Well, I found this holy grail (for me) of collecting recently in 38-40 Rem/38 wcf caliber. By all accounts a very rare bird - 18 1/2 inch barrel and holds eight in the tube. I had never seen one in person in 25 years of looking at gun shows, gun shops and pawn shops. The carbines that very rarely came up on the internet auction sites had prices that made my nether-region ache. Got this one for about 1/3 of what the last one I saw go for and I feel like I won the lottery.
It was filthy on the outside but in pretty good shape after a good cleaning - mostly plum with some blue in proected areas. Some pin-prick pitting here and there but not bad at all for a 95 year old survivor. The bore was the dirtiest I've ever seen in a vintage rifle -probably a combination of BP and smokeless loads and no cleaning for the last 50 years. I'm still working on it but looks like it's going to be in the good-very good range.
I haven't shot it yet as I'm missing one part. A friend is having one made but it will be a couple of weeks. Anybody got some pet 38-40 hunting loads they like? Thanks!
John