My father isn't much of a "gun nut". In fact, until last week he only owned two firearms -- a Remington 870 Wingmaster and a Ruger .22 Hornet. Anyway, he just bought a Winchester Model 12 Black Diamond shotgun. This shotgun is mint -- I'm talking 100%. His research indicates that it was manufactured in August 1928, and he was told by the seller that it has NEVER been fired. The story is that the original owner bought it in 1928 and kept it stored until his death in 1950. Another gentleman owned it from 1950 until 1970 without firing it either. The last owner had it from 1970 until the present, and kept it unfired in a bank vault. The seller had all the original paperwork and even the box at his home, but they were destroyed in a house fire. Luckily the shotgun wasn't there.

Anyway, I know nothing about old firearms. Can anyone tell me more about these shotguns? Any idea what something like this is worth? Supposedly it placed best of show at some sort of contest.

EDIT: NOW WITH PHOTOS







I've got quite a few photos of it, but chose just a few to help with the bandwidth. I had to resize the photos as well, as they were originally 1600 X 1200.

That shotgun is one of the "holy grail" M12's. If it what you said it is it is worth way more than 3 or 4 grand. Go to Guns America and look around, nobody will have one that nice for sale and the prices will be high. I would recommend looking for a book on M12's by Dave Riffle. The best book on the gun out there. You might even try to get in touch with him, your father has a rare gun that is worth a ton of money to the right guy and Riffle will probably know who that is. I am all about shooting M12's (a lot) but I would'nt shoot that one. My 2 cents.

Thanks for the replies, guys. I had some photos of it on my hard drive, but they got deleted. I'm in the process of getting my stepmother to send them to me again. I'll post them here when I receive them.

If anyone has Dave Riffle's contact info, please provide it. I'll do a search to see if I can locate his book.

Quoted: Here ya go... daverifflegunsales.com.phtemp.com/ Good luck!

Thanks. I just found it myself and came back to this thread to edit my post and let you guys know. I just spoke with my stepmother and the pics will be posted here in about an hour or so.

Wow I would love to shoot some clays with that shotgun, does it have a rib? I assume it does but you never know how it was originally ordered. If you had the box and papers the sky could be the limit. Beautiful shotgun.

Quoted: Does it have a rib? I assume it does but you never know how it was originally ordered.