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

Nice looking rifle! At that price you can always rebarrel to another cartridge and sell that barrel.

I only find old worn out rifles that people think are worth a mint..

Looks like she was originally either a 40-90 or 40-70 with #3 barrel. It is definitely a Winchester barrel.

She shoots nice. Light recoil with decent trigger. I shot 5 rounds through her with some low velocity cast reloads. All 5 rounds in a 4” inch dot at 50 yards.

Like I said earlier she looks good from 5 foot away. The forearm wood has a couple cracks that were glued somewhere along the way. The butt stock wasnt fit very well and the buttplate had work done by Bubba.

Looks good to me for being over a century old. I would try and wear out the barrel with cast bullets!

Is the Winchester Definitive Proof (W over P) on the barrel? Reason I ask is that Winchester began stamping the WP on both the barrel and receiver in 1906. Finding the definitive proof on only the barrel or only on the receiver is normally a sign of a non original matched gun.

Only the receiver has the WP. There is an oval VP under the main spring.

I’ll be taking the old girl to Northern Mich next week. It’s blackpowder season on the 1st of December so I’ll use the Winchester the last 3 days of November. Would be nice to shoot a deer With the 45-70 and then follow it up with a roundball deer out of the flintlock.

T4

Thanks for the additional pics. Points out that a lot of what I said previously was conjecture, some of which I wouldn't have uttered had these latter pics been included initially! Still, there are two main serial number lists floating around that don't jive with each other which have me still scratching my head a bit. One list was admitted to having been lifted from the old Dixie Gun Works catalog decades ago and has weaseled its way into current lore, with no provenance before that. (The DGW folks have no clue how old Turner Kirkland cooked it up.) The other list is accepted by most collectors and acknowledged by same for verifiable accuracy. The "good" list shows this serial # to be from 1913, the other one indicates 1906. Who to believe? A letter from Cody would be the final arbiter, and would likely describe its original chambering, no?

A flat mainspring action in a 1913 gun is still a possibility because they used up older parts when they could, but officially a 1913 gun would've been spec'ed with a coil mainspring. Certainly possible but not probable - there's still a chance that the lower tang on an earlier rifle could've been swapped out for a later tang/trigger group, for whatever reason.

Winchester Single Shots are a lot like 1903 Springfields in that they were considered working guns during their lifetime, and during those lifetimes and for many decades afterwards they were subjected to a lot of parts swapping, customization, and rebuilds not to mention using up outdated parts in factory's inventories during production.

Thanks for the additional pics. The Oval V.P. stamp means ‘Violent Proof’

It appears the rifle was built in late 1906 and shipped in 1909. It originally was chambered in 32-40 with a 28” octagon barrel. I’m proud to own it and am glad it’s now a 45-70.

T4

Nice blast from the past. I have a Uberti 1885 in 45-70, will probably fire it Saturday.

I have a Marble's Tang sight on it, but thinking about a Malcom reproduction 3x. First load I'll try is a 535 grain Postell in the mid-1200s.

Good luck to you with your project!

I have a Pedersoli 45-70 with double set triggers. The barrel is the size of an axle. The gun weighs 13 lbs. it is a 1000 yard competition gun that I have no education on. I bought because I have a soft spot for ALL things 45 caliber. It’ll be fun to shoot.

Mainly, the price was very right, like yours was

I looked at a different 45-70 today at the antique gun show. He was only asking $2700.