Coincidental timing of your post. I just took delivery of one of these today. To say I am proud is an understatement. Mine is the 1992 Browning remake of the original 1886. It is a Saddle Ring Carbine. I am in love.
The model 1886 was Winchester's first venture into a lever action stout enough to handle the 45-70 cartridge.
When T.G. Bennett, a representative of and soon to be head of Winchester, went to see John Moses Browning to inquire of his single shot rifle, he was subsequently lead to John's work bench where he was shown the first prototype of the Model 1886 also. Bennett told him of Winchester's desire to market a lever gun capable of this relatively new round. A deal was struck and Bennett purchased the rights to what would later be named the Model 1885 which they would market as "The Single Shot" & the lever gun which would eventually be the Model 1886.
It is reported that Bennett paid him $10,000 for each. Not a bad day for John Browning.
I reckon what you saw was the original design configuration. I would love to have posed with that for a picture. Imagine what that gun to tell you if it could talk.
"I never thought I'd live to see the day that a U.S. president would raise an army to invade his own country." Robert E. Lee
