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I went an looked at a beautiful 1894 today. If you look at the letter you’ll see that it was loaded. Gun is a solid 90% gun and looks like it was used little and well cared for. It looks 100% righteous. The problem is that the 22inch barrel length is listed no where in the letter! If you look you can tell(in my opinion) that the muzzle is righteous and in the white with just enough faint pitting and corrosion to be right and match the gun. Front dovetail is perfect and exactly 1″ back. The letter stated it was returned for repair in 06 so do you think that the owner had it shortened or did Winchester make a slip and not list it?
mikec
It looks like the letter was from years ago. I would get another letter and ask for a copy of the original ledger entry along with it. A new letter will also have the SNA date which they didn’t do years ago if it is listed.
It may not show up in either but, all the short rifles I had that were in the range to letter, did show the barrel length.
Paul
Remove the front sight and look at the machining and bluing is another way to tell.
Bob
WACA Life Member--- NRA Life Member---- Cody Firearms member since 1991 Researching the Winchester 1873's
Email: [email protected]
Mike,
I agree with Bob… inspect the front sight dovetail cut. The current 22-inch length is the most logical length for a cut down 26-inch barrel, as it just clears the original rotary cut on the bottom of the barrel for the magazine tube retaining ring.
Bert
WACA Historian & Board of Director Member #6571L
Measure across the barrel flats at the muzzle with a set of micrometer and let us know what you come up with. As Bob mentioned above, the way the dovetail is milled (pattern & size of bit) is the one of the better ways of telling whether original or not. There should also be traces of blue because they were milled prior to bluing. If it is bright and milled from left to right or vice versa the it was done outside the factory.
1892takedown @sbcglobal.net ......NRA Endowment Life Member.....WACA Member
"God is great.....beer is good.....and people are crazy"... Billy Currington
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