A long-time family member took its leave yesterday…

My Winchester 1300 is the first gun I bought post-marriage. I wanted something for home defense, but needed time for working out what I considered the much more serious questions of rifle and pistol. (by the end of the marriage I owned virtually no guns, which illustrates the lengths I was willing to go to keep peace in the house.)

Problem is, I’m really not a shotgun guy. I practiced with it enough to regain some proficiency until I’d replaced it with guns more to my liking, and then it spent more than a decade gathering dust behind various doors. Every time I sell a gun I swear I’m never going to do that again, but in this case I woke up this morning still convinced it was the right thing to do. The 1300 needed a better home, and I need funds for siding the Lair sometime before I die.

And one of my neighbors – who actually uses his shotgun – needed a better one. With the exception of my tragically cheesy choice in aftermarket buttstock, the 1300 is a very fine shotgun. I wish it a long, happy, active life in its new home.