Ardent
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
Last year, perched on a rock with my machine waiting for a fire crew saving a small rustic fishing ‘lodge’ in the NWT, a young crew who wanted the glory and no help from above to my boredom induced irritation I’d add, I had an epiphany. Now for perspective I was sitting far from home in a very remote place, and doing it solidly 1980s.
That is on the skid of an 80s production machine, with nothing but day dreams, head scratchers, pebble toss and a well read copy of Catcher in the Rye to pass the time. I watched ants move their colony in its entirety, all the pupae being trundled in an hours long procession to a new unburned location presumably available somewhere- I couldn’t see many from the air, and wished them luck.
In times like this simple thoughts hit you, like “why for Fox Lake haven’t I done that…” Maybe it’s the isolation and separation from where and what you actually want to be doing that sparks these qualms with one’s projects and plans. Maybe it the isolation from forum banter and online shopping diversion. In short the thought that hit me, is as a fervent fan of doubles, why was I without a rifled one? There was a lot of personal history being ignored.
That is to say nothing points better for me, I love their short lengths with nearly no ‘action’ to contend with, and above all their simplicity and take down attributes. They are ‘my sort of gun.’ as an iron sight hunter wherever I go, and point and shootable gun devotee. I noted long ago my busiest guns are iron sighted takedowns, it’s just what I grab when I actually have to leave for somewhere far flung… or close flung and I want that feeling of being afar.
Well the blatantly obvious solution to my crawling and perpetual existential gun project question of what my next remote work and utility gun should be, was as hidden as putting a few obvious things together… I love doubles. I love Winchesters. And what do I already own. Well my favourite gun, aside from my most important pair of guns from my grandfather which is a separate subject, is a Winchester 21 Duck.
This is the 3”, heavy fowling 30” Model of the 21, which I believe to be the best double ever made. Also another subject, but one easily defended. There is in short, not a thing I dislike about it- except long barrels. I’m a fan of short barrels, and while I’ll happily shoot trap with the 30” Duck, that’s all I did it with. Well in that moment atop a hot 3 billion year old chunk of scorched granite amidst an army of ants, I suddenly wondered why I hadn’t found a second set of barrels somehow, cut them down and iron sighted them.
A year later, I have a more family friendly career direction if no less exciting, and more spare time. I’ve been at the work bench again for the first time in anger, in years. Unbroken, eight hour bench days are something I can manage again from time to time. Probably helps my kids are getting too old, too fast, talk back and have good points too. It’s just perhaps that time in life, middle age. Best be getting my projects rolling down slope before I get to the bottom of the hill first and don’t get to use the finished product as intended.
So upon landing back in a long since evacuated NWT town, I bummed brief starlink access and found a set of 21 barrels at CSMC. I ordered, had the wife pay, set up the import, then went back to work. Some months after fire season they arrive, the barrels getting stacked in my office awaiting their fate. It takes more commitment to put a saw to a set of Model 21 barrels, even orphaned ones than does getting engaged. I certainly thought about committing to the sawing longer.
Alas, at the beginning of hunting season 2024, something I also suddenly found time for again in my life, I committed and did the ghastly surgery. Well, not before spending two full days fitting the barrels a file kiss and 600 grit buff at a time. I didn’t stop until it looked right, muzzle filler piece filed resoldered and dressed, sights done, so there was no ugly stage like six weeks after a buzz cut. Yes I solder in my boys bathroom, it has the best vent fan and lighting. I fitted a Winchester buckhorn sight, modified a ‘94 front sight hood and installed a Marbles front blade, carefully cutting the dovetails with needle files. I love how it turned out.
Then why is this in the hunting and sporting arms forum, not the shotguns forum? Well because I wasn’t done there, neat of a slug gun it turned out to be. Next came the .44 barrels, turned from a pair of well priced Green Mountain blanks. Why .44, and not the .375 I’ve ridden hard to and put away wet so many times, so many places. I faced the realization if I had to seek a balance here, quite literally. And it had to be a component I stocked already to some degree.
I was going to sleeve for this project. The larger the bore the lighter the barrels naturally, and .44 offered the right wall thickness on the sleeves I was making. Thin enough at .150” thick not to be a boat anchor, thick enough to contain the pressure, just stiff enough to machine without whipping and flexing on the lathe as long thin tubes can be a pain. And critically, .44 offered a chambering that met my minimum velocity threshold for a hunting cartridge with a mono bullet I like; .444 at 200grs producing 2,500fps with the Barnes XPB.
So that was that, my much loved 21 Duck was going to become the Odd Duck in .44. I turned the barrels, which took around 15 hours per liner to fit them like a glove to the new 21 barrels. I included a slight eccentric / runout to each by shimming one jaw so I can rotate them to regulate. After that, they’ll find their permanent indexing for regulation. Right now, I’m awaiting my reamer, which is an oddball itself. The cartridge is a .444, but straight walled to .44 Magnum diameter, as the .444 has significant taper that doesn’t allow the firing of a .44 Mag safely. I wanted to fix that in mine, and always be able to use .44 Mag in a pinch. This cartridge can be formed from a blown out straight .303, or a .444 run into a .44 Mag die then base turned. I’ll probably do the .303 way for ease.
For now however, it’s at a midway stop as a slug gun while I wait on my reamer, and my sons and I didn’t let that stop us getting it afield in the company of game seldom associated with a Model 21. On a Rocky Mountain bighorn hunt a few days ago, we ended up in a pile of rams in timber and well… you can guess which gun I stalked with. We found one decent but young ram, didn’t shoot, and had a fantastic time afield. It’ll be going out again this season as a tight base .444 likely to hunt an island for invasive deer.
