steve004 said

James Eichas said
As a Winchester 1893/1897/97 shotgun collector, I have a few shotguns that I own pictured in Ron Stadt's "Winchester Shotgun and Shotshells 2nd edition" book. James Eichas.......................mr97
  

James - nice to hear that you are out there.  Your 3rd post in 16 years!  
  

Ron Stadt, a true gentleman in every sense of the word, used to travel down from Illinois to Ohio, and go to the Ohio Cartridge show, at the motel 6 banquet room, in Medina Ohio, years ago, and was always a pleasure to speak with. I enjoyed meeting our late, mutual acquaintance and Author, and learning from him. I remembered calling him from his card he gave me, inquiring about a shotgun or two, but he said he didn't have anything left, as he was winding down his collection, I assumed.

Tony

James Eichas said
As a Winchester 1893/1897/97 shotgun collector, I have a few shotguns that I own pictured in Ron Stadt's "Winchester Shotgun and Shotshells 2nd edition" book. James Eichas.......................mr97
  

James - nice to hear that you are out there.  Your 3rd post in 16 years!  

Mike

I do not believe that Winchester published owners manuals for any of their firearms in the year 1905.

Bert

Jeff "Mongo" Cramer

The only issue I discovered after buying the rifle was a bubba drilled and tapped holes on each side of the front muzzle dovetail to install a globe sight block. He ham fisted the front hole but only egged the rear hole slightly. I pulled the D&T globe block off and plan on using the dovetail globe sight base which will "hide" the D&T holes, especially the bubba front hole. I may need to tighten up the dovetail block if it walks while I shoot. I also need to get the threads chased on the rear receiver bridge hole and install a plug screw. I was aware of the extra two bridge holes when I purchased the rifle. The front globe sight bubba hole would only have been known if a person took the front globe block off.

Photos for your viewing.

View post on imgur.com

Sincerely,

Ross

1873man said
Tony,
That is one of the items I have been working on.
Bob
  

Bob,

Let me know if I can be of any assistance, as I know it's from afar, but that would be some accomplishment, as the suffix letters, sure indicate changes on other models, as we've been made aware of by other members, here over the years.

Especially with the two letters overlapping serial numbers, which might just be something, that in itself is interesting! IMO!

Tony

That is one of the items I have been working on.

Bob

1873man said

Bert H. said
Bob,
Is this progressive change to the bolt associated with the addition of the "A" and "B" serial number suffix?
Bert
  

The change happened before the A showed up.
Bob
  

Bob,

Do we know the said significance of the, "A", and, "B"? From all I've ever seen or read, I haven't seen anything indicating any mechanism changes that I'm aware of. Or any other change that signifies these letters, as a reference to other models.

It surely doesn't coincide with this bolt bushing we're talking about.

Tony

Springer2 said
Thank you so much for the information, Bert. That explains a lot. The breach of the barrel looks like new and just machined, not something done over 100 years ago. Also it locks up very tight but smooth--not like an old rifle. After I read your reply, I took a case I just primed and it fired fine and the primer was hit on center. Looks like whoever did the work knew what they were doing.

That is good news on the mostly correct conversion.  My guess is that the original breech block was altered/modified for the center fire pin.  Winchester drilled a vertical gas vent hole in the top of the center fire breech blocks (not present on your rifle's breech block). 

Bert