doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Ultimate Winchester 21 collection, up for grabs...

The ad states that all guns are manufactured "post 1959." Other than the factual nature of this statement, what is the significance of the statement? Was there a design or manufacturing change in 1959? Ownership change of Winchester? Thanks.

1959 was the year production of the standard Winchester Model 21 stopped. Due to the insistence of Mr. John Olin, in 1960 the Custom Shop began, mainly because Mr. Olin did not want to see the Model 21 die. Other custom guns were made in the custom shop, such as Model 12's and others, but it appears the main impetus of the Custom Shop, was the continued life and production of the Model 21.

I did not make a comment about the quality of the guns being offered. I only stated that the guns in this sale will disappear into collections and the value of Custom Era 21s will not suffer.

I hope you are right. :-)

Thanks for your response. I assume all the higher grade model 21s were also made pre-1959 as well?

No, the majority of Custom Shop guns were graded, whereas the majority of pre-1960 guns were standard grade. Some pre-1960 were beautiful high grade guns, though, but a minority.

I see that my prior inquiry was poorly and ambiguously worded. What I meant was that, prior to 1959, did Winchester produce all grades of the model 21, including fancy grades? In other words, there is no particular distinction or value accorded to pre-or post 1959 guns of the same grade, is that right?

The Grand American and Pigeon Grades are post 1959 grades. Guns of similar specifications, with rounded frames, were made throughout production, but are rare. Everything made post 1959 had the rounded frame, with all degrees of decoration, from no engraving to very elaborate engraving. The bluepike.tripod.com Model 21 website is still available, even though the webmaster has declared it closed. That is your best chance at learning about Model 21s of all eras. You can look at the pages of the post 1959 catalogs and others as well. My unique Model 21 Salesman's Portfolio is also pictured.

During the 1930s and early 1940s Winchester offered the Model 21 Custom Built Grade which could be just about anything the customer was willing to pay for, such as the Chrysler gun or the Wiley Post gun. By 1946 this became the Model 21 DeLuxe Grade. By the 1950 Winchester catalogue the "standardized" engraving patterns are listed 21-1 to 21-6 and the 21-A and 21-B carving for the stocks. From the catalogue pictures it appears these gun could be built on the rounded frame (like the Chrysler gun) or the profiled frame (like the Wiley Post Gun). By the 1952 Winchester catalogue they reverted to calling it the Model 21 Custom Built Grade.

Thanks for this info Bill -- last time I tried to get Mike's site my anti-virus software blocked it as an infected site.

Jay