Hello, Winchester folk,

I’m planning to ‘get around to’ a project rifle, and would appreciate some advice.

(I realise that this is more of ‘Winchester users’ question that a ‘collectors’ question, but hopefully, it would be alright here?)

The rifle is a model 1890, of 1910 vintage, per the published ‘polishing room’ data. At some time in its history, someone attempted to replace the barrel, and, apparently, didn’t know how to remove/replace the mag rings, so he brazed them, and put quite a dramatic warp in the barrel doing that. (this is one of the ‘you have to see it to believe it’ bits of ‘bad bodger’ work….a sad shame, actually)

The bluing is long gone, and since it can’t ever be original again, I’d like to rebuild this one as a working rifle, for the young people’s basic instruction events I run at our local range.

So, the question is, has anyone any experience with the reproduction barrels for the M90 as sold by Numrich and other suppliers?

Are they held anywhere near the original Winchester tolerances, and is one likely to fit and work as intended?

Is there any particular supplier who can be recommended, one who supplies high quality replacement parts? Obviously, external finish quality means little, in this context.

I wouldn’t at all mind fitting a model 06, 62, or 62A barrel, if I could get a good serviceable one…….would anyone know of someone who might have one of those which they’d care to sell?

Would I guess correctly that a model 90/62/62A ‘hybrid’ might be a reasonable copy of a model 1890 rifle which would have been sent back to Winchester for repairs in, say, the late 1930’s, and fitted with a then-current production barrel?

cheers

Carla