doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com For JOC/Win 21 fans

It’s been 48 years since O’Connor’s death and his 16ga Win 21, gifted to his son, has now come up for auction.

https://www.gunbroker.com/item/1148169378

Just for reference, what would you say this is worth if it belonged to the unknown son of a nobody?

For that much it better be walked across the country in a basket full of pillows filled with down from golden geese.

ROTFLMAO

A well used 16 gauge with a nice stick of wood, a skeletal buttplate and an extra set of barrels. IMHO, $7,000 to $8000.
Will someone of the next generation admire Jack O. as much as one of this or past generation? My guess, not.

Would anybody under 40 know the name of Jack O Connor. ??

John
Arrieta

Bob is about right. I would have asked about $8500.00 no matter who owned it. 21s are getting higher all the time. Especially two barrel sets. If it would have been a 20 gauge- it would have been-- asked a lot more for. Galazan would have cleaned it up and asked at least $12,000 or more. Somebody will buy it.

I would sure want to see the letter from Jacks son Bradford before I would ever consider bidding on this gun. There's simply too much BS clutter in the description & posted text from a book that sets off my BS detector, including the non-matching serial numbers of the barrel sets.

Then I question, if a gun like this does have the provenance background of being owned by a famous writer like Jack O'Connor. Why is it on GB rather than at one of the top auction houses that attract top tier buyers of such things.

So far this isn't passing my smell test.

Well, since he died in 1978, he doesn't use TikTok, have a blog or a YouTube channel so the answer is most likely no.

Absolutely! If O'Connor would have shot a Mossberg assault shotgun and worn a Glock on each hip and looked like Patton. 😄

This dealer has had consignment guns for years in his ads. High class business with very slow sales.

With all of the Crap and Whimsey put out by “The Factory” ,
there is not much by way of a Model 21 that isn’t a candidate for some kind of sniff test

“Well used” seems very, very kind in regards to this gun. “Rode, hard, and put away wet” would be far more honest. A beat up, off the face 16 gauge model 21 is worth $7K? Not in this part of town.

The ownership and provenance would have likely carried far more weight circa the year of our Lord 2000, or so. Now, not so much.

Best,
Ted

This is probably a legitimate O'Conner item. The seller is a long time dealer in fine guns and I have dealt with him. Absolutely top notch. I know he attends the annual O'conner meeting at the O'Conner Center in Lewiston Idaho. I know Brad has written letters on other guns that Jack owned. Seems like a pretty good buy to me if the gun isCwortsh 7-8k without the O'Conner provenance

Decades of Jack extolling his perceived virtues of short barrels in his Outdoor Life column is likely the reason so many vintage doubles are found with whacked barrels. The Keith family probably waited a bit too long to monetize Elmer's guns in the March 2015 Julia's Auction, and I suspect that is probably the case for Jack as well.

Monitization was proably never their first priority.

The gun sold a few minutes ago. It drew one bidder and sold for the opening bid of $10,000.

Also, in the auction was O’Connor’s 20ga SKB Model 280 also given to Bradford. It drew 3 bidders and sold for $3200.00.

I figured it would sell pretty high.

ZZZZZZZZZZZZ

why on earth would screws on the skeleton butt plate be out of time and the fit of it wasn't good either.

Maybe it doubled as Jack’s walking stick when he got a bit older?

Best,
Ted

Probably not factory. Or, it looks like he might have taking it off and used the gun without it.

The O'Connors couldn't keep the barrels straight on their two barrel sets. Their other 16 gauge two barrel set also has mismatched barrels. Two guns ruined. A nice field used $2800 Model 21 with an extra set of barrels for ebay. They should bring at least $400.