Winchester 21 - 16 bore in high society

[Silvers]

So today I shot 50 sporting with my Winchester 21 Skeet gun - 16 bore with its WS-1 and WS-2 barrel. She's a two barrel set and the second barrel is Mod & Full. Both 28-inch and weight with either barrel is 7^0 +/- a small fraction of an ounce. Here she is, second from left and flanked by a Benelli Super Sport Custom Shop gun and three competition Perazzis. The Winny shot pretty well but I can't say the same about a really long LOP Sterly Ejector gun I picked up recently and shot for the other 50. Two very different guns on the same clays outing, recipe for a poor score.

frank

click to expand

[Jeff S]

I don't know much about those Winchesters, but that's nice looking wood on that gun. Nice picture.

[Jim Cloninger]

Frank, I too have a M21 16, made in 1935, factory choked IC/IM. I have killed a lot of upland birds with this gun.
Jim

[Stan Hillis]

Great picture, Frank. Thanks. As to your comment about two very different guns on the same clays outing being a recipe for a poor score, I can only say ........... Amen!

SRH

[Silvers]

Thanks everyone. This is a pre War Model 21 that was sent back to Winchester for fitting of its M&F barrel and forend upgrade to the later type with brace and draw screw. Independent safety as typical for the M21 Skeet. She has the Winchester logo HRBP. The two barrels sure make her an all around gun for upland and ducks over backwoods streams, beaver ponds and swamps.

[Mike of the Mountain]

Geez, and you didn't allow me to drool over it???? Gotta love those sweet 16s.

[Silvers]

Well MIke, if you ventured out on the course with soft drinks (summer) or a thermos of coffee (winter) while my gang is shooting you'd be able to see and shoot some good guns.

I finally got around to requesting Cody research and yesterday received info that the original order sheet for this Model 21 isn't available but there’s a Repair Order dated late December 1944. Besides some other small work, it covered fitting an extra set of 16 gauge/28" barrels, Right Improved Modified and Left Full. Finished in mid-March 1945. That delay was no doubt due to war work. Interesting that the Right barrel breech is understamped Mod instead of Imp Mod. One of these days I'll get around to patterning her to compare bare shot with modern shotcup loads.

Old timers told me when I was a kid that shotgun shells were severely rationed during the War and I wonder why the owner gent got the second barrel set fitted right then? Said so many times, if these old guns could talk.

Ringneck load of my youth …..

[Researcher]

Old timers told me when I was a kid that shotgun shells were severely rationed during the War and I wonder why the owner gent got the second barrel set fitted right then?

In preparation for those eight Pheasant a day seasons in South Dakota in the years right after the War.