Another 3rd Model story that was tough to confirm---or at least to explain was that some/many 3rd Model Targets wouldn't letter as such. I knew the story, but didn't know the why of it. Now we get into the good news, bad news part. I'm hot on the trail of a 3rd Target------one of less than 200 made, so says conventional wisdom. The good news there is it's as new. The bad news is the owner says he has a letter----but can't find it. (??!!!) There are BIG BUCKS involved to get to the end of this trail, and I'm not about to go there until I understand this "won't letter" business. I ask around, and nobody knows diddly. I ask Jinks---phone call. He tells me the gun I'm asking about was made in 1938, and that I'm "good to go"!------and that's the end of the conversation---no time for chit-chat. I'm a damn sight better off than I was before, but I still don't know the why of it.
I call Ed Cornett. He knows EVERYTHING---and has all the time in the world to explain it to me---or at least takes all the time needed to explain it to me. The first order shipped to W&K is heavy with fixed sight guns----way heavier than they'd anticipated would be the demand for targets. So as to meet the demand for targets, they ship a bunch of fixed sight guns back to be converted to targets----and everybody's happy---everybody except for folks who get a letter on a target that was originally shipped as a fixed sight gun----and the letter says it's a fixed sight gun. WHOOPS!!!!
Mine lettered as a TARGET. Now when Jinks told me I was good to go, it was because he knew the guns that were converted were earlier guns---originally shipped in the later 1920's---I didn't. Now I do!
"Too soon we get old, and too late we get smart!"------but I got smart in plenty of time!
Ralph Tremaine
