Winchester 1300 Defender

[HamsterStyle]

I received this gun as a gift/payment for helping a friend sell all her late husband's guns after he passed away. It's no beauty. When I got it, the barrel just rattled around and I didn't trust it enough to sell it.

Fast forward a bit and she told me to just keep it for helping and do with it what I saw fit. I did some reading and found that I could just tighten the barrel nut and voila!! The barrel is tight. So, we go out on a range trip and I loaded a couple shells and pumped through them. They cycled fine. I loaded it up completely and fired the first shot. BANG!!!!! Went to pump it and nothing.

I called the range cold so we could check it out. The next shell was jammed up and I couldn't get it out. We monkied with it for a few and were able to get the shells out and noticed the firing pin had fallen out. Yes, the firing pin. Logistically, I did not know this was even possible. So I put it aside for the rest of the day with the intent of going through it when we got home.

Fast forward about a year and a half later.
I tore it apart today and reassembled it. This is the first time disassembling a shotgun for me so I was a little intimidated but I had youtube on my side.



Here you can see the firing pin wedged in the action.









This is as disassembled as it got. You will notice that the firing pin spring has a small bend to it. I reassembled it with the existing parts to see if it would function alright and to make sure I could do it.



My intention with this gun is to completely strip it once I know it works well, replace the springs, and prep and paint the whole thing in a nice finish of some sort. By nice finish, I mean prep and most likely spray paint it for a home defense gun.

 

[Donnelly]

I owned a 1300 Defender a while back. I traded it in for my first Glock 9mm as I hardly ever shot it. In the 5 years I owned it, I probably only put 100 rounds through it. Sometimes I wish I still had it. Good luck with your repairs.

 

[LtScott14]

Do a little repair, reassemble, and Duracoat the gun. Camo paint the stock, get a stencil from Ebay, have at it. My neighbor has the same gun, no issues, ever. Good gun for small game, home defense, trunk gun. Good luck.

 

[AutomationEngineer]

I have owned the same 1300 for 25 years with no refinish and the original wood stock. I did add a tasco sight adapter as the iron sights were not accurate. I also added a shell hoder to the tasco sight adapter, so theoretically I could return it to stock as I have the original trigger assembly pin. I have went hunting with this gun and have never had a problem with it.

 

[HamsterStyle]

Gonna revisit this. We have shot probably 75-100 rounds through this gun now and it functions as it should. My 12 year old has taken a liking to shooting shotguns. I am finally getting around to hopefully refreshing this guy. Is there a kit or a list of springs, pins, parts, wear items that I should replace when I have it apart. I am new to shotguns so layman's terms would be greatly appreciated.

 

[HamsterStyle]

Can Any of the shotgun guys help me out?

 

[patience0830]

Numrich might have a schematic with parts named and availability.

 

[Fordtough25]

Winchester Model 1200 / 1300

This site has a nice set of schematics and parts availability. I need to get a new spring and follower for my 1200. Love those old Winchesters!

 

[HamsterStyle]

Well, back to square one. We took this guy out and I had Aidan fire a couple rounds out of it to see if the stock was indeed too long and if he liked how it handled. Loaded 2 rounds. Shot both without a hitch. Took it from him and was gonna fire a couple myself just because it's fun and the pump action is jammed up again. It sounds as if something is rattling around in there again. I couldn't see what it was and I didn't have time to tear into it last night so when I get some time, I will be doing that.

Has anyone had this problem before?

 

[churchmouse]

Well, back to square one. We took this guy out and I had Aidan fire a couple rounds out of it to see if the stock was indeed too long and if he liked how it handled. Loaded 2 rounds. Shot both without a hitch. Took it from him and was gonna fire a couple myself just because it's fun and the pump action is jammed up again. It sounds as if something is rattling around in there again. I couldn't see what it was and I didn't have time to tear into it last night so when I get some time, I will be doing that.

Has anyone had this problem before?

Of the 4 1300 defenders we have owned I wish I had at least 2 of them back. They got ran hard and never failed.

 

[HamsterStyle]

Did a little googling and it seems as though it has happened on several occasions before. Looks like it may be the Breech Bolt Slide Bridge Arm that fails. It bends out and allows chaos to follow. I'm going to do a little digging and see what I can come up with. Guess if I'm gonna learn how to work on a shotgun, it's best to learn on a free one.

 

[churchmouse]

Did a little googling and it seems as though it has happened on several occasions before. Looks like it may be the Breech Bolt Slide Bridge Arm that fails. It bends out and allows chaos to follow. I'm going to do a little digging and see what I can come up with. Guess if I'm gonna learn how to work on a shotgun, it's best to learn on a free one.

Exactly.

 

[HamsterStyle]

Well, I just called Winchester. Gotta love it when you tell them what gun you are calling about and the first words out of their mouths are "uh, that's not good". Apparently, they have discontinued service on those guns and have sold out all of their parts. So, that's nice. He did recommend calling Midwest Gun Works though, so somebody did recommend them earlier. It looks like I will move on to that Avenue.