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| An Example of complete
'Flaking' on a Model-21 trigger plate.
'Flaking', the common term used to describe disproportionate bluing wear
on a Model 21, especially on the trigger plate. |
(click on the photo for a close-up)
Pre-War 20 Gauge Skeet #11,334 and a period Winchester Case
|
Number 11,334
is a made for stock 20 gauge Skeet gun with 26 inch barrels built in 1937. The
barrels and receiver show very little bluing wear, so I doubt it was used for competitive
skeet shooting. The lack of scratches on the stock finish and sharp checkering don't
tell of may days afield, either. But virtually all bluing on the floor plate and
trigger guard is gone(see below).
(click on the photo for a close-up)
#11,334 shows very little stock or metal wear.
According to Schwing1
Winchester used three bluing methods on the Model 21. Rust bluing on the barrels for
the entire production period, carbonum bluing and heat treating for frame, trigger plate,
trigger guard and a variant of the carbonum process for the unpolished small parts until
1939. Between 1939 and the beginning of the war Winchester experimented with
different bluing processes. After World War II all the parts, except the barrels,
were dip blued using Du-Lite blue.
Conventional gunshop wisdom says that the trigger plate and guard
were of different alloys and heated differently (harder) than the receiver. But the
Winchester used the same steel alloy and heat treating for all three parts2. |
| Careful
examination of the #11,334's plate and guard shows that in
some areas the bluing is still intact, areas not normally touched when the gun is
handled. This wear pattern suggests that another factor or factors contribute to the
bluing failure. Possibly a reaction between the salts and oils deposited from the
hands and the blued, heat-treated alloy and/or the bluing on the trigger plate and guard
did not penetrate as deep as on the receiver and is therefore more vulnerable to corrosion
and erosion. If the bluing simply 'didn't take' to #11,334's trigger plate, then
over time all of the bluing would have disappeared evenly across the entire trigger
plate. Look closely at the area adjacent to the trigger. Furthermore, the
bluing on the floorplate of Model 70 #696, made in 1936, failed in exactly the same way
while all the bluing remains on the floorplate hinge and screw and the plunger
release. Compare the trigger-guard bluing protected by the magazine cover to the
exposed surfaces of the trigger guard (right photo). Look closely at the floor plate
hinge (left photo), even though it is recessed below the stock the bluing turned
completely brown. |
The following photographs illustrate my point that more than just
handling wear is the cause of the uneven bluing failure.
Close up views of #11,334 Pre-War 20 Gauge Skeet.
(click on the photo for a close-up)
Compare the bluing on the trigger guard to the bluing on the trigger guard screw. The
trigger guard screw retains much more bluing, despite having the same hand contact
history!
(click on the photo for a close-up)
Like the guard screw the trigger plate screw retains most of it's bluing.
(click on the photo for a close-up)
Pre-War Skeet gun #6,858 has considerable bluing wear, but notice how
the trigger plate bluing is wearing faster than the surrounding frame bluing.
(click on the photo for a close-up)
The bluing of the trigger plate on Duck Gun #30,136,
made in 1954 displays early signs of failing similar to the guns above.
(click on the photo for a close-up)
Skeet gun #23,359,
made in 1949, shows no evidence of floor plate bluing failure. I've shot over two
thousand rounds of clays and skeet with this gun and hunted Kansas and South Dakota enough
to wear half of the bluing off the fore-end latch without any discernable wear to the
trigger plate.
1Ned. Schwing, Winchester's Finest The Model 21
(Iola, Wisconsin, 1990), pp. 43-44.
2Ibid.
©01/05/10 M.C.
Manges
