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February 29, 2016
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I am looking at a Winchester 1892 with a half octagonal barrel that has an “OF” marking under the barrel, which I am assuming means outside finish. My question is would a gunsmith outside of Winchester place that marking or would have Winchester subcontracted the rifle out after possibly turning down the octagon barrel to make it half octagon and then refinished by the outside contractor? What would “OF” mean otherwise? Thank you
March 20, 2010
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First, see the discussion in the below article:
https://winchestercollector.org/forum/the-winchester-collector-magazine/summer-2018-issue/
The “OF” is referring to Outside Fitting, not the finish. A new barrel was provided by Winchester ready to install on the rifle outside Winchester, i.e. a gunsmith. Winchester would have marked the barrel “OF” for “Outside Fitting” if it were a mail order part or with a “Circle-P” on top of the barrel next to the barrel proof mark.
Couple questions though, what is the SN of the rifle? The date of MFG may have a bearing on the markings your seeing.
Second, could you provide a photo of the “OF” on the underside of your barrel (along with all the other markings on the underside). And possibly some clear overall pics of the barrel.
If you cant load pics, you can send them to my email below and I will add.
1892takedown @sbcglobal.net ......NRA Endowment Life Member.....WACA Member
"God is great.....beer is good.....and people are crazy"... Billy Currington
February 29, 2016
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I can give you the serial number serial #629024, but I can’t give you a picture of the circle P. According to this link and your response, the “OF” was supplanted by the circle P in 1913. Is that correct? Thanks for your input.
