Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Savage Collectors OT, a different girl caught my eye

That which drove me to slow down acquiring other things of late. Fulfillment of a 50 year old dream. An 1885 Winchester High Wall, barreled by the old master, Harry M. Pope. .32-40 with a pristine bore, which is about as nice as when Harry created it in 1896. Good provenance (I'm the 6th owner), not faked, but it was refinished. (Which is why I got it for about 1/2 of what it would have cost otherwise.) Original Popes from his Hartford years often fetch enough to buy a two year old F-150, which is to say this is the only way I could ever afford one without selling a bunch of nice guns.

It's a heavy beast - just shy of 14 pounds.


#5 weight 30" octagon barrel, Pope tang sight, false muzzle (but no short starter, I'll have to make one), and no ramrod. Why you may ask would I need muzzle loading gear if it's a .32-40 breech loader? Because the gun was designed as a muzzle-breech loader- bullet inserted into the muzzle and pushed down the bore into the throat, charged case inserted behind it, the whole process intended to attain the maximum accuracy possible. The gun can also be loaded via breech seating the bullet ahead of a charged case, or by simply using fixed ammunition. Accuracy with fixed ammunition was typically about 2/3 as good as what could be done by muzzle loading or breech seating. Pope's rifles set 200 yard records that stood for many decades.

There is written record, in his handwriting, describing his use of this very rifle in a Hartford rifle match, July 1, 1896. It is the 53rd rifle Pope built. (He only managed 237 out of 250 points, at 200 yards offhand, on the German Ring Target which consisted of a 6" bullseye with a 1" center ring that scored 25 points. He wrote that he had forgotten to bring the rod needed to adjust the elevation wheels on the sight, so all of his shots hit a bit low.)



I'm over the top. I felt like the kid in A Christmas Story unwrapping his BB gun when I opened the big brown box.