another woods gun thread- modding a 12ga

koyote

koyote

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Mar 29, 2007
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I recently picked up an old 12 ga. shotgun. It's got no collector value or anything, just an old Hawthorne (montgomery wards) single shot 12 gauge shotgun. I got it for a song, with a cracked forearm, and a good action and lockup.

As it stands now, I could just remove and glue/clamp the forearm, refinish as desired, and go shoot it. But out here, there's not much real purpose to a 30 inch full choke barrel. (and FWIW, I intend to continue living west of or nearly west of, the rockies) ....

I'm considering taking my $40 gun and cutting it down, recrowning at 21 inches, making a new forearm to set the balance, and making this a "mountain man" shotgun. At that point it would be cylinder bore- good enough for the type of smaller game we find around here. I'd expect a good enough pattern out to 35 yards for most of what we shoot. I could handle slugs in that, and with the old style semi-sights and a new bead soldered on, I would be okay with a slug out to 50 yards or so. Who knows, maybe even 75.

What do you all think? The piece is pretty light as is, pulls good for my size, and fires reliably...
 
Sounds like a good idea. What would you do about sights once the front of the barrel is gone?
 
I am putting a little extra $ into the project, but same concept.

21" barrel with rifle sights. Mine will have interchangeable chokes.

You know for a couple of dollars you could probably install a "polychoke" on that at have an adjustable choke.

Show pics when you are done!

Carl-
 
I have an old Stevens modded just like that. It was my favorite shotgun for woods bumming for a lot of years and I killed a lot of game with it. I will say this, with some high brass number 4s or, shudder, a slug, my little gun will make you pay for supper, one of the hardest kicking guns I have ever shouldered.

It has since been replaced with a 20, lot easier on my shoulder and about the same killing power, I killed a couple of squirrels with it yesterday. I have had people make fun of me, I have 2 very nice 1187 Remingtons and a Verona over and under and 90% of the time I have my ole single shot on my back. Chris
 
there's no reference anywhere, but the operation of this shotgun, with the button release and auto-safety engagement, is the same as the old savage SB100. Cast metal receiver...

I would honestly prefer it if it was a 20 or 28, or .410 for that matter. a 12ga is what it is, though.
 
Sounds like a good deal for a 12 though...... Look frward to seeing the mods Christof.

PS how did your show go?
 
Check this out brother...

The 12 Gauge Uber Tamer

Utamer3.JPG
 
koyote said:
I recently picked up an old 12 ga. shotgun. It's got no collector value or anything, just an old Hawthorne (montgomery wards) single shot 12 gauge shotgun. I got it for a song, with a cracked forearm, and a good action and lockup.

As it stands now, I could just remove and glue/clamp the forearm, refinish as desired, and go shoot it. But out here, there's not much real purpose to a 30 inch full choke barrel. (and FWIW, I intend to continue living west of or nearly west of, the rockies) ....

I'm considering taking my $40 gun and cutting it down, recrowning at 21 inches, making a new forearm to set the balance, and making this a "mountain man" shotgun. At that point it would be cylinder bore- good enough for the type of smaller game we find around here. I'd expect a good enough pattern out to 35 yards for most of what we shoot. I could handle slugs in that, and with the old style semi-sights and a new bead soldered on, I would be okay with a slug out to 50 yards or so. Who knows, maybe even 75.

What do you all think? The piece is pretty light as is, pulls good for my size, and fires reliably...
Click to expand...


I think you are BRILLIANT !!!

Micksfirstwoodie20gasingle.jpg


For front bead on this old 20 ga Stevens 94, I just drilled a shallow hole and screwed in a brass screw. Hole in pistol grip holds a shell. Light, easy to carry, and no worries. This has ...er...21 in barrel.

I rescued it from a dairy barn without forestock and with crumpled end of barrel.
 
Funny, I've been planning on doing the same for a couple of weeks! Ha. I'm going to do a 20" barrel with rifle sights, screw in chokes. I want synthetic furniture, so I'm going to go hunting at the next gunshow.

PS- All the ones shown in this thread are sweet! Nice woods guns.
 
Kismet said:
I think you are BRILLIANT !!!

For front bead on this old 20 ga Stevens 94, I just drilled a shallow hole and screwed in a brass screw. Hole in pistol grip holds a shell. Light, easy to carry, and no worries. This has ...er...21 in barrel.

I rescued it from a dairy barn without forestock and with crumpled end of barrel.
Click to expand...

I hadn't thought about a screw. I figured since I can handle soldering I'd mark before cutting, then recycle the existing bead. We'll see how that goes.

I may keep the existing forearm with a repair, but I might go "mauser" style and give myself more length for mounting a sling swivel.
 
Hi Koyote
I have a Stevens 12gauge that I cut off like that. I bought a set of sights that are made to mount on the rib,I will use a piece of 3/8 stock as a vent rib / place to mount the sights.
Hope you got a pad on that gun mine has a pretty good kick to it
 
I'm really eager to see how it patterns once I finish.

I intend to adjust the pull length to fit a nice pad eventually, though I don't plan to shoot this in 50 round sessions- I may use a one half or one inch thick slip on for summertime and just use my coats and sweaters in the winter.

The rib idea is interesting, but I think I'm going to stick with the wide ribbed rear notch and bead- There's really no reason I should be able to plug a 8 inch group at 50 yards with that using slugs (and if buckshot patterns well.... hey) and with a 12ga that's enough for any game I'm going to trustmyself to take with it. If I need to go up and hunt elk or moose in the GWN, I'll take the mosin nagant.
 
Kind of a related note, does anyone remember the web site that sells the inserts you can put in your single shot shotgun to chamber it for centerfire pistol cartridges?

I am thinking about getting an H&R and buying an insert for a common pistol cartridge like .357 for added verstility.
 
I'd thought about that myself, but don't really want to put more than another $10 in costs into this one, and while I could see the fun in it, it doesn't seem to serve a purpose for a 12 ga.

I do want to ask anyone who might know before I get the pipe cutters out---- is there an "ideal" length to cut to? I've got marks at 20, 21, and 19 right now and am trying to see where I want it at.
 
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