PHOENIX PHIL
AH ambassador
Sometime around 1990 or so when I was living in Texas, a friend of mine acquired a Winchester 101. I did not get to shoot it, but I did get to handle it. I wanted one immediately, but fresh out of college I could not afford it. Some years later I bought a Browning Citori, like it well enough, couldn't shoot it however. I was smart enough not to get rid of my Benelli SBE and went back to it.
Until recently I really didn't get the desire for another O/U shotgun, but there it was, once again the desire for a Winchester 101. I came across a two chamber set, one in 20 gauge and one in 12. The price seemed reasonable on further research, and fellow AH gun enabler and good friend @BnC 04 agreed with me when I ran it by him.
In short order working with the gent who was selling it on Guns International we agreed to a price and he shipped it out last Tuesday. It arrived promptly on Friday at an FFL for the transfer and I went in Saturday morning to fill in the paperwork. And once again the gov't made me wait until today.
Picked it up this evening and so far very happy. I'm not certain this shotgun was ever even fired. The barrels had choke tubes installed, but the extra tubes and wrenches were never taken out of the original plastic bags. The wood is perfect and metal looks great. The only wear that I see is on the nice case the gun came in. The leather sides were apparently stored up against some boxes red and blue in color and it rubbed off on them. I will try to clean those up with and get the leather back into proper shape.
So a slightly early 57th birthday gift to me. A few quick iPhone pics:
Until recently I really didn't get the desire for another O/U shotgun, but there it was, once again the desire for a Winchester 101. I came across a two chamber set, one in 20 gauge and one in 12. The price seemed reasonable on further research, and fellow AH gun enabler and good friend @BnC 04 agreed with me when I ran it by him.
In short order working with the gent who was selling it on Guns International we agreed to a price and he shipped it out last Tuesday. It arrived promptly on Friday at an FFL for the transfer and I went in Saturday morning to fill in the paperwork. And once again the gov't made me wait until today.
Picked it up this evening and so far very happy. I'm not certain this shotgun was ever even fired. The barrels had choke tubes installed, but the extra tubes and wrenches were never taken out of the original plastic bags. The wood is perfect and metal looks great. The only wear that I see is on the nice case the gun came in. The leather sides were apparently stored up against some boxes red and blue in color and it rubbed off on them. I will try to clean those up with and get the leather back into proper shape.
So a slightly early 57th birthday gift to me. A few quick iPhone pics: