doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Winchester Model 23

I have a M23 Heavy Duck with Briley chokes installed. If it had a double trigger it would be a perfect duck gun. It has 30" barrels and a high solid rib. A vent rib on a duck gun is just a water trap! I also use it for clays and am happy with it. The trigger doubled on me once when I had not pushed the barrel selector far enough from one side to the other.

I do have a CSMC RBL-12 on order and will see which is the better fowling piece.

I've shouldered the M23 20 gauges and think they are too heavy for a 20. Only my opinion of course...

Of the doubles that came out of Winchester's Japanese Olin-Kodensha operation, I much prefer the Parker Reproduction. But unless you get one of the rarer 23's, a Repro will also cost more. Lighter guns gauge for gauge, and you can find double triggers with a little looking.

All the guns that came out of O-K get high marks, IMO, for fit and finish.

I was hot to trot for a Parker Repro, then my Wife and I went to the NRA Convention (I think that was a year it was in New Orleans) and I shouldered the little Model 23 Classics in .410-bore and 28-gauge. They fit me good. I was standing at the counter at Guns Unlimited to buy them on 17 November 1986, the day the Volkmer-McClure Gun Owners Relief Act went into effect. The price back then with Nebraska sales tax included was $1359.95. I was already out in Nebraska bird hunting.

You should have bought B.C. Miroku Browning SLE 20br instead. They were only about $400 more at the time.

Good point, PJ. Or one of the BSS Grade II's. Or just a plain BSS 20ga Sporter. (I bought one of those, new, in 1980 for $400.) Talk about inflation! And I do wish I'd had the $ to buy a BSS Sidelock back then.

Being in grade school at that time it was kinda hard to afford and legally buy such stuff. They sure had some nice stuff (fancy Weatherby rifles, Berettas, Brownings,.....) back then at Ole' Goldstocks Sporting Goods in downtown Schenectady, NY.

Why? When I was interested in a 28-gauge and a.410-bore. The 1986 list price for the Browning Sidelock in 12- or 20-gauge was $1627.50, while the list price of the smallbore Winchester Model 23 Classics was $1850. So, with Guns Unlimited's normal discouts the Browning would have been cheaper.

I'm still searching for a 23 Golden Quail in .410 with serial number 410 that was stolen from a friend about three years ago.

Dean

If a Winchester 23 said Kawasaki, Fuji heavy industries, or Seiko, etc (take your pick of Japan, Inc. names) on the rib, instead of Winchester, they would be $750 guns. Tops.
End of story.
Best,
Ted

Try and look for a Nikko 23 as an off shoot.
Same company, same factory but made for the Japanese market. 99% the same as the Winchester 23. Only difference is the fit of the stock to action. You can find them for around $1000 if you look. Stocks are much more plain and they have fixed chokes.

Yes, they are heavy but they are my goto guns for busting brush in Kansas.