Reeder Custom Guns - Trying to decide which shotgun to keep

part of my lightening the long gun load. I have a very nice circa 2000 or so Browning Gold Hunter 12 auto. It shoots literally all loads up to 3" mag. with no fiddling. 26" barrel and chokes of course. It's matte black with plastic furniture. A fantastic gun, a bit soulless in it's perfect function. I think Beretta made them for Browning.

I also have a clean reblued/refinished Model 12 Winchester 2-3/4" 12 ga. It has a 25" plain barrel and no choke. A guy cut off the barrel for a Grouse gun from it's original full choke. The work was done very professionally. I think it was made around 1922. The fit and machine work are very pleasing. It's basically pretty much like new.

Of course I have many other shotguns for general utility and tactical type uses. However I am tempted to sell/trade one of the above to garner an interesting handgun. But I'm not sure. Which would you choose?

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Do you plan to do any sort of waterfowling? If so, I'd keep the Browning since you can use 3" shells for some added distance.

Do you plan to just hunt upland birds like quail and ruffed grouse? If so, the Model 12 may be the way to go.

Myself? I'd do some test patterns on paper to see which one shoots the best and then make a decision.

I'd sell both and get one good Mossberg pump 12 gauge with the 3 1/2 inch chamber for a do all gun. I can hunt waterfowl as well as wild turkey. Upland game would be feasible as well due to the ability to use low base brass shells.

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I didn’t think of that. I was going to suggest having the Model 12 modified to take interchangeable choke tubes.

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For renting the tools you really need to align several jobs to to help the costs. The more you do the cheaper rental gets.

Unless you break a tool, then it’s big bucks.

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For Remchokes, tweakers stole it. If you get the tooling from Brownell’s, you shouldn’t have to buy it again ( except for the tweaker problem).

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there are variables as to the application. The Winchester has pretty thick barrels, some Remingtons are not even concentric. They have "thin wall" tools for those special applications. I wonder why it does not shoot out! lol

I was thinking of Winchester chokes for the "Winchester". I had a Browning once that used Brownell's Colonials. I think they interchange with something else too.

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You can put Remington choke systems in Winchester shotguns! I have done that. No one noticed, and the people that have those shotguns now know, and knew when they got the shotguns. The Remchokes were the least expensive tooling from Brownell’s at the time (may still be). If a barrel is too thin for the Remington system, just pass on putting interchangeables on the barrel.

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