Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Single Shots I went back and picked up the Win 1885

I thought long and hard about passing on this one but all you enablers guilted me into the purchase. She’s far from perfect. Looks like it was rechamberred to me. Maybe it was a 40-70 bored to 45-70. Wood looks nice but has some issues. I’ll try to shoot her this week. I believe it’s from 1919.

T4

Very nice! Original or not you did very well for $700! I know I woulda jumped on it.

* It would be interesting to have it lettered by the Cody Museum and see how it left the factory

$700!??

I need to get out more!

I would not hesitate a moment to pay $700 for that rifle. YOU DONE GOOD.

Holy sh*t!

Nicely done. You’re gonna feel those prongs on the buttplate…😁

😳 Wow! That is a beauty, wood is real nice. Smoking deal I think.

It’s like girls I dated in high school. Good from far but far from good. Ha!

I'm surprised it was still for sale, nice grab!

How you walked away from that I"lol never know. I would have went and mugged somebody to raise the money

I can't believe the deals you guys find.
Great looking rifle, love the wood.

Hal

Don’t believe the barrel is original to the gun.
If it’s a 1919 gun only record that exists is Polishing Room/serialization date.

It’s a high serial number.

I'd be very happy with that.

Wow! Nice snag! Super envious.

Your gun was manufactured in 1906. A factory letter indicating caliber, configuration and s/n application date is available from Cody.

I love the style of writing on those Winchesters.

Hal

T4HALO, what does it weigh? I see no flaws in wood and can't believe the price. Nice snag for sure.

It’s a heavy SOB. 30” octagon barrel. There are a lot a flaws in the stock and forearm. Close up pics will show a lot. I’m headed out to shoot it now. I’ll take a few pictures of the bad when I’m done.

T4

A 1906 gun should have a flat mainspring. Is that the case or is it a coil spring action? Betting it's a coil spring gun, as according to Campbell's book it was made in 1913*. A peak under the fore arm would tell the tale. (Flat mainsprings were anchored on the bottom side of the barrel.)

When you shoot it, be sure to mount the butt on the upper arm above the bicep, with the arm/elbow held high. That's the way the old timers intended their use, and as mentioned earlier, putting that crescent butt plate squarely on the shoulder will bite a bit. (Sorry if you already knew this, intended mainly as a PSA!)

* going by the displayed serial number. Of course, that could be misleading because of how the lower tang can be easily swapped out. Example: I have a High Wall whose original lower tang has a serial number indicating 1893 production, but I converted it to a single set rigger via a swapped tang (trigger assemblies are contained in the lower tang - often easier to just swap tangs around.) Someone would think it was a later coil spring gun because that's what the number on the gun now indicates. (Original tang and trigger safely stored and tagged as to what gun it belongs to, for posterity.)

Also, a true coil spring gun would most likely be blued, as this one is, as that was their protocol for those guns. But there appears to be some evidence that it was polished and re-blued also so the plot thickens.

Guessing the barrel originally came off of a Sharps, or possibly a Ballard - the only other two that made .40-70's. Winchester made .40-70's, but also stamped their WP proof mark in front of the receiver and roll stamped their name on the top flat also. Lack of any roll stamps indicating manufacturer kind of rules out Sharps, but Ballard on the other hand was notorious for not marking calibers on their barrels and never roll stamped their names. So the plot thickens some more.

Winchester introduced coil main springs as an expedient for making takedown models, which were all the rage at the time. 1913-1914 production was almost entirely Winder Muskets, High Walls and Low Walls, in .22LR. Sporting High Wall production was pretty much over with by then. So, there's a good chance the gun was originally a .22 Winder Musket (for military and civilian training use) that someone in the past converted to sporting use by re-barreling. The stock, definitely a Winchester IMO and of a higher grade than normal, was installed then too as the Winder Musket stocks utilized a different style butt plate.

All in all, no matter what, I'll repeat my exclamation about the snag! Looking at it simply as an action to base a build on it would be half of what a new High Wall action from MVA or C.Sharps would cost today - with the added benefit of it being a complete gun ready to have fun with in its own right!