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January 13, 2010
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I recently picked up an engraved Winchester 1866 that is a late production gun and it is centerfire. I was wondering if anyone knows how many centerfire 1866’s were made. I have never seen one before and have no idea how common they were…
April 15, 2005
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I seem to remember that the number was somewhere close to 1,000 but I could be off on that.
Bert
WACA Historian & Board of Director Member #6571L
June 5, 2015
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Didn’t most of the center fire 1866 go to a south America order? I seem to remember reading that in the big Winchester book.
Vince
Southern Oregon
NRA member
Fraternal Order of Eagles
“There is but one answer to be made to the dynamite bomb and that can best be made by the Winchester rifle.”
Teddy Roosevelt
May 2, 2009
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I think Peru. There is one that letters converted back to rim fire.
Bob
WACA Life Member--- NRA Life Member---- Cody Firearms member since 1991 Researching the Winchester 1873's
Email: [email protected]
July 28, 2015
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I have a centrefire 66 SRC in the 169k serial range which I think most CF were in the later production run. I agree about 1000 were made.
February 19, 2013
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I have a 66 in the 70k range that was converted to CF at some point in its life time. How can you tell if it was done by the factory or not? I’m pretty sure mine was done outside of the factory.
May 2, 2009
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About the only way you can tell is from the quality of the work if your gun is in the unletterable range.
Bob
WACA Life Member--- NRA Life Member---- Cody Firearms member since 1991 Researching the Winchester 1873's
Email: [email protected]
June 4, 2017
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1873man said
About the only way you can tell is from the quality of the work if your gun is in the unletterable range.Bob
Manuel, The firing pin has a striker threaded on the end, the striker has two sharp points that hit the rim of a rim fire cartridge, that’s how it works on rim fire. The easiest way to convert to center fire is remove the firing pin, file the points off the striker, weld a point on the end off the firing pin, reinstall firing pin, and thread the striker back on. You could drill the firing pin and install a small pin in place of welding. I have seen many modified in this manor, I have converted a few back by welding the points back on and filing off the pin. I do not have first hand experience with the late factory style breech block, that “appears” to be a different part altogether and probably? was how the factory did it later. The Madis book has three poor pictures but you will get the idea. The factory could have converted guns by the first method except they would not have welded and I’m sure the workmanship would have been good. Bob said it with less words, “quality of the work”. T/R
