
April 9, 2025

Fellows: I have been searching around for some special lever guns I want and I noticed that I can buy a real Winchester High Grade for less money then they want for an Italian copy. Why is that? I have an Uberti 1873, It’s nice, but it don’t come near the High grade Winchesters I have. Why do they think they are worth so much? Just curious?

May 2, 2009

I’m not seeing that.
Bob
WACA Life Member--- NRA Life Member---- Cody Firearms member since 1991 Researching the Winchester 1873's
Email: [email protected]

April 30, 2023

https://www.gunbroker.com/all/search?keywords=uberti%201873%20rifle&sort=13
The average of prices listed there looks to me the same they’ve been for awhile now, at least a few years….what Miroku Winchester are you looking at as a comparison?

January 20, 2023

As the “Captain” said to Cool Hand Luke, “What we have here is a failure to communicate.”
To some otherwise rational and mostly companionable Members, a “real Winchester” is one that was made by the Winchester Repearting Arms Company, a Massachusetts corporation originally organized and funded by Oliver Winchester and others. The less conservative among them will also include within the definition those arms made by Winchester Western, an unincorporated division of Olin Industries, Inc.
- Bill
WACA # 65205; life member, NRA; member, TGCA; member, TSRA; amateur preservationist
"I have seen wicked men and fools, a great many of both, and I believe they both get paid in the end, but the fools first." -- David Balfour, narrator and protagonist of the novel, Kidnapped, by Robert Louis Stevenson.

May 2, 2009

I was beginning to think the same thing Bill, when I searched GB I didn’t see any high end Uberti’s top $10,000 unless its a multi gun set and with (original) high end Winchesters they are just starting to get warmed up at 10k.
Bob
WACA Life Member--- NRA Life Member---- Cody Firearms member since 1991 Researching the Winchester 1873's
Email: [email protected]

November 7, 2015

If I can find someone who wants to swap repros for high grade Winchesters I believe I’ll snag a few repros and do some swapping!
Mike

January 20, 2023

I don’t know as much about Uberti as I do Miroku, which I’ve studied a bit. I do know Uberti was schooled by Cimarron to improve and modify their Winchester replica rifles to more closely resemble and function like the originals. I know that Uberti was acquired by Beretta and operates as a subsidiary.
I have the impression– for which I can offer no evidence beyond an inspection of their products at an NRA convention in Dallas in, I think, 2023 or 2024 — that Uberti relies more on skilled hand labor to fit and assemble their rifles, and that the quality of fit varies more than what I see in (what I call) the “Browning Winchesters.”
Anybody familiar with Perazzi, the SO grade Beretta guns, or, in particular, the English style doubles produced by small shops like Fratelli Piotti, understands Italy’s Gun Valley is fully capable of turning out the finest double shotguns on the planet — superior in quality and beauty to anything recently made in London or Birmingham. Fact, not opinion.
But skilled Italian labor is not cheap and Beretta’s Uberti must build to a competitive price. Their principal competitor in reproduction Winchesters is not Miroku but the old arms making giant, Fabrique Nationale D’armes de Guerre now called FN Herstal, which owns Browning, the entire gunmaking assets of Winchester, and a substantial chunk of Miroku.
Because of FN Herstal, Miroku has steadily and heavily invested in ever newer generations of high precision machining technology, which shows in the quality and consistency of quality of the classic Winchester designs it makes. Moreover, its customer is essentially the American Browning Arms Company, which knows a lot about Winchester culture and history (except for some bright light employee who loved gold-colored triggers.)
Nobody ever said Beretta is a gracious loser and I think the Uberti Winchester reproductions will get even better, although probably more expensive, under competitive pressure from Browning d/b/a Winchester Guns.
- Bill
WACA # 65205; life member, NRA; member, TGCA; member, TSRA; amateur preservationist
"I have seen wicked men and fools, a great many of both, and I believe they both get paid in the end, but the fools first." -- David Balfour, narrator and protagonist of the novel, Kidnapped, by Robert Louis Stevenson.

January 20, 2023

One more thing about Browning Winchesters. As most know, Browning had great success in 1986 re-creating a Limited Edition of the rifle version of the1886 Winchester in 45-70, and proceeded to do the same with the 1895, 1885, 71, 65, 53, 52 Sporting and Model 12 and 42 shotguns in following years. They went astray with garish looking high grade versions of the 1886 and 1895 but the “field grade” versions of the rifles were very, very close to the original guns. No rebounding hammers or tang safeties, either.
Although rollmarked “Browning”, those guns should be regarded as the standard to be met in reproducing Winchesters. If you don’t believe me, go shop for a good used one.
In particular the two shotguns, made in the Skeet style with ventilated ribs, checkered, capped pistol grips and extended forearms, are beautifully constructed and finished. The Walnut is good field grade, which, along with the rollmarks, is the only tipoff they are not Skeet or Deluxe grade Winchesters. Blindfolded, I don’t think any but the most erudite Model 12 collector could distinguish them. I own and use one of each and have owned and used several original WRA guns, my basis for comparison.
Would I trade my Browning Model 12 20 gauge and 42 for “real” New Haven Skeet grade Winchesters in the same (98%) condition and gauge? Sure, in a New York minute. But I bought these brand new for a fraction of what equivalent “real” ones would have set me back. In the field, I can’t tell the difference.
I really like my 1912 vintage 1886 lightweight .33 WCF; I also really like my 1996 Winchester Model 1886 extra lightweight .45-70. Neither has been in production for a while and both seem to be keeping pace with inflation.
- Bill
WACA # 65205; life member, NRA; member, TGCA; member, TSRA; amateur preservationist
"I have seen wicked men and fools, a great many of both, and I believe they both get paid in the end, but the fools first." -- David Balfour, narrator and protagonist of the novel, Kidnapped, by Robert Louis Stevenson.
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