Thanks for sharing this working gun adventure to date, I couldn’t be happier so far and as a slug gun, it’s fantastic too. Will update later with more and load development and pics. Here’s a bit of the adventure. Cheers to the Odd Ducks out there.
That is on the skid of an 80s production machine, with nothing but day dreams, head scratchers, pebble toss and a well read copy of Catcher in the Rye to pass the time. I watched ants move their colony in its entirety, all the pupae being trundled in an hours long procession to a new unburned location presumably available somewhere- I couldn’t see many from the air, and wished them luck.
In times like this simple thoughts hit you, like “why for Fox Lake haven’t I done that…” Maybe it’s the isolation and separation from where and what you actually want to be doing that sparks these qualms with one’s projects and plans. Maybe it the isolation from forum banter and online shopping diversion. In short the thought that hit me, is as a fervent fan of doubles, why was I without a rifled one? There was a lot of personal history being ignored.
That is to say nothing points better for me, I love their short lengths with nearly no ‘action’ to contend with, and above all their simplicity and take down attributes. They are ‘my sort of gun.’ as an iron sight hunter wherever I go, and point and shootable gun devotee. I noted long ago my busiest guns are iron sighted takedowns, it’s just what I grab when I actually have to leave for somewhere far flung… or close flung and I want that feeling of being afar.
Well the blatantly obvious solution to my crawling and perpetual existential gun project question of what my next remote work and utility gun should be, was as hidden as putting a few obvious things together… I love doubles. I love Winchesters. And what do I already own. Well my favourite gun, aside from my most important pair of guns from my grandfather which is a separate subject, is a Winchester 21 Duck.
This is the 3”, heavy fowling 30” Model of the 21, which I believe to be the best double ever made. Also another subject, but one easily defended. There is in short, not a thing I dislike about it- except long barrels. I’m a fan of short barrels, and while I’ll happily shoot trap with the 30” Duck, that’s all I did it with. Well in that moment atop a hot 3 billion year old chunk of scorched granite amidst an army of ants, I suddenly wondered why I hadn’t found a second set of barrels somehow, cut them down and iron sighted them.
A year later, I have a more family friendly career direction if no less exciting, and more spare time. I’ve been at the work bench again for the first time in anger, in years. Unbroken, eight hour bench days are something I can manage again from time to time. Probably helps my kids are getting too old, too fast, talk back and have good points too. It’s just perhaps that time in life, middle age. Best be getting my projects rolling down slope before I get to the bottom of the hill first and don’t get to use the finished product as intended.
So upon landing back in a long since evacuated NWT town, I bummed brief starlink access and found a set of 21 barrels at CSMC. I ordered, had the wife pay, set up the import, then went back to work. Some months after fire season they arrive, the barrels getting stacked in my office awaiting their fate. It takes more commitment to put a saw to a set of Model 21 barrels, even orphaned ones than does getting engaged. I certainly thought about committing to the sawing longer.
Alas, at the beginning of hunting season 2024, something I also suddenly found time for again in my life, I committed and did the ghastly surgery. Well, not before spending two full days fitting the barrels a file kiss and 600 grit buff at a time. I didn’t stop until it looked right, muzzle filler piece filed resoldered and dressed, sights done, so there was no ugly stage like six weeks after a buzz cut. Yes I solder in my boys bathroom, it has the best vent fan and lighting. I fitted a Winchester buckhorn sight, modified a ‘94 front sight hood and installed a Marbles front blade, carefully cutting the dovetails with needle files. I love how it turned out.
Then why is this in the hunting and sporting arms forum, not the shotguns forum? Well because I wasn’t done there, neat of a slug gun it turned out to be. Next came the .44 barrels, turned from a pair of well priced Green Mountain blanks. Why .44, and not the .375 I’ve ridden hard to and put away wet so many times, so many places. I faced the realization if I had to seek a balance here, quite literally. And it had to be a component I stocked already to some degree.
I was going to sleeve for this project. The larger the bore the lighter the barrels naturally, and .44 offered the right wall thickness on the sleeves I was making. Thin enough at .150” thick not to be a boat anchor, thick enough to contain the pressure, just stiff enough to machine without whipping and flexing on the lathe as long thin tubes can be a pain. And critically, .44 offered a chambering that met my minimum velocity threshold for a hunting cartridge with a mono bullet I like; .444 at 200grs producing 2,500fps with the Barnes XPB.
So that was that, my much loved 21 Duck was going to become the Odd Duck in .44. I turned the barrels, which took around 15 hours per liner to fit them like a glove to the new 21 barrels. I included a slight eccentric / runout to each by shimming one jaw so I can rotate them to regulate. After that, they’ll find their permanent indexing for regulation. Right now, I’m awaiting my reamer, which is an oddball itself. The cartridge is a .444, but straight walled to .44 Magnum diameter, as the .444 has significant taper that doesn’t allow the firing of a .44 Mag safely. I wanted to fix that in mine, and always be able to use .44 Mag in a pinch. This cartridge can be formed from a blown out straight .303, or a .444 run into a .44 Mag die then base turned. I’ll probably do the .303 way for ease.
For now however, it’s at a midway stop as a slug gun while I wait on my reamer, and my sons and I didn’t let that stop us getting it afield in the company of game seldom associated with a Model 21. On a Rocky Mountain bighorn hunt a few days ago, we ended up in a pile of rams in timber and well… you can guess which gun I stalked with. We found one decent but young ram, didn’t shoot, and had a fantastic time afield. It’ll be going out again this season as a tight base .444 likely to hunt an island for invasive deer.
Thanks for sharing this working gun adventure to date, I couldn’t be happier so far and as a slug gun, it’s fantastic too. Will update later with more and load development and pics. Here’s a bit of the adventure. Cheers to the Odd Ducks out there.
