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What are your thoughts on this one –
1873 Winchester Rifle with Slotterbek Telescopic Sight | Witherell’s Auction House
Can’t be many like it around…
My thought is that the auction estimate is a joke merely intended to stimulate bidding.
Slotterbeck was a general gunsmith & barrelmaker, & also a Malcolm scope dealer, which no doubt gave him the idea of building a scope of his own.
I have no idea what the scope is worth, but the gun has had some serious “Bubba work”. Smooze finish, extra dovetail, drilled receiver, and crudely buggered screws. When and by whom was the scope mounted on this gun? T/R
“Gun retains much original finish and case color”. Am I looking at the same photos as everyone else? If so, I see a beat up ’73 with a tube scope. In my opinion the scope and mount are where the money is, not the rifle.
win4575 said
“Gun retains much original finish and case color”. Am I looking at the same photos as everyone else? If so, I see a beat up ’73 with a tube scope. In my opinion the scope and mount are where the money is, not the rifle.
You’re certainly right about the scope, which makes the gun a “One of 10,000,” but if you consider it “beat-up,” I don’t think you’ve seen as many truly hard-used & abused Winchesters as I have. No pitting, wood is relatively clean & undamaged, not even any bailing wire holding the mag tube on…could be a WHOLE lot worse, I promise you. True, “much original finish and case color” is nonsense. Most puzzling to me is the brown staining, which looks like something wiped on the metal, but it’s not a typical “brown gun,” or it wouldn’t have that streaked appearance. Under some circumstances bluing will age to a brown color, but that doesn’t explain the streaking.
OK – So what are your thoughts on putting this scope on a better grade ’73?
Since it wasn’t shipped from Winchester attached to this rifle is there anything wrong with transferring it to a better one???
Excuse my ignorance but if the scope is offset st the rear and then centered at the front … now does it line up with the trajectory of the shot?
PS I don’t see any original finish. Looks like old varnish in the receiver. No evidence of case hardened. Buy for the scope put it on an accurate classic Winchester and blow the youngsters black gun away ar the range.
Vince
Southern Oregon
NRA member
Fraternal Order of Eagles
“There is but one answer to be made to the dynamite bomb and that can best be made by the Winchester rifle.”
Teddy Roosevelt
Vince said
Excuse my ignorance but if the scope is offset st the rear and then centered at the front … now does it line up with the trajectory of the shot?
The front of the scope is offset to the right of the barrel. It has a long dovetail mount.
[email protected] said
OK – So what are your thoughts on putting this scope on a better grade ’73?Since it wasn’t shipped from Winchester attached to this rifle is there anything wrong with transferring it to a better one???
I don’t like the receiver mounting where you drill the receiver. I have one that is mounted on the left side and mounts on the sideplate and a dovetail on the barrel. A lot cleaner install. if you wanted to get rid of the scope you just need a sideplate and dovetail blank.
Bob
WACA Life Member--- NRA Life Member---- Cody Firearms member since 1991 Researching the Winchester 1873's
Email: [email protected]
[email protected] said
OK – So what are your thoughts on putting this scope on a better grade ’73?Since it wasn’t shipped from Winchester attached to this rifle is there anything wrong with transferring it to a better one???
So ill-advised I don’t know where to begin: you’re contemplating cutting a slot in the brl & D&T the upper tang of a “better” one?
Vince said
PS I don’t see any original finish. Looks like old varnish in the receiver.
You may be right, since I’ve heard of varnishing to prevent rust; it would explain the strange brown “streaking.” If that’s what it is, it would be easy to strip.
If one zooms in on the front of the scope in the first picture, it is split for what appears to be 2-3″ I would be willing to bet the optics are as crisp and clear as looking through the bottom of a Coke bottle………..
Erin
1873man said
I don’t like the receiver mounting where you drill the receiver. I have one that is mounted on the left side and mounts on the sideplate and a dovetail on the barrel. A lot cleaner install. if you wanted to get rid of the scope you just need a sideplate and dovetail blank.
The rear mount is an adaptation of early Malcolm mounts, as first used on muzzle-loaders–the maker was following a tradition much older than M. 1873 Winchesters.
But why would you EVER want to “get rid of the scope”? It’s the thing than transforms an ordinary, nothing special, ’73 into something very special!
It was my way of saying it does less damage to the basic gun
Bob
WACA Life Member--- NRA Life Member---- Cody Firearms member since 1991 Researching the Winchester 1873's
Email: [email protected]
Erin Grivicich said
If one zooms in on the front of the scope in the first picture, it is split for what appears to be 2-3″ I would be willing to bet the optics are as crisp and clear as looking through the bottom of a Coke bottle………..
Erin
You may be right, but one doesn’t buy a rare antique scope for the clarity of its optics. Before drawn steel tubing became available, scope tubes were formed of sheet iron hammered around a mandrel, soldered, & reamed; looks like this one has become UNsoldered!
1873man said
It was my way of saying it does less damage to the basic gunBob
True, but would you rather have a “basic” gun, like tens of thousands of others, more or less, or a “one of 10,000,” which I think is a low estimate, if anything, of ’73s fitted with scopes?
clarence said
True, but would you rather have a “basic” gun, like tens of thousands of others, more or less, or a “one of 10,000,” which I think is a low estimate, if anything, of ’73s fitted with scopes?
It all depends on what the basic guns is. If the gun is a round barrel 1/2 mag non 44 a scope dresses up the gun but if the gun is a standard hardware store gun in 44, I wouldn’t want a scope on it. That is why I bought the one I did. Another person will have different tastes.
Bob
WACA Life Member--- NRA Life Member---- Cody Firearms member since 1991 Researching the Winchester 1873's
Email: [email protected]
November 7, 2015
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Awesome wall hanger specimen! I’d put it in my rotation but would bid accordingly. Truckloads of rustic charm!
Mike
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