A friend of mine just bought a Winchester 2200, he was looking for a little history on this firearm.
I told him I knew nothing but would post the question.
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks octave.

Hmmm, would that be Winchester 1200 instead? Can you describe it?

Its a pump action with a 30 inch barrel, on the barrel it has M2200 its has 3 inch chamber, and apprears to be a full choke.

Doing a little search on the web, it appears that "2200" was the designation that Winchester used for its Model 1200 when sold in Canada and maybe some other countries. I have no idea why manufacturers sometimes do this, but I've seen it in other models as well.

The 1200 was an aluminum frame pump with a rotary bolt that locked directly into the barrel. It was built in Japan (presumably by Miroku, who made the Winchester line of O/U shotguns). The 1200 came out in the infamous 1964 retooling that saw any number of Winchesters reworked in order to produce more cheaply. In the case of the Model 12 pump shotgun, it was impossible to take that basic design and do much with it to lower production costs, so Winchester dropped it entirely and went with a much less expensive to produce pump it called the 1200. This gun was considerarbly lighter (due to the aluminum receiver) and had impressed rather than cut checkering. Although universally panned by those who were accustomed to the Model 12, the Model 1200 was actually a fairly serviceable shotgun. The rotary bolt locking into the barrel extension negated any loss of strength in the alloy reciever. The 1200 was also produced for Sears, which sold it under the Ted Williams label, and maybe for other proprietary distributors as well. It was in turn replaced with the 1300, but I can't tell you much about the differences in the two models. My information indicates that parts will interchange between the 1200 and your friend's 2200.

Many thanks for the information Stonecreek, will pass them on to my friend.

quote:

Originally posted by Stonecreek:

Snip stuff removed----------------------------

It was in turn replaced with the 1300, but I can't tell you much about the differences in the two models. My information indicates that parts will interchange between the 1200 and your friend's 2200.

The 1300 is a 3 inch gun, the 1200 is 2 3/4.