One thing I’ll say about the big auction houses is they do come up with some interesting rifles. Here is a very high condition ’92 SRC. An interesting aspect is the museum letter indicates it was shipped with no stock. Morphy speculates this means customer furnished stock. I think on very rare occasions I have seen Winchester rifles letter as, “receiver only.” I wonder how much less the customer paid for a carbine with no stock? And my main question – knowing that this carbine wasn’t shipped with the stock that on it, does that make it less valuable? Or, does the oddity of, “no stock” specified in the museum letter, add any value?
November 7, 2015
When I read the OP I figured if I clicked on the link I’d see some spectacular wood. Maybe the buyer didn’t like gum wood. Wood was a bit plain but a very nice carbine overall.
Mike
Interesting – I did not know you could just order part of a gun – I have never seen anything like it – seems expensive – maybe it is the 44 caliber or probably the rarity of a letter with “no stock”. I imagine there are guys willing to pay a lot for the rarity. Seems like Winchester could have put nice stocks on it for less money than sending it off to have stocks made and then ending up with just plain jane stocks. Like Mike said, there is nothing special, except condition and caliber, when looking at the gun. All 92 carbines, especially with condition have become scarce, especially in 44 which seems to be what collectors want. Years ago when I picked up this nice 92 carbine in 38 caliber I was intrigued with the pistol grip stock and rifle butt which letter. I’m betting the Morphy auction gun is going to sell for considerably more than my old carbine is worth.
Since the rifle is not in “factory original” configuration most guys might be tempted to discount the value estimate. I have seen quite a few 1892’s listed as “No Stock” in the ledgers. But I certainly have no idea why they were ordered that way!
Michael
Model 1892 / Model 61 Collector, Research, Valuation
twobit said
Since the rifle is not in “factory original” configuration most guys might be tempted to discount the value estimate. I have seen quite a few 1892’s listed as “No Stock” in the ledgers. But I certainly have no idea why they were ordered that way!Michael
An amusing aspect to me – yes, the rifle is not original as shipped – but it easily could be made to be – simply remove the stock! Voila – original as shipped from the factory
The more I look at the photos, the more I disagree with the “stellar, excellent plus” condition given the gun by the auction house. Not that it is not nice because the gun is nice but in my opinion it does not match the condition rating given by the seller. The photos of the gun do scream originality but as Michael says, it is not as it originally left the factory. Under the circumstances, how does that effect the value? I guess different collectors would have different perspectives on that but at 10 grand and destined to go higher, it is already priced too high to peek my interest. The gun needs to have a copy of an early 1900’s invoice from a stock maker with the serial number of the gun – and even better, have special wood, maybe a cheekpiece, pistol grip or a shotgun butt – I bet there are guys out there that can come up with that kind of provenance!
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