Winter 2023 • WINCHESTERCOLLECTOR.ORG | 21 A standard 219 Zipper Sporting Rifle (top) and 219 Zipper Carbine (bottom) with bolt peep and no rear sight dovetail, as detailed in the text. Image courtesy of the Drew Bloss collection. barrel! Thus far I have documented just eight of them, of which seven are the “Deluxe” Deer Rifle variation. All of the 219 Zipper Carbines found thus far are pre-WWII production. The interesting feature (in addition to the 22-inch barrel length), is that Winchester purposefully omitted the milled dovetail cut in the barrel for a 22-series rear sight. All eight of the 22-inch 219 Zipper rifles that have been verified thus far have a No. 98A bolt peep sight, and were also drilled and tapped for a side mount receiver sight (Lyman No. 56). Shown above is a standard Model 64 219 Zipper Sporting Rifle and a 22-inch 219 Zipper Carbine…with no rear sight dovetail! The images below show a comparison between a rare 22-inch 219 Zipper Deluxe (Deer) Carbine and a 26-inch 219 Zipper Deer Rifle. Just like the standard 24-inch rifle and its 20-inch variation, the front ramp sight base is shorter on the 22-inch barrel. Of further proof that the 22-inch barrel was a factory option, when I measured the muzzle diameter of the 22-inch barrel, it was noticeably larger than the 26-inch barrel at its 22-inch length mark. This means that Winchester intentionally used a unique barrel taper for the 22-inch 219 Zipper barrels! A 219 Zipper Deluxe Carbine with a 22-inch barrel (top) and a 219 Zipper Deer Rifle with a 26-inch barrel below it. Images courtesy of the Drew Bloss collection. Detail of the shorter front sight ramp on the 219 Zipper with a 22-inch barrel (top) compared to the front sight ramp on the 219 Zipper with standard 26-inch barrel. Image courtesy of the Drew Bloss collection.
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