The best I've ever owned is a pre war Model 42 Winchester 2 1/2" chamber Skeet Grade #48,306 with solid rib and Cutts Compensator. Soon after I bought the 42 in November of 1985, my friend, Jerry Mouer, invisibly fixed a big chip at the head of the stock and installed a reproduction 1922 Winchester pad. I shot my first NSSA skeet competition in 1974, but have only used this 42 in competition when my regular guns break, about three times in 23 years. However, I have shot more .410 bullets out of this 42 than any other .410 I have owned. I have also shot more game with this gun than with all of my other bird guns combined. Of course, a few thousand head are seventeen year locusts that we shoot by the thousands with unplugged .410 repeaters in one patch of brush in front of our skeet fields. Even though this traditional shoot takes place only every seventeen years, I think it may be coming up again before I wear this gun out. Why is this such a great gun? Well, about fifteen or twenty years ago, I shot 244 X 250 American skeet birds with this gun in one day. I have never done such a thing with any other gun before or since and don't expect to. In 1991, my skeet gun broke in the second round of our state skeet shoot. I switched to the 42 on the final two rounds and broke 49 of the last 50 birds in a driving rain. Obviously, there is something about this gun that goes beyond what shows on the surface. For the first ten years or so that I owned this gun, it was a maddening experience. The chamber is so tight, any shell shot in another gun could not be resized in my MEC loader to fit in this gun. I had to segregate all my empties into batches, one batch just for this gun. When I bought a PW800B, I could finally load my shells without worrying about them not fitting in my 42. I haven't fired a shot from this old gun in a couple of years, but I guess it's time to get her out. Dove season starts in a week or so. My real name is Bill Murphy, and, yes, I also own a double gun.
