By father bequeathed his fathers Win Model 42 field grade to me. I'm a skeet shooter so I had the choke opened from full to skeet, had the barrel restamped and sent it to New York to have an original solid rib put on it and then finished the project with beautiful wood from Wenig checkered in original Grade V pattern.
People have commented it was almost sacrilege to take an original Model 42 in 98
% condition and "modifiy" it. I always counter with the fact I'll never sell the gun and wanted to enjoy shooting it on the skeet range.
Many of us who are of the age to recognize, enjoy and continue to shoot Model 12's, Model 42's, Model 31's, Super X 1's, Browning Auto 5's, etc. are getting long in the tooth and since time and tide wait for no man, the shooting ranks of our generation will continue to diminish.
While sitting around the B.S. table at the gun club, my fellow shooteres often bemoan the fact that the next and younger "generation" will not recognize, let alone appreciate, these fine(r) old guns.
Just wondering if this subject is brought up and discussed in shooting circles elsewhere around the country ?
Noel