Find a gun you had sought for a long -Did you compromise with self to get it?

[rburg]

Many of the factory M21s had the butt checkered. No butt plate, just some very nice checkering. It seems to fit me pretty well as is, so I'm not doing any modifications to mine. My guess is there are screw holes into the butt, too. I've never even seen anyone do that kind of work. I know the factory stocks don't seem to split or anything. And as usual, I don't do a really good inspection like I should.

At the Lexington, KY gun show a guy has one he's been hauling around way too long. And I was just looking at the stock and the figure, not the butt. There's another show in a month and I guess the guy will be back, and he'll probably have the gun if he hasn't sold it. So this time I'll play "bluegill" and nibble around the edges for a good long while.

The only place I know of a serial number table is in my book on them. I don't have a copier that I can take a photo of the table, and my memory is way too bad to trust it. Guess another couple of pounds needs to go along with me.

 

[2152hq]

Model 21 ser#'s can be years off from what the number would seem to indicate when the gun was shipped from the factory. The frames were made in 2 batches at Winchester, numbered and then shelved for use. The first guns made pretty much followed the serial number progression well as the gun was an assembly line item the first few years.
When it was sent to the Custom Shop to be built,,frames were plucked off the rack at random and many of the numbers are way out of range from one another dispite being all built to order at that point.

All the M21's had some form of grip and forend checkering on them from the field grade on up. The Skeet Grade had the end of the butt stock wood shaped, finished & checkered as standard and that feature could also be ordered as an option on other grades from the Custom Shop.
Some 21's fitted w/a pad or plate have the stock hollowed out underneath to reduce weight and/or improve balance. Some have since had that feature filled back in with a large one piece plug of wood glued into place. I have a nice 20ga I'm refinishing the wood on now that has had that done to it and a repro butt plate added. Who knows if it may have had a pad on it or not.
21's are like so many other guns,,the owners just can't seem to just leave them alone,,but it kept me in biz!

Several different pads including full and half leather covered were offered by Winchester.
Lot's of options on the 21.

 

[rwsmith]

Taurus or Ruger.......

I decided that my budget was more in the line of getting a Ruger SP101 or Taurus 66. I thought, "If I get one of these I'll always wish I had a 686." So I thought I'd save myself all that and spring for the S&W. I haven't been the least bit sorry. In fact, it's more the opposite. I like to pull it out and it never fails to make an impression. And it's just as impressive when it shoots.