Winchester Model 1200

About the Winchester Model 1200

The Winchester Model 1200 is an American pump-action shotgun designed by T.C. Johnson and a team of Winchester engineers as a more modern and less expensive replacement for the long-running Model 12. Introduced in 1964 for sporting use, it employs a rotating bolt locking into a barrel extension within a lightweight aluminum-alloy receiver, and was the first Winchester shotgun to offer the Winchoke interchangeable choke system. A militarized riot-gun variant, the M1200, was fielded in small numbers by U.S. forces during the Vietnam War with a perforated steel heat shield and a bayonet mount for the M1917 bayonet.

The Model 1200 was Winchester's bid to undercut rising production costs of the labor-intensive Model 12, trading machined steel for a cast aluminum receiver and a rotating-bolt action; its trench-gun derivative briefly served U.S. Special Forces and Army units in Vietnam.

Winchester Model 1200 specifications

The military M1200 used a 20-inch (508 mm) barrel chambered for 2.75-inch shells and was limited to a four-round magazine because the bayonet band and heat shield precluded the extended magazine tubes offered on civilian models.