Shoots like a 28; carries like a 12. What's to like about that? Gil
I see a lot of potential here...
Have the bores of those heavy varmint/bench-rest barrels rifled, add a set of express sights, machine some nice brass cases, order an appropriate paper patch bullet mold and loading dies, and viola... you have a sweet Winchester .550 caliber double rifle!
If you're ok with 6" crossfiring @ 40 yds. Got regulation?
JR
John, honest to God, as I typed that somewhat facetious post, I just knew someone would confront me about it. I actually thought it would be some comment about just how someone would manage to rifle the tubes of an assembled double barrel set. But I imagine there is some talented machinist/gunsmith that could accomplish that.
I do indeed know a bit about regulation. A few years ago, I bought a .450 BP Express double rifle to celebrate being done paying college tuition for my kids after they graduated. That felt like getting a really nice raise. Little did I know that it would have been smarter to be irresponsible, and have them bury themselves in student loan debt... and then wait for the anti-gun Democrat Biden to dump their repayment obligation onto hard working taxpayers like you.
I did not have any idea what the regulation load for this rifle was. The owner had died, it was consigned to a dealer, and it looked almost unfired anyway. So I had to develop a load that would shoot both barrels to the same point of aim. After buying dies and a supply of .450 Nitro Express brass, I bought a third edition of "Shooting the British Double Rifle by Graeme Wright". I also read all that I could on the subject in the archives here, over on the Nitro Express forum, and DGJ articles by Ross Seyfried and others. Then I decided to abandon the Nitro for Black 4198 smokeless loads with compressed Dacron filler I worked up, and switch to Black Powder. I also have decided to switch from 300 grain Hornady bullets and use paper patch lead bullets, so there will be more regulation work. My gun is fairly light for a .450 double rifle, and I was concerned about the reports of smokeless NFB loads ringing the chambers. I like Black Powder anyway, and cleaning up after shooting is not hard at all.
I wonder then, just how you know that this heavy barreled 28 gauge would give 6" of cross-firing at 40 yards? What if it was more, or less? Could we perhaps make it shoot to a desired point of aim by changing powders or charge weight, bullet weight, etc. It's all just something to think about, because we can be pretty certain that any motivation for buying this Model 21 would be to upgrade or flip a rare variation for a quick profit.
To me, the most interesting point made in this thread is the revelation by eightbore that a Cody Letter is not sacrosanct, and this thing isn't Kosher anyway. I think most of us were under the impression that they were one of the best ways to determine originality of many guns. I'd be very interested in hearing more about this subject.
