Winchester Model 42

There is something very appealing about the 410-calibre shotgun. It’s not for everyone, for sure, but it is one of those cartridges that is just great fun to shoot, as well as being a collector’s dream. Look at any range of shotguns and their rarity and it’s always the smaller calibre 410- or 28-gauge models that command the best prices. The 410 has limited hunting usage and range, although I love it, but it gives the clay shooter their hardest challenge to hit a speedy clay or will often send a collector weak at the knees when a similar gun in 12g will be half the price.

Love it or hate it, the 410 cartridge is no better defined than by the iconic Winchester 42 shotgun. Its big brother, the 12g (also 16g and 20g) Model 12 was ‘the’ pump action shotgun. The Model 42 was the perfect vehicle for Winchester’s new 3-inch cartridge, and despite its outwardly similar looks to the Model 12, this Model 42 was an all new design specifically or the 410 round.

Production started in 1932-33 and was the first pump gun to handle a 410 round. The 42 came in two models initially, the standard model and Skeet model. The standard model grade came as either a 26- or 28-inch barrel length in full, modified or cylinder choking but all with a 3-inch chamber. You also had an American walnut stock with a pistol grip and rounded forend with circular grooves for grip. The Skeet version had a 26-inch barrel bored true cylinder and wore a straight pistol grip, with chequering to both this and the extended forend.

Capacity is 6-shot with the usual sliding lever loading at the bottom of the action and with a shotgun of this era all parts are machined steel. It is this appeal, of well made and oldfashioned looks, that make the little Winchester very desirable to collects or to just take out on an evening’s rabbiting.

Spec

The Model 42 is a lovely trim shotgun that weighs a lightweight 6lbs with a 28-inch barrel or 5lbs 12ozs with a 26-inch barrel. It is the classic take-down Winchester design, separating barrel and forend from the action and butt stock, allowing easy packing for a long trek or storage.

The barrels are made from Winchester’s Proof Steel and have a classic rounded profile without a rib at the start of its manufacture. A single gold bead up by the muzzle is your sighting device and as such is just what I like, look at the game and the shotgun will follow. Finish is a high-polished blue that matches the action and even after nearly ninety years this pensioner showed a lovely lustre, with only a small amount of light pitting.

The action is a work of art in its own right. It is very slim and low profiled and has a panel on the right that can be removed for take down and access to the internals for cleaning. This, and all the parts within, are steel and all fit like a Swiss watch- old world quality. They are built to last and certainly have in this version, as it functioned perfectly.

Unlike some of Winchester’s 22 rimfire rifles, this Model 42, like the model 12 has a hammerless design. In other words, the hammer that strikes the firing pin is enclosed within the action casing and makes for a far better looking and practical design overall. The bolt is polished steel and is operated by twin action bars that ride along the magazine tube with every pump of the forend. This lifts the magazine shell lifter and positions a new cartridge directly into the bolt face, so that a reliable feed is ensured. The extraction is equally good, with powerful extractor claws that really get a hold of that spent case rim and flings the empty well clear. Magazine capacity is set at six shots of the three-inch cartridges, although you can feed her 2½-inchers too.

Trigger-wise, the small polished steel trigger blade is set back quite far in the similarly trim trigger guard and has a very good (for a shotgun) trigger pull of 4.25lbs. In front of the trigger blade set into the front of the trigger guard is a small chequered safety button. This is your standard cross safety type and as such just blocks the trigger movement.

Everybody’s sweetheart!

The production run on the Model 42 spanned from 1933 to 1963 and proved so popular that it was called ‘Everybody’s Sweetheart’. Even if you don’t rate the pipsqueak 410 round, it seems that every American hunter has to have one, or like us Brits with the Webley 410 bolt action, learnt to shoot with one! Other models and grades soon followed and custom gunmakers soon got into the action and produced some truly awe-inspiring Mode 42s.

Standard grades had a plain barrel and no chequering with a rounded forend and circular grooves for grip, which is equally very endearing and classic for its time period and dates the little Winchester well. Skeet grade had chequering, a better grade of walnut with a longer, plain chequered forend and a top rib, either plain or ventilated.

The Trap grade, built from 1934 to 1939, had a straight or pistol grip, better grade walnut with diamond type chequering and a plain or solid rib and marked Trap. The Deluxe grade, as it says, is a step up from the Trap model in terms of walnut colour and figuring and the Pigeon Grade is a deluxe model with an engraved Pigeon on the magazine tube and is extremely rare.

Regardless of model, the 42 is a great handling shotgun and its styling and functionality really gets into the blood and it may sound odd, but it feels and smells nostalgic, which is half its appeal.

Today, here in Britain, the Model 42 is pretty rare and if you see one, my advice is snap it up pretty sharply, otherwise I will! Prices vary enormously, dependent on grade and condition, but a standard grade in working order can still fetch £650 plus, so a deluxe or skeet model would be up to a grand.

Collectors pay thousands for rare models or engraved examples, so keep those eyes peeled, a Model 42 may just capture your heart, as well as your wallet.