Guns & Outdoors Forum

I bought a Winchester 101 12 bore shotgun today and trying to date it. All the sites I have looked at don't seem to offer much help unless someone on this site has an idea. It is a 101 model XTR Lightweight 3" magnum O/U Serial number 459582. I understand that they were made in Japan and some for the European market and some for the American market so styles will vary to cater for different tastes. Unusual for the European market this one has a shiny stock and non-automatic safety. 27 inch barrels with multi chokes. It came with 2 x Imp Cyl. 2 x Mod. & 2 x Full. Decent condition overall. It cost me £200 which is round about $250.

I don't know much about shotguns, but that certainly looks nice for the price

Pretty sure you could not have gotten that gun in the USA for $250

Is that the one that had the recall?

That really stands out to me. Never buffed after plating?

Yeah, I’d have bought that too.

I have always loved the Winchester 101 but have never owned one. They seem to fit me just right. That would pretty easily be an $800-$1000 gun here so congrats on a great find.

What a deal. At that price, you need to run the SN because it might be stolen. Anything with Winchester on it will bring at least 1K.

If it was made in Japan, I understand that the japanese proof marks were unacceptable for the British/European market. It should have english proof marks under the barrel somewhere which include a date code ...

I had that exact same model as a sporting clays competition gun.......Bought mine in the early 80's new....cant remember the serial number though.
Wish I had never sold it....

Yes, the British Proof Marks are on the second photo visible on the barrel. There is usually a date code to the marks but I can't see them on this one. The only idea is that those marks were used between 1954 and 1989. After that the marks went metric.

Gene, here we have to register our guns and this one was bought from a Dealer and if it was a bit dodgy it would soon throw up on Police records.

I bought it as an 'all round' sort of gun for rough use to have with me when at work. The 3 inch chambers and multi choke option make it useful for those occasions when I need to use steel shot. It replaces a Russian made Baikal O/U that had 2 3/4" chambers and was a bit tight on one barrel for use with steel although I doubt if it would do much harm to a Baikal. The Baikal owes me nothing as I was given it by the same dealer that I got the Winchester from and I now intend to give that to a new home for free. I generally use a Winchester SX4 at work but sometimes it is handy to have a gun that can be opened and unloaded easily and also easy to change type of cartridge.

I have the Winchester book by Dennis Adler which shows to 101 but not this model. I will try it next week either at clays or some late evening crow shooting. It seems a reasonable fit.

It’s. Miroku made gun. Same company makes Browning Citori and Weatherby Orion guns. Excellent shotgun!!! I own a Weatherby example and it’s the last O/U I’ve kept. I love the gun

Good to hear positive comments about this model. Keen to try it out. Thanks.