I was doing some research to find out the differences between the older 1300 models and the newer SXP version. This is from an "American Hunter" article:
"The 1300 was made in the New Haven, Conn., Winchester plant until it closed in January 2006. At the time, Winchester management agreed with the union not to make the 1300 for three years. Winchester re-engineered the gun, renamed it, and found a Turkish vendor to produce it. Those guns are coming into the country now in 3-inch, 12-gauge, both as an 18-inch, cylinder-bored Defender model and a field gun with a 26- or 28-inch barrel. My test gun was a field model with a 28-inch barrel.
The SXP is not a Turkish-designed gun with an American brand. It’s a gun made to Winchester’s specifications in Turkey. The new gun combines the lines of the popular Super X3 semi-auto, the old fast-pumping action, and several significant improvements over the old model. Says Glenn Hatt, Winchester product manager: “This gun will function better than any 1300 ever made.”
Available in black synthetic, the 1300 takes styling cues from the Super X3. The stock has the X3’s semi-Cubist pattern of lines and planes. Red W’s here and there decorate the stock and receiver, and it even has replicas of the X3’s Quadra-Vent in the forearm. Of course, gas vents on a pump serve no purpose; they’re like the chromed, fake vent holes on the sides of 1950s cars.
More significantly, the SXP has the X3’s rib profile and stock dimensions, a near-parallel comb arrangement that fits many shooters. It also has the soft “Inflex” recoil pad with a hard insert on the heel found on the X3 and Browning Maxus semi-autos. The barrel is bored to Browning’s standard overbore of .742, and the gun takes Invector-Plus chokes.
Among the changes to improve the durability of the SXP is the elimination of the distinctive “fishtail,” V-shaped joint between the head of the stock and the rear of the receiver. The new straight-line joint is much stronger, while the receiver itself is made of aircraft-grade aluminum that is tougher than the impact-extruded aluminum of the old guns. Inside, the action bars and the plate upon which the bolt sits have been made from three pieces into one. Not only does that make the gun much easier to take apart—you can remove the action bars and bolt as one piece—it eliminates a source of wiggle and wear that was a weakness of the old design."