Perpetuated Oddities

If you spend enough time in the gun business, you learn better than to say that Winchester, Colt, Smith & Wesson, Remington, or anyone else “Never did this.”

I am about to do the unspeakable…

We received an inquiry from a gent. His question has to do with a Winchester Model 12 shotgun and whether or not it was ever produced in a left-side-eject/left-handed version. He bases his question in an image printed in the George Madis book, “The Winchester Model 12″. On Page 83, there is an image of a Model 12 with a factory-installed Cutts compensator.

The issue here is that the image shows the right side of the gun, with no visible ejection port. My belief is that the image used in the publication of the book was flopped, creating a reverse image. In other words, Winchester never did this.

There. I said it. At least I won’t be here next week when someone shows up with one…

Cheers,

Dave K.

Thanks to all of the supporters and firends I met over the last (nearly) six years!

Heading Home

I am sitting at gate D43 in McCarran Airport, waiting for boarding to start. The weekend here in Vegas was topped off by attending the Greg Martin Auction yesterday.

I had some thoughts about the auction that resurfaced this morning while reading this post on the L.C. Smith Collectors Association forums.

While the subject matter in the forum posts applies, in general, to all collecting, it also helps to bring to light the differences between the different collector areas.

Europeans in general, and Brits in particular, have no issue with rebuilding/refinishing guns as they are still tools for the most part. Classic/antique shotguns are still used by the gentry and American tourists to go birding. Working guns, just like classic cars, need to be rebuilt occasionally and there is an expectation of this.

As I saw at the auction, the Colt Collectors wanted a factory letter that supported the various aspects of the gun, but it did not really cause a problem if the gun did not match the letter.

Winchester Collectors, on the other hand, will not normally give a gun a second look if it does not match the letter exactly.

Glad I’m not paid enough to collect.

Cheers,
Dave