doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Winchester 21 engraving?

Hi,Do factory engraved 21's have the initial's of the engraver on the gun? If so,can anyone tell me where? Thank you

I suggest you pose this question to the FEGA forum. fega.com

In general, most factory Winchester engraved Model 21's do not have the inital's of the engraver on the gun. This includes Model 21's manufactured during the 'Production' era and 'Custom Shop' era.
CSMC manufactured model 21's do have the initals of the engraver at least on the one I have, on the side of the trigger guard at the reciever, its actually the first intial and last full name.
We recently researched a gun attributed to Nick Kusmit engraved Model 21 Pigeon Grade http://www.model21shotgun.com/showthread.php?p=179#post179 with his initals on the gun. Information straight from Nick was that this gunwas not in his records. Cody records show that this gun left Winchester as a stock Field grade.
For more information from other Model 21 fans, you can Register on my website.-Dick

In that 2007 thread, you suggested that Cody has records of Nick Kusmits engraving projects. What is the latest knowledge about what Cody has on engraved guns, Model 21 as well as other models that came out of the Custom Shop?

Would a Cody letter authenticate all engraved gun's?

My information is, at this time Cody can only supply information on Winchester Model 21's as they left the factory. If the Cody record says the Model 21 is engraved and it matches the gun in hand, that's all the information that can be had.
I don't know what is meant by "all engraved gun's?". Do you mean all Winchester's or all Winchster Model 21's?
Nick Kusmit still maintains his own records and I don't know if that information has been transmitted to Cody.
The gun we researched was a stock factory Model 21 without engraving according to the Cody letter. Nick Kusmit supplied the verification that he had engraved the gun after Winchester employment. He had put his initals on the gun, something that was not done while employed at Winchester.-Dick

Hi Dick.I joined the 21 website.If a 21 left the factory engraved would a Cody letter say so? I e-mailed you pics of the gun in question. Thanks Ed

email from Cody:
"We recently digitized Kusmit's personal activity logs. The Kusmit logs are not currently available for extended research as we have not had the opportunity to thoroughly assess the information in order to make them readily researchable. We will be offering extended research into the Kusmit records after September 1, 2009. I encourage you to contact me at that time to discuss the availability of the records."

I assume they are referring to Nick Kusmit only, not John Kusmit. The most confusing part of researching fairly late Winchester engraved guns up to 1948 is determining whether John Kusmit or George Ulrich engraved a gun when both were employed at Winchester.