Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Winchester Collectors I think it's time to start talking about M1873's

I'll get us started. I already sense I am not the only one who likes '73 SRC's. Here's one I have that is a neat old gun. Although it certainly isn't a high finish gun that has been kept in a safe it's whole life, it has managed to make it through the last 124 years without getting molested in any way. Just carefully used. I have fired it and .44/40 cartridges cycle through lickety split and it still shoots straight. Saddle ring carbines are not prone to having special order features, which makes the special order rifle butt on this carbine all the more satisfying. And the factory ledger records this carbine as shipped with a rifle butt

Steve, i have 6 model 1873's,2 carbines and 4 rifles and i don't have any decent pictures,my wife has some on her computer but she wont send them to mine !!! i'm going to have to bribe her!!! Don

I hear you Don and I suppose you might try to bribe her with good behavior. But I don't know that there are any of us around here to role model that

Im starting to see Winchester M1873s at the gunshows more often.

So, people who have owned them getting tired of them
That certainly isn't true for me

Here's a standard M1873 SRC except for one aspect - full nickel plate. It is has some honest wear of course but I'm not one to turn away from decent character.













[img]http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y2...esters1873nickelplatefrontendcropped.jpg[/img]

Boltman,
Very nice 73s. I especially like the first one you posted. Looks to be clean and has typical wear for one of its age. I will take a few pics of the few 73s that I have and exchange some dialog. Many of the 73's that I see for sale have either a missing dust cover or a replacement. Many also have poor bores, most likely from the sulfer based gunpowder of old.

Picked up this 44-40 the other day. Decent bore, tight action . What really caught my eye was the super rare Winchester model 62B tang sight.!

That is indeed, a very rare and desirable sight!

38-40's work well for grouse and rabbits...





.22 long on gophers...

Wonderful pictures Kirk! I really like using a '73 rimfire on gophers. Not many people doing that these days.

Here is one of my 73's (the best one) and made in 1881. Have a orginal 62B tang sight on it now.

Does anyone here know if a screw under(actually it is behind the trigger) the trigger was ever installed at the factory or if it was added later by a gun smith. Thank you for any help.

Here is mine, posted previously under 73 under the tree. It was a gift!

Now I have a question for '73 owners who shoot them. After much bore cleaning, I finally shot the 1882-built '73 in the photo above this morning. Loads were 40gr equiv Pyrodex pushing .428 200gr lubed cast bullets, which are 20:1 lead to antimony. Are these too hard?

Bullets were immediately keyholing at 25 yards. Do I need softer bullets? Maybe .429 instead of .428?

Well i finally got my wife to take a picture of my best 1873 rifle, actually this may be the best rifle i own ,a Deluxe 1873 special order rifle in 38-40, heres the pictures!!

Loggah,

There is something about a lever with a pistol grip and button magazine that is just beautiful to me. My absolute favorite configuration. And I have never met a lever action I didn't like.

Then add checkering, great walnut and octagon/round barrel and you have pretty much a perfect levergun.

Thanks for the pics!

I missed out on a 1873 last week by 20 mins, in 32wcf had light coat of rust and some green house paint on it, but for 450.00 i was a bit bummed I didnt get it! I bought a nice 44-40 one time for 500 sold it 10 days later for 900.00 thought at the time I did good!

That has some fantastic wood. Great looking rifle.

Loggah, its a beautiful, beautiful old rifle. What was the year of manufacture?