I recently attended the midwest WACA show in Wilmington Ohio with a friend of mine from the north woods of Wisconsin, Brad Dunbar. I have been looking for a nice 1873 carbine to round out my Winchester lever action collection. I found a nice one at the show. Since carbines were working guns, most of them are just used up, a nice one is very seldom encountered. In any event my search was satisfied there. I found a really nice second model saddle ring carbine. The finish was a smooth non-pitted plum color with a very nice sharp bore. A very nice lady from the Cody museum was there and looked up my serial number. It was numbered in December of 1880 and shipped in January 1881. It had the little tip over ladder sight found on 1866 carbines and the front sight on the barrel like a 4th model 66. When I checked the bore condition, I found that it had only 5 grooves, again like a 66 barrel.It makes good business sense to have used 66 barrels on early 73 carbines since it was only necessary to run a 44-40 chamber into the 44 Henry chamber.

I have not found this in print any where, can anyone help me to verify that this is in fact a 66 barrel?

Thanks for any info.