I was going to reply to this last week but figured I'd wait until after I had gone to the range this past Saturday to give a better report.
I used to have a Winchester 1200 Defender and now currently have a 1300 Defender. It's rarely been used as I really don't know of any gun ranges where I could shoot it. But I had some friends going out to ETTS to shoot in a Tac Bay last Saturday and figured I'd bring the 1300 along to get a feel for it. I asked a buddy of mine to bring his 870 and another friend of mine happened to have brought his Stoeger pump.
I was surprised at how "bad" the Winchester trigger was compared to either of the other shotguns. Real gritty where as the others were fairly smooth. The shotgun is over 20 years old and has mostly sat in a closet the whole time; I think this is only the second or third time it's been shot. Other than the trigger, cycling the action was smooth on the Winchester but I found myself short stroking all of the shotguns on occasion unless I made a conscious decision to be forceful with it. Guess it goes to show that having a shotgun handy doesn't automatically make it the best option unless you've had some time practicing with it.
Anyone else shot the 1200/1300 and had issues with the trigger? I'm really kinda bummed out about that but maybe it will smooth out after more trigger time.
