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After slightly too much good Scotch whiskey one night back in 2010 (edit: actually 2004) I “won” a brand new Winchester 1895 .405 WCF caliber rifle in a GB auction put up by an Alabama dealer. The receiver of the rifle is nicely case colored but the rest of the steel is blue. It has a gold colored trigger. I was advised at the time by the dealer it was an “uncatalogued item”. The serial number is 002xxTEX95. My guess was it was a distributor or distributor network (e.g. TALO) order to Winchester Guns but nobody seemed to know. It doesn’t commemorate anything, for which I’m grateful.
As I’ve mentioned elsewhere, the rifle puts factory Hornady ammo seven to eight inches high at 50 yards, with the open rear sight elevator on its lowest notch! I’ve wondered whether this was one of the subsequently re-barreled and re-packaged .270 caliber 1895 rifles some idiot ordered up for manufacture. (Until I saw one of those on a dealer’s rack in its original 26 caliber dress, I’d believed Browning had got rid of all the geniuses responsible for the Great Salt Wood [expletive deleted], but there must have been one or two who escaped being purged.)
Today I did some Web searching and actually unearthed a little information about the rifle, with the caveat that most of it came from auction sites like Guns International, and others some of whom I might not trust for the time of day. However, here’s what I read:
The rifle is one of a limited edition made up in 2010 [Edit: wrong] that some call the Texas Special edition. G.I. sold one that is two digits off mine and they are two peas in a pod. Another auction site said Turnbull Restorations did the receiver case coloring for Winchester. Well, maybe…
I’ve just sent an email to Winchester Guns Customer Service to ask them what they know about it. They assigned my last letter to File 13 but I thought I’d try one more time.
Anybody know anything about who ordered up the edition and for why? 
- Bill
WACA # 65205; life member, NRA; member, TGCA; member, TSRA; amateur preservationist
"I have seen wicked men and fools, a great many of both, and I believe they both get paid in the end, but the fools first." -- David Balfour, narrator and protagonist of the novel, Kidnapped, by Robert Louis Stevenson.
Well, to my surprise and with thanks to Browning/Winchester Guns, I got a very prompt response from their customer service department via email this morning.
My file notes had indicated I bought this 1895 in 2004 but everything I’d been able to find on the Web seemed to point to a 2010 manufacturing date. Wrong.
According to Customer Service, 002xxTEX95 was in fact manufactured in 2004 as one of a special run of 80 such rifles ordered by CDNN Investments, of Abilene, Texas, which seems to do a fairly large online firearms sales business as CDNN Sports, via cdnnsports.com.
Customer Service explained these 80 rifles were made under their “special makes” program, in which the customer can specify the gun’s features. She gave me a phone number for CDNN and said they could tell me more about the specifics of the order. Haven’t called CDNN yet but I will.
What I find most interesting is the small size of the order B/WG was willing to accept. Winchester started offering the 1895 in .405 again in 2004, so these 80 rifles were, at the time, a catalogue item except for the case colored receiver and serial number series.
Nevertheless, it does emphasize how much manufacturing processes have changed compared to, say, the Nineteen Thirties. The time and labor to set up for only 80 rifles with special serial number series and a non-standard receiver finish would have made the order unprofitable unless Winchester had charged an eye-watering premium.
What I don’t know at the moment is when the several Miroku Winchester models were first offered with case colored steel as catalogue items. I don’t recall any of the same models branded as Brownings made in the 1980s and 90s having any but blued steel.
The chemical process that rendered case coloring steel affordable may have been developed earlier but I don’t recall seeing much of it until the last 10-15 years. I don’t know what process Olin Kodensha used on the Winchester Parkers.
- Bill
WACA # 65205; life member, NRA; member, TGCA; member, TSRA; amateur preservationist
"I have seen wicked men and fools, a great many of both, and I believe they both get paid in the end, but the fools first." -- David Balfour, narrator and protagonist of the novel, Kidnapped, by Robert Louis Stevenson.
Winchester also produced 9422’s with colored cased receivers for CDNN. They too had TEX included as part of the serial number. Not sure the date of manufacture but probably the same time frame as your 1895.
tionesta1 said
Winchester also produced 9422’s with colored cased receivers for CDNN. They too had TEX included as part of the serial number. Not sure the date of manufacture but probably the same time frame as your 1895.
Thanks for sharing. Even figured at the subsequent market retail of roughly 1300 USD and reducing it by a small margin for overhead and profit, the 80 unit order to Winchester had to have been under 100,000. To me, that means it doesn’t have to.be a distributor level or higher game. I know there are a lot of Web based dealers. This helps explain why..
- Bill
WACA # 65205; life member, NRA; member, TGCA; member, TSRA; amateur preservationist
"I have seen wicked men and fools, a great many of both, and I believe they both get paid in the end, but the fools first." -- David Balfour, narrator and protagonist of the novel, Kidnapped, by Robert Louis Stevenson.
tionesta1 said
Winchester also produced 9422’s with colored cased receivers for CDNN. They too had TEX included as part of the serial number. Not sure the date of manufacture but probably the same time frame as your 1895.
I have a 9422 with the colored cased receiver that I understand (open for correction) was made up for CDNN in 2004. Serial number F778240. What little information that I can find there was 500 L.R. and 500 Magnum made up for CDNN.
If anyone has more information on these 9422s I would appreciate knowing about it. RR
Yeah 2004 makes more sense than 2010. Especially if the barrel is stamped with the words New Haven, CT. They closed the New Haven plant in January 2006.
WACA #8783 - Checkout my Reloading Tool Survey!
https://winchestercollector.org/forum/winchester-research-surveys/winchester-reloading-tool-survey/
Maverick said
Yeah 2004 makes more sense than 2010. Especially if the barrel is stamped with the words New Haven, CT. They closed the New Haven plant in January 2006.
Say, Mav, I’ll have to check the barrel roll marks on the .405. I never thought to do it. I expect you’re right.
One thing I’ve noticed over the years is how less shy Browning has become about marking its Winchester designs with “Miroku.” I have a Browning Model 42 from the late Eighties or very early Nineties with “Made in Japan” rolled in the smallest font I can read. However, after Miroku became widely recognized in the American marketplace for its meticulous craftsmanship, Browning now displays the name prominently in its rollmarks as an assurance of quality.
Unfortunately, to make sure everybody knows the complete provenance of my Model 1873 44 WCF the barrel marks, which are anything but tiny, resemble the “begat” texts of the Old Testament. We not only learn my rifle was made in Japan by Miroku but, also, that it was imported by “BACO”, which is a singularly ugly and disrespectful acronym for an American company of historic lineage. And that BACO is part of the Herstal Group.
Wow. T.M.I. and a visual blight. Why couldn’t they just say, in 6 point seraph type:
Made in Japan by Miroku for Browning Arms Company, Ogden Utah
Admitted I’m not up on the snakes and ladders of current import regulations but, in a sane World, this would surely suffice and not insult the gun.
- Bill
WACA # 65205; life member, NRA; member, TGCA; member, TSRA; amateur preservationist
"I have seen wicked men and fools, a great many of both, and I believe they both get paid in the end, but the fools first." -- David Balfour, narrator and protagonist of the novel, Kidnapped, by Robert Louis Stevenson.
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