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This is a records sheet of a rifle I walked away from but I thought the fact sheet was different, than others I had seen, and figured other members might be interested in seeing it and discussing it. The rife was in the final configuration on the sheet. It was suggested to me by someone familiar with Winchester letters that this particular rifle may have been a salesmen’s sample that was reconfigured for sales purposes. Since I’m not familiar with this type of letter and how one might arrive at a conclusion like this I thought it might be an interesting discussion for the forum so if anyone is interested in commenting please do so.
Thanks, Gene
Most of the letter I have they list date in and date out of the warehouse at the bottom of the letter.
Bob
WACA Life Member--- NRA Life Member---- Cody Firearms member since 1991 Researching the Winchester 1873's
Email: [email protected]
I do not believe that it was a salesamen specimen. The ledger entries I have seen for them show multiple received and shipped dates. This rifle was built to order, and then the owner quickly changed his mind and wanted a lighter weight gun.
Bert
WACA Historian & Board of Director Member #6571L

Bert,
Are there records anywhere of the salesmen that worked for Winchester and a serial number list of rifles that were issued to them to use as sales samples? Do you have a sample of a letter that illustrates the checking in and checking out (so to say) of a sample gun? It should be interesting to see a few different types of letters and how they would be interpreted in so far as what was going on with the gun at that time in its life.
Thanks, Gene
Here is one that my brother owns. It is a salesman sample and was to the worlds fair in Buffalo in 1901.
Bob
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WACA Life Member--- NRA Life Member---- Cody Firearms member since 1991 Researching the Winchester 1873's
Email: [email protected]
1873man said
Here is one that my brother owns. It is a salesman sample and was to the worlds fair in Buffalo in 1901.Bob
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How about a photo of this one? Pictures please…
I don’t have any pictures and the last time I saw it was 20 years ago when he bought it. If its was mine I would post pictures.
Bob
WACA Life Member--- NRA Life Member---- Cody Firearms member since 1991 Researching the Winchester 1873's
Email: [email protected]
Gene,
To the best of my knowledge, there are no known records anywhere of the salesmen that worked for Winchester, or a serial number list of the rifles that were used as sales samples.
I may have a copy of a few Model 1885 letters like the one Bob posted stashed in my research notes somewhere. The examples I have show the same pattern of in and out dates with a new order number each time.
Bert
WACA Historian & Board of Director Member #6571L
nedclampet said
With the shipping date and the order number available i am surprised that there is no destination listed along with it.
Sadly, that is the case with 99%+ of the Winchester warehouse ledger records. For the Model 1885, I have found fewer that 3-dozen entries in the 109,999 ledger entries that list the destination. Expressed as a % of the total, just .000327 have a destination recorded in the ledger books. As for the original shipping records, I suspect that they were all intentionally burned decades ago.
Bert
WACA Historian & Board of Director Member #6571L
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