doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com "Cult Guns"

Just for the fun of it, what shotguns, rifles, handguns and cartridges would you place in the "cult" catagory?

I'm not sure how to discribe "cult", but IMO its guns that are no longer made, that are sought after to be used and not just collected.

I'm asking this question on some of the other boards.

Since I am a Model 21 Winchester guy (5 of them) I would have to say 21s but that is my bias. Certainly the English, Parkers, and LC Smiths are there too. But as I am a rather large guy 21s are my cult. HuntersDad

I visited engraver Ken Hurst yesterday and saw what cult guns really are. His clients are taking advantage of his past claim to fame as Winchester factory engraver of the last of the Super-X Model 1. His recent commissions exceed all factory examples, but only a hard core "Cult Gun" originally offered for a couple of hundred bucks retail can support the addition of thousands of dollars of fine engraving and inlay work. My vote is for the Super-X.

Good choise, Bill.

hd, all 21s a considered collectable. Only certain versions are cult.

I can see already on all the boards that most folks are confusing "cult guns" with "collectable guns".

"Cult Guns" are the S&W Model 29 of Dirty Harry fame and the Winchester 73 of the Jimmy Stewart movie of that title.

Remington model 600s. Nylon 66 Remington 22s. Original lever break H&R single's. Charlin's.
Ahlman's did a crackerjack business converting worn out Remington 742 auto highpower rifles into pumps a few years past, if you have a Remington pump deer rifle that the front wood doesn't match the back wood, you have a cult gun by default.
Best,
Ted

Cult guns become collectibles because there are so many "want to be's" in this world. Some thing like 90% of the .458s made have never been to Africa. The 44 mags have a cult following that you can trace back to the Dirty Harry movies.

Here are a few more guns for your list.

Automag.
Model 12
cowboy shotguns with hammers and bobbed barrels.
Military guns like the M1, 30 Cal. Carbine and AK's.
Anything with Winchester on the side except Model 24's. Never heard a cult based on ugly.
Darnes and the look a likes.
Snobs with any "British game guns"

Well, there's always the "Cult .45", 1911 or 1873. -- Ed

I do think that Bill Murphy did a good job of defining the characteristics of a cult gun on another board, one which has a bit of a rabid, yet nonetheless relatively small, dedicated following, said following resulting in prices that are rising faster than guns in general as the gun develops its cult (that it didn't have originally), and usually has some unique characteristic that endears it to its followers (and often is derided by others), tend to not be ubiquitous, and often has some interesting history to debate.

I do again nominate the Winchester SX-1 for this category (in this Bill and I agree).

- Those who love this gun (myself included) are passionate about it (to the extent of pouring ridiculous money into engraving, restocking, etc...oh, my aching bank account LOL)
- Prices have rapidly increased in the last few years
- To those who love this gun, its a bank vault solid hunk of machined steel, still reflects the tooled steel manufacturer of by gone years (no stamped 1100 parts here), and screams "last of the classic Winchesters". To others it's a rail road tie of an automatic (their loss )
- quanties made are relatively small (compared to 1100 or 3XX series Beretta autos)and given its out of production status its probably not the auto a new shooter would try to buy and maintain
- Most of the records are lost adding to some mystery about date of manf and config differences, etc.

I sill shortly have one of the most expensive SX-1s probably ever made...and I can't justify it other than by my love for this gun and a desire to bring one to its ultimate state and honor the Win tradition.