A dealer has a model 23 with 2 sets of barrels. A friend of mine has an interest . How ever was there such a thing put togather by winchester. I have heard of a 12 ga Model 23 with 2 barrels but one of these are 32" barrels, but I cannot see any such barrel mentioned in the Blue Book. Did Winchester make such an animal?
I bow to the collective wisdom here.
regards
John Mc

I guess they did make one. Catalog one? Don't think so.

The 32" barrels could have been made by a third party barrel smith.

They could have been made by Winchester in a standard length and then a third party smith sleeved them to 32".

They could have been made by Winchester as 32" barrels.

Pictures of the 32's barrel flats, rib, and chambers would be helpful.

Sorry longest that I know of are the Heavy Duck barrels
and they are 30"
Code G23HD
Supposedly only 500 of these were made
Mike

possibly 32" barrels made in Italy........some were made and fitted to model 21's also. Never have seen a 23 with 32" barrels in all the gun shows and literature I've looked at. I doubt seriously if they are factory. The 23 came along during the time shorter barrels were all the rage...most were 26" with some 28" and like Obi Wan Skeetx said, the duck model was the only one with 30" barrels. You might pose your question to Dawson's Doubles in San Antonio and James Wayne in Victoria Tx. both dealers handle a lot of 23's.

He's probably using a metric yardstick. 32 metric inches equals about 26 regular inches although in purely scientific terms no one has been able to determine the exact conversion.

Too bad Don Moody isn't with us any more. But I'm pretty sure that there were no production model 23's with 32" barrels. However, I've also seen at least one BSS with DT, and they didn't make any of those either. And a gunsmith friend converted an SKB to DT. So a "one off" 23 with long tubes from someone who got creative? Why not?

Appears original winchester. Here it is:
http://www.stevebarnettfineguns.com/asp-bin/Detail.asp?ID=8761#
JR

Nice looking gun. Would love to try out those 32" barrels on it.

There's gonna be a one off BSS with 32" barrels if I ever find a set of trashed one to build on.

SRH

Worth a phone call for someone interested enough to want confirmation that they're factory original -- I'd trust Barnett's evaluation.

Jay

If all any manufacturer actually made was cataloged, this game wouldn't be nearly as exciting.
Mike

Not pertinent to this gun, but about catalogs -- there were at least two different M-23 configurations made for the European market not shown in their U.S. catalogs. Don had one in 20 ga. and I have one quite a bit different in 12 ga. Over the years I've seen a few others like Don's offered by Dawson's, only one other like mine.

Jay

I have handled M23's made for the European market that had double triggers! I should have bought one of those...

We don't know if the pictures show the 25-1/2" barrels, the 32" barrels, or both.

Apologies for digressing from topic with more on European market 23s, but thought some looking at a 23 thread might be interested in seeing a 12 ga. European gun. This one has a high-combed stock with 1/4" cast off and a sizable rectangular cavity. Pics show checkered rosewood buttplate that's rounded at the heel, ebony forend wedge tip, relatively slender grip with long black tang, black toplever and safety, and a different "engraving" pattern with more coverage. Barrels are 28", marked "Pigeon Grade", 70mm chambers, thinner at the muzzles than U.S. guns, with fixed IC/M chokes, and a solid low-set swamped rib engraved "WINCHESTER FIREARMS". It's a bit under 6-3/4 lbs. Very different from the domestic 23s. No double triggers, but I like it a lot, except the thin comb bites me if I screw up and cheek it too hard -- and I do.

Jay

Interesting . . . 32" barrels on a Pigeon Grade Lightweight. One would think they'd make more sense on something like a Heavy Duck.

Though Winchester called the straight grip guns "Lightweight", all I've seen differ from the standard 23s only in grip style. I had a so-called LWT 20 ga. that weighed more than 7 lbs. Both standard and LWT U.S. market 23s have 3" chambers. I've never handled a Heavy Duck, and no longer have any old Winchester catalogs around. Anyone know if the Heavy Duck was listed as a heavier gun -- other than a couple ounces for the longer barrels?

Jay

I had a 12 gauge Heavy Duck which weighed 8 lbs.

Thanks Mark -- that's definitely more than a little heavier than the standard 12 ga.

Also seems balance would be an interesting issue on a gun with 2 sets of barrels, 6 1/2" difference between them.