The Nicest Winchester I Never Shot

I'm going to Boise later this morning with those two Japanese Type 99's I wrote about, to get the receivers switched out, if you remember the story----it's in the archives.

So, in a "gun mood", I thought I'd write a gun article this morning before I get my left hand worked on tomorrow, and enclose a few photos of the Winchester I've never shot.

At least one time in your life, you have to INTENTIONALLY do something that doesn't make any sense.  All through my shooting years, I swore I would never buy a gun that I couldn't shoot......ie: one of those "pretty, inlaid, engraved commemoratives".

There've been many different ornate Winchester rifles, Colt revolvers and such, honoring statehoods, Presidents, Cowboy movie stars, you name it, and while they are REAL guns and completely shootable, they always recommend that you DON'T because  if you scratch it someplace, or "soot it up with burnt gunpowder, it takes away from the  "collectable value."  So you handle them with white gloves, or very clean rags----whatever.  All your friends "OOH and AAH" over them, and you gently enclose them in something soft and place them into the deepest bowels of your heaviest gun safe.

It's like having a "trailer-queen" show car, that gets transported from one show to the next, but never gets driven anywhere on its own.  It looks pretty and wins trophies, but you never really get to enjoy it.

Now, in reality, there's no such thing as a gun in "unfired condition" because they ALL have to be "proof-fired" before they ever leave the factory.  I read somewhere that those limited edition guns slated to be "commemoratives" are proof-fired and cleaned BEFORE they get inlaid & all "gussied-up", and it's from THIS point, that you shouldn't shoot them.

And of course, you'll PAY a lot more for an engraved John Wayne Colt, than you will for the same STANDARD ISSUE gun.  It's a matter of "pomp", and these special edition guns are more of a hassle, than anything else.

Well.................a year or so ago........my gunshop buddies out there had just come back from a big show at the Boise Fairgrounds and had purchased a few guns from a very elderly couple that they do business with every great now and then.  I've looked at commemorative guns for years now, and they'd just brought back a few more......but THIS one almost "leaped out" into my hands as I passed by it on the great wall racks back there.

It was a Model 94 Winchester 30-30, just like the ones we've all owned, or at least SHOT once in our lives.  Mechanically, no different than the 94's I own NOW and have hunted with..............and that's where the similarity ended.

It is an "Oregon Trail Commemorative", and just about the prettiest Winchester rifle I've ever seen.  I couldn't put it down,  It was clearly the prettiest (if a gun can be "pretty") rifle of the ones they'd bought from those old folks' collection.

I thought about it, set it back down "gingerly" into the rack and went home before I did something "foolish."  Over the next day or so, I thought about that rifle though.......then I started to get "paranoid" that someone else was gonna walk in there and BUY it!

Well......so what?.......it's not something you're gonna go out and shoot ANYWAY.   But ADDING to this scenario----the rifle was number 2 of 500!.........now, as a rule, whenever Winchester made a limited run of "State Commemoratives",  whoever was Governor at the time was always GIVEN the number 1 rifle for publicity.  So more than likely, whoever the governor of Oregon was at the time, had "Oregon Trail" #1.

This was number 2.

The tension mounted and my age old vow kept buzzing around in my head, about the foolishness of spending 3 or 4 times MORE for a rifle that you "can't" (or SHOULDN'T) shoot.

And then it happened.  The price on this rifle is suddenly cut in half.......not for the OTHER commemoratives, but just for THIS one, (and to MY mind, it CLEARLY outclassed the others).  As it turns out........they HAD to cut the price, because it was the only one they bought from that collection in Boise that did not still have it's original box with the fancy Winchester artwork on it....and apparently things like that COUNT FOR "POINTS" among the big money collectors.

I don't know what difference that makes, but I've seen it in the antique stores as well.  No matter how good of shape that toy "space ship" is.........they really jack the price up if it still has the box it CAME in!

Well.......back to our story.......I'M not a big-money collector, and having the "original box" didn't mean SQUAT to me, because if I bought it, it would have to come OUT of the box anyway, just to fit in its designated "slot" in the safe.

And now at HALF price, that box isn't going to matter EITHER, to some other guy who waltzes in there tomorrow!........"Command decision".............it's coming home with me TONIGHT!.....box or not (and it IS number TWO!)  At half price, it still cost twice what a standard new 30-30 did........but that's alright.  Even Donna likes it, but has reminded me that "this gun does NOT get shot!"

Once in a great while, I might bring it out of the safe to show it to a friend who might want to see it.

But I can post it HERE this morning without having to unlock a THING!

Even the bolt and hammer are "engine-turned & jeweled"  You really WOULDN'T want to shoot it.  The "original box"  just wasn't that important!  Yeah, "I'LL take it at a reduced price."  it only matters if you're buying it for re-sale, which I wasn't.

Well..........like I said, at least ONCE in your life, you just HAVE to do something that don't make a whole lot of sense, so I guess I'll just stare at THIS one from time to time, and shoot the REST of 'em.

(There is in my collection, a Winchester "Buffalo Bill" with a 26" octagon barrel that I HAVE shot, but this "Oregon Trail" is just gonna stay in the vault).

And so....as the sun rises in the east this morning, I probably need to think about getting dressed, pick up Donna for her "early lunch" break, and getting up to the Boise gunsmith with those two Japanese 99's................times like this, I sure do miss ol' Sam! (not that we all don't ANYWAY).

Y'all have a great day!