 gun. Winchester was still using the commerical blue finish, but had stopped polishing small items like the screw heads and sling swivels.

 

 

http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewItem....?Item=196513703

[dalbert]

This is a 1943 gun. Winchester was still using the commerical blue finish, but had stopped polishing small items like the screw heads and sling swivels.

 

 

http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewItem....?Item=196513703

 

TSMGguy,

 

Wow! Stratospheric price for an incredibly nice combat shotgun with supporting paperwork.

 

David Albert

dalbert@sturmgewehr.com

[james m]

If the finish is original, and it appears to be, this type of firearm would appeal to those that want the best of the best. They are also generally willing and able to pay the price to obtain it as well. Again; and this is just looking at pictures, it appears to be the nicest Model 12 trench gun I've ever seen. Is it worth $10K? Apparentely someone in the collecting community thinks so.

Jim

[dalbert]

If the finish is original, and it appears to be, this type of firearm would appeal to those that want the best of the best. They are also generally willing and able to pay the price to obtain it as well. Again; and this is just looking at pictures, it appears to be the nicest Model 12 trench gun I've ever seen. Is it worth $10K? Apparentely someone in the collecting community thinks so.

Jim

 

Jim,

 

I agree. This is the top of the heap, and someone really wanted it. Not a price I would pay, but certainly understandable for this shotgun.

 

David Albert

dalbert@sturmgewehr.com

[emmagee1917]

Hummmmmm....38 bids , I'd say at least two thought it was worth it.

Chris

[bmarvin]

I bid to $8800 and dropped out

Brian

 

Hummmmmm....38 bids , I'd say at least two thought it was worth it.

Chris

 

[TSMGguy]

I was on the mailing list for Surf City Guns in Huntington Beach for some years. Month after month, their catalogs in about 1995 offered a Winchester M12 trench gun in new condition. I called, and asked, "Really? New, as in unissued?" They said yes, and that the gun had come out of government storage the year before. The gun wasn't selling, I believe, because nobody really believed the "new, unissued" description.

 

These were reputable folks, so I took the plunge, knowing that I could always send it back after a brief inspection.

 

Sure enough, the gun showed up and the descrition was accurate. The gun remains in original brand new condition to this day. It's never been loaded or fired, and it's never had a sling or bayonet on it. There are no dents or dings, and it hasn't a single fleck of corrosion. The barrel is 42 dated, and it has the beautiful early war blue (not black) commercial finish, done to Winchester's high pre war standards.

 

The upper hand guard is of the four hole variety. Great care was taken in installing and finishing the rivets that hold it to the bayonet mount, unlike on the example linked above. There is no W stamp on the mount; this came later.

 

The screw heads and sling swivel are blued and polished to the same standard as the rest of the gun. Starting sometime in 1943, they were not, as shown on the auctioned gun.

 

My only regret is in not having purchased one of the M1987 trench guns in like condition being offered at the same time!

 

I'll work up some photos for posting here.