While making room for recent issues and deciding what to keep and discard, I ran across the following from an article by Vic Venters in the Jan.-Feb. 2003 issue of Shooting Sportsman. Venters interviewed Tony Galazan about the "new" CSMC M-21 introduced in 2002, and toured CSMC to observe its manufacture. The quoted info below follows a brief history of Galazan's/CSMC.
"The Fox gun debuted in 1994, about the same time the ambitious Galazan was negotiating with USRAC to buy the Winchester Custom Shop -- lock, stock and barrel. The deal went through in 1996, with Galazan purchasing all parts and inventory along with the right to make a limited number of high-grade guns and to perform repairs. And with that, the Winchester Model 21 was reborn, albeit quietly and only in the highest grades. Also, due to the vagaries of the business agreement between USRAC and CSMC, new M-21s bearing the Winchester name were expensive -- beginning at an astounding $50,000,for Grand American-and-above-quality guns. This effectively put them out of reach for all but the wealthiest collectors.
... Arriving last year to fill the gap between rising demand for old 21s and the staggering prices of new Winchester Custom Shop guns were CSMC's new M-21s. These new guns begin at about $10,000 for a Grade 21-1 and climb from there. Though this is hardly inexpensive, new 21s remain approachable by a far larger segment of the shooting community than would a new Custom Shop version. (New Winchester-marked 21s will still be available, although Galazan is keen to stress that CSMC 21s "have nothing to do with the Winchester Custom Shop.")"
Don, I guess we didn't make this up.
Jay
