Yesterday a guest posted a question regarding his late 2nd model (blued receiver) 1890 with an 18 inch barrel that he thought looked to be from the factory rather than cut down and asked whether any 1890’s of that era came from the factory with barrel lengths other than 24 inches. Unfortunately, that post together with the replies to it were deleted by the company working on the website earlier today so I will summarize the replies:

Yes, per Schwing 1890’s could be special ordered with barrels both shorter and longer than 24 inches and there are factory records showing that some were. In fact, there were 50 1890s between serial number 112,000 and 322,250 with special order barrel lengths: 2 at 18″,19 at 20″, 21 at 21″, 3 at 22″ and 5 at 26″ (Schwing Chart 90-8B, page 313). At p. 236-7, Schwing stated: “The two 18-inch barrel guns… [in this serial range]… were the same length as the magazine tube, and one of these had the rear sight removed 3 1/4 inches from the breech.”

As noted in Bert Hartman’s reply to this post, the guest’s gun is within the serial range for which he can get a “factory letter” from Cody that will definitively answer his question as to whether his gun left the factory with an 18 inch barrel.

Hopefully, the guest with the 1890 with an 18 inch barrel will read this and either post pictures for us, or, if like me, he can’t figure out how to do so as indicated in his initial post, he will email the photos to me at [email protected] and I will in turn then email them to anyone here who sends me an email requesting them.

Rick Schreiber