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

SIG P211 01
SIG P211 01

New For 2025: SIG Sauer P211-GTO

SIG Sauer introduced its first hybrid-frame, 2011-style pistol at its 2025 NEXT product launch event, and the P211-GTO blends features from the M1911 with design elements from the P320.

Sellmark Breaks Ground On “Verdexium” Project

In an effort to reduce reliance on international supply chains and bolster domestic manufacturing, Sellmark Corp.—parent company of the Sightmark, Pulsar, Inforce, Kopfjäger, Firefield, BulletSafe and Dark 30 brands—has broken ground on a new manufacturing complex in Mansfield, Texas, that it calls a “transformative force for American-led growth and innovation.”

Gun Of The Week: Heritage Manufacturing 92

American Rifleman staff are on the range with one of the most iconic lever-actions ever created, except this one has a bit of a plot twist—it is a model made overseas and imported by Heritage Manufacturing.

The Armed Citizen® July 25, 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.

Victory In The Air: One Smith & Wesson Victory Revolver's Story

A primary source investigation into the service history of a Smith & Wesson Victory revolver used by the U.S. Navy in the Pacific Theater during World War II.

Firearm Industry Responds To Aid Texas Flood Victims

Only a few days after the tragedy struck, two of the firearm industry’s foremost companies were raising funds for the victims and organizations dedicated to providing support through devastating floods in Texas.

Interests



Get the best of American Rifleman delivered to your inbox.