USRAC Years

[budrichard]

In about 1983 Olin, the parent company of Winchester sold the Winchester plant to United States Repeating Arms Corporation(USRAC) and licensed the Winchester name to USRAC.
USRAC continued to manufacture the Model 21 for a period offering a Custom Grade as before as well as the Grand American. As before, all engraving styles were offered.
How many were manufactured is not known publically known at this time but the guns do surface from time to time. Produced by the same craftsman in the same plant, they are the equal of any Custom Shop gun but are usually valued differently by collectors.
An important item of note is that the engraving on the rib was changed from
'Custom Built By Winchester' to 'Custom Built Winchester'. There is evidence that USRAC produced guns with ribs engraved 'Custom Built By Winchester'. USRAC would have just been using barrels in stock.

[Grant Tom]

During the years of USRAC, the custom shop was run by Bruno Pardee. Bruno has had no expierence in building the 21s, only in sales. In the mean time, most all the senior craftsman retired! So when the foreman can not
help build a quality gun, draw your own conclution.

Grant Tom

[P.Muerrle]

When USRAC took over Bruno did not become foreman for several years. As an employee of the Custom Shop I can tell you that the foreman was not the integral part of day to day operations. These guys were all craftsmen who had been there for many years. When Bruno became boss, with the exception of Nick Kusmit and Bud Colburn, all of the other employees were still making the same M21 on the same equipment, the exact same way they had for many years. These guys all did the same excellent job they always had. That place would have run just fine whether the boss was there or not.

[casonet]

Pauline, I am simply amazed by those talented people like yourself who have the patience and steady hands to "carve steel" into something of a work of art. It is a special talent for sure. I have a similar regard for those artists who checker wood. I can imagine that it took a long time and a lot of hard work to learn the trade. Like a lot of the hand work of old, I suppose that computers and lasers are doing a lot of that today. Now a question. What would you do if a mistake ocurred in the engraving process? A slip of the chisel or something went the wrong way or it went too deep? How would you take care of those errors?

[P.Muerrle]

Like Nick used to say when someone asked him "What do you do if you make a mistake?" His reply, "Erase it"
When we were in the Custom Shop if a mistake occured, started the wrong pattern on a gun or put scrolls on a trigger guard instead of requested initials, it could be erased by polishing or in the case of a trigger guard, just replace the guard and start over. These were rare occurances. If your chisel slipped, the mark would be so light that it could easily be buffed out in the final buffing process that was done after an engraving job was completed. It was kind of hard to go "too deep" or other types of mistakes because the engraving process with a hammer and chisel is a slow, tedious process to begin with. While I have never used one of those pneumatic engraving machines, I would imagine it would be alot easier to make a mistake because you are able to engrave much faster.

[Grant Tom]

When I visited the Custom Shop, I was told by John Kusmit when he made a mistake on Engraving. He just threw the frame out the window on to a rail road car & got another frame to work on.

Grant Tom


Like Nick used to say when someone asked him "What do you do if you make a mistake?" His reply, "Erase it"
When we were in the Custom Shop if a mistake occured, started the wrong pattern on a gun or put scrolls on a trigger guard instead of requested initials, it could be erased by polishing or in the case of a trigger guard, just replace the guard and start over. These were rare occurances. If your chisel slipped, the mark would be so light that it could easily be buffed out in the final buffing process that was done after an engraving job was completed. It was kind of hard to go "too deep" or other types of mistakes because the engraving process with a hammer and chisel is a slow, tedious process to begin with. While I have never used one of those pneumatic engraving machines, I would imagine it would be alot easier to make a mistake because you are able to engrave much faster.

[tudurgs]

While I have never used one of those pneumatic engraving machines, I would imagine it would be alot easier to make a mistake because you are able to engrave much faster.

One of the woodworking mags I subscribe to asked the question "Why do you use hand tools, when you have power tools designed to so the same thing?" Best answer: "When I want to screw it up slowly, rather than quickly"