According to Schwing, 2&1/2" chambers were never popular, and according to Madis, only 37 standard guns with the 2&1/2" chamber were sold between 1933 and 1943, which was when the sales records became incomplete.

I had the opportunity to fire a model 42 standard grade with the 2&1/2" chamber when I was about 11 or 12 years old.

James

Al, I would be very tempted to buy it! Are you going to try to purchase it?

One of the jobs that my father had when I was growing up was selling magazines to farmers, ranchers, and anyone else that lived in rural communities. One day we came upon an old home buried deep among the woods down in East Texas, or Louisiana. When we pulled up there were a couple of deer next to the house and nearby treeline, which we later found out were pets that had been raised by the middle aged gentleman and his son. Once the adults had conducted their business we started talking about something that brought out their old model 42, which had a 2&1/2 inch chamber, it was old and well worn having seen many years of use, but still, it was a nice looking piece. I just happen to have the newer 3-inch gun in the car. The next thing I knew we were shooting, then we got into shooting at an old Prince Albert can to compare the effective distance between the two type shells. Of course the 3-inch gun had better range in the final analysis, and the two of us shared each other’s guns at each distance we shot at that day. Nothing quite like old memories about Dad’s, guns, and in this case, sons and pet deer.

James

tionesta1 said
James,

Here’s the story. I walked into the Cabelas Wheeling West, VA. Gun Library a few weeks back and there in the rack was a model 42. I picked it up and noticed it was marked 2 1/2" chamber. Skeet choke. It has a checkered pistol grip stock and forearm. It is well used but still in good shape. There is a chip of wood missing from the wrist area. I would buy it but the cost is too high in my opinion. They are asking $3,500.
Here is the listing on Cabelas web site. They describe it as 3" chamber but it’s not, it’s 2 1/2". Do you think $3,500 is too much?
http://www.cabelas.com/product/Gun-Library/Wheeling-Gun-Library%7C/pc/103792680/c/105951780/Winchester-Model-42-Deluxe-Skeet-410-Bore/1769140.uts?destination=%2Fcatalog%2Fbrowse%2Fwheeling-gun-library%2F_%2FN-1103688%2FNo-40%2FNs-PRODUCT_NAME%257C1%3FWTz_st%3DGuidedNav%26WTz_stype%3DGNP%26recordsPerPage%3D40

Al

No, I would not buy that gun, even if the wood was intact, but I’m not looking for a collector skeet grade to fill a niche either. Now, if the gun were standard and in excellent condition I would be interested in it, but not at Cabela prices.

James