!896 1894. What do you think?|Winchester Rifles|Forum|Winchester Collector

It looks like a nice honest Model 1894 Sporting Rifle, no frills.

Kevin Jones said
Interesting that the rifle remained in the Winchester warehouse just a week shy of one year prior to being shipped. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.   

Winchester manufactured standard cataloged guns for inventory stock, which were later shipped (sold) when needed to fill a specific order.  I have a Model 1885 high-wall that was received in the warehouse on May 15th, 1909, and it was not shipped (sold) until February 23rd, 1919.  It sat in the warehouse inventory for almost 10-years.

Bert

win1894 said
From that 1 year waiting period I wonder what could be inferred from that. The 1894 was a new design, and was available with lots of options. Maybe most early guns were special ordered?  

Not based on my research.  The majority of the early Model 1894s were Sporting Rifles (like the one we are discussing).  I do not believe that there is anything that can be inferred from the 1-year hiatus in the warehouse, other than it was a standard production rifle not tied to a specific order.  Winchester manufactured it, and put it in the store room as a stock item.