Bill: It sounds like you had a great opportunity as a youth to hunt with some fine doubles.I only say this with envy but the only 21 I hunted with in my younger days may have been the 21 dollars in my pocket, if i was lucky. Thomas

i mite have had 2 bits and a box of 22 shorts in my pocket..them winchester 21 s have always been outa my reach....in fact have never seen a 21 in person or held one..charlie

Can someone post a picture of a canoe paddle 21 please. I have never seen one.

#4552. 20 gauge, 28", Double Trigger, "Canoe Paddle". 6 lbs
http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/k...ps227ba8de.jpg

I like the early model 21 Winchesters if I bought one for myself I would get the early style, but I prefer double triggers and have no preference for extractor/ejectors. The only thing the later ones have on the early ones is the wood is usually of higher quality and of nicer shape. Charlie you are welcome to shoot my 21 anytime I do not think my dad would mind.

Thomas, I dreamed about Model 21s from the time I was given a 1955 Winchester catalog when I was ten years old. A few years later, I was a starving college freshman when my Dad asked me about two guns that were listed in the classifieds of the Washington Post. A gentleman was offering a pair of 21s in an oak and leather Purdey trunk case for $1000. I told my Dad that Model 21s in standard grades were no longer being made and the new Custom Grades were $1000 each. We decided to go and look at them. They were a brand new 20 gauge 28" Skeet and a brand new 12 gauge 28" Field Grade. The two gun Purdey case was in very good shape also. The seller said they were his parents' guns and he had split up the Purdeys and kept the case. My Dad was smitten with the guns and asked if I could pay for one if he paid for the other. I told him I could just about cover it, so we went home with them. He took the 20 and I just about wore the blue off the 12 over the next few years of bird hunting and clay target shooting. I still have the 20, which has not been fired more than a few hundred times and is still new. It was part of my and Kevin McCormack's excellent Model 21 display at Baltimore in 2013.

Bill: Thanks for sharing that story with us. I only wish I could have done something like that with my Dad and still have the gun. Thomas

Bill and Kevin - Can you bring the Model 21 display out again in 2015? I would like to take a close look at it and get a little schooling. Billy

Billy, in decades of creating double gun, mostly Parker related, annual displays at Baltimore, we have never repeated a display. Kevin may have some pictures of the 2013 award winning display.

:corn: