In the early summer of 1972 when the Tico pulled into Japan, I bought a 20-gauge Model Field Gun 26 1/2 inch IC/Mod with a nice trunk case for $201. Gave it to my Father for his 65th birthday that August. Over the next 15 years he wore a lot of blue off that gun.
Just looking at the 1970 Winchester catalogue, the only difference between a Field Gun and a Skeet gun were the chokes. Both came with butt plates and 12- and 20-gauges had a list price of $350 while the 28-gauges and .410-bores listed at $370. The .410-bore Skeets were chambered for 2 1/2 inch shells while the Field Grades got 3-inch chambers. The Skeet set, a 20-gauge frame with three sets of 28-inch skeet barrels in 20-gauge, 28-gauge, and .410-bore listed at $750. For some reason, the 12-gauges came with 26-, 28-, and 30-inch barrels while the smaller gauges came with 26 1/2 inch and 28-inch barrels. A bit later they added a Model 101 Magnum Field Grade in 12- and 20-gauges with 3-inch chambers and a recoil pad. The earlier 20-gauge had been chambered 3-inch with their 26 1/2 and 28-inch barrels since the get go!?!
In the 1974 catalogue they introduced the Model 101 Pigeon Grade Trap Gun. A year or two later they added the Expert grade, a lower priced plainer version of the gun. From then on new Models/Grades were coming and going all the time. When I was stationed in Alaska in 1974 and 5 we got Skeet guns in at the Chugach Rod & Gun Club at Fort Richardson that I never saw catalogued. Pigeon Grade Skeet Guns with blued receivers, and higher grades with gold inlays, etc. By 1979 the regular Model 101 Skeet Guns were gone and all the Skeet Guns in all four gauges were Pigeon Grades. By 1981 the Model 501 Grand Europeans were introduced in the Winchester Catalogue. Then the Olins unloaded the company in New Haven, but kept the made in Japan guns under the Winchester Classic Doubles name. The number of models and variations during the six or seven years of Winchester Classic doubles is staggering
