Bert H. said
Winchester manufactured a lot of Model 1886 ELW rifles, and the majority of them were Take Downs… they are common. 

In the ongoing research survey of serial numbers 146000 – 160000, we have documented (931) of the (14,000) serial numbers (6.65%).  Of the (931) surveyed, (71) of them are ELWs (7.63%).  Of the (71) ELWs, (55) of them are Take Downs (77.46%).  If you extrapolate the numbers across just the last 14,000 Model 1886s manufactured, approximately (1,038) ELWs were manufactured, and of that number, approximately (828) were Take Downs.

Now, if you consider that the ELW rifle was introduced in 1896 (approximately 15-years before serial number 146000 was manufactured), my educated guess is that at least several thousand were manufactured, with most of them being Take Downs.

Bert  

Thank you Bert. I couldn’t find the numbers anywhere & really needed to rely on the few like yourself who’ve accessed the factory records or created a survey from actual data received. Appreciated.

AG