My Favorite Firearm: Winchester Model 200 Ted Williams Edition

posted on February 2, 2020
** When you buy products through the links on our site, we may earn a commission that supports NRA's mission to protect, preserve and defend the Second Amendment. **
fav12.jpg

was a teenager when my dad and I bought my first firearm. He worked at Sears & Roebuck, so we purchased the Winchester Model 200 Ted Williams edition 12-ga. pump-action that they sold there. I was thrilled with the gun, and my dad promptly enrolled me in a hunter safety course. He took me pheasant hunting in Iowa one winter with my uncle and cousins, a great memory. I didn’t shoot my shotgun much in college, and after graduating from West Point I got busy with the Army and my own family, so I didn’t shoot for years—except, of course, for mandatory military weapons qualifications.

I went downrange to Iraq for a year in 2010 and then to Afghanistan in 2014, and my dad passed away during my deployment to Afghanistan. After two combat tours, I started into recreational shooting again because it seemed to be therapeutic for me. I enjoyed trap and skeet so much that I would even go to the local gun range over lunch breaks just to shoot a couple of shells. I have subsequently purchased several other shotguns, and I alternate shooting all of them—but, even today, nothing shoots as well for me on the trap range as that first 12-ga. Model 200.

Every time I pick up my Winchester shotgun, I think of my dad and wish he was still with us. I feel bad that we didn’t spend more time together at the shooting range, and I worry that he didn’t know just how much I loved the shotgun that we purchased together all those years ago. Isn’t it strange how firearms are one of the few things that last for decades, creating remembrances that bind generations together?

My advice is this: Spend time with your loved ones, enjoying the outdoors, hunting and shooting, and celebrating the Second Amendment that allows us to create so many unique and special memories. And, to quote the old song, “Do it in the living years.”   

Robert Moore, Texas

Latest

Gotw Wilson Combat Divison 77 Project 1 Web
Gotw Wilson Combat Divison 77 Project 1 Web

Gun Of The Week: Wilson Combat Division 77 Project 1

Join American Rifleman staff on the range in this video to get a closer look at Wilson Combat’s somewhat cryptically named “Division 77 Project 1.” 

The Armed Citizen® July 18, 2025

Read today's "The Armed Citizen" entry for real stories of law-abiding citizens, past and present, who used their firearms to save lives.

Review: POF-USA LMR BASE Rifle

The Patriot Ordnance Factory LMR Base offers a .308 Win. chambering in a lightweight, AR-15-size package, which makes it a capable platform for today's new gun owner. And it comes at a fair price.

2025 Accessory Of The Year: Wyoming Sight Drifter

For each of the past 23 years, the editors of American Rifleman have convened to select our top picks for the past year’s best and most innovative products. Here are the most recent winners.

Henry Donates Rifles To Support Young Leukemia Victim

Henry Repeating Arms has donated a limited run of 50 “Team Keane” Golden Boy .22 lever-action rifles to support 13-year-old Keane Rhodes of Universal City, Texas, who is currently undergoing aggressive treatment for ALL T-cell leukemia.

Rifleman Review: Springfield Armory Echelon

Springfield Armory introduced its Echelon in 2023, bringing a modernized, chassis-style, striker-fired handgun to the market that has since seen several notable line extensions.

Interests



Get the best of American Rifleman delivered to your inbox.