Early 1906 rifle.

Is it:
1) Original blue
2) Reblued

If it seems too good to be true....

it's a reblue.

Lever screw wrong, stocks redone, lever redone.

Looks reblued to me, but I am nowhere near an expert like most of you guys are. My 1909's bluing has a lot duller look to it than that, even in the best spots.

That wood looks really light, too.

Here's a good picture I got from the Fest of an early 1899 with high condition original bluing (and A engraving). All 1895's/1899's had this mirror blue when new.

Just to help you compare to the picture above.

That trigger looks really dark

Reblue.

Reblued. Looks good.

Without seeing any of the rest of the rifle I'd say reblue. The wood looks to pristine for a rifle that old also, maybe refinished. BUT--Could be a 116 year old safe queen that had excellent care and no other guns to scar it.

Horizontal buffing marks on the receiver?

Re-blue, but nicely done. I'll bet, without seeing it in person, that someone took it to a higher level of polish than necessary and rust blued it. (320-400x is plenty fine enough and the industry standard today, but if taken to 600-800x a brighter blue is the result. Technically much harder though - when the surface is too highly polished, the bluing solution initially tends to "bead up" and the resulting finish is blotchy. Many more coatings + persistence is required to make the bluing even out, but the end result can be worth it.)

My first thought was someone did a credible job of nitre bluing that receiver but it doesn't compare to the known original in the 2nd pic - unless it's the difference in lighting that's tricking my eye.

Not a great pic, sorry, but this is what 400x grit polish looks like under rust blue. As with the other two pics in this thread, lighting has a lot to do with color interpretation.

This was my opinion.

Now, same gun. Thoughts?

My reflection


Clouds

high gloss blue receivers or anything high gloss is difficult to photograph. That includes really shiny stocks.

Truthfully, I'm kind of confused on this. Not sure if somebody maybe just "polished" it up and scratched the original bluing a little bit, or if somebody did a very good reblue.

That first picture is what I bought it based off of, and it's misleading as heck.

And some more pictures..

Mmmm 38-55 🤤

I'd still guess reblued, nicely.

Re-blue is generally very difficult to tell in photos alone. Though some are more obvious.
Only have one mirror blue here and a reflection truly looks crisp like a mirror.
The cumulative sum of all features leads one to believe this rifle has been "touched up." To what degree? You'll have to decide that.

Reblue

Yep, thinking that this morning. Wasn't sure last night. But I bought it as a refinished rifle so it's good. Bore is near perfect, all numbers match, and never had a 38-55.

Regardless, it's a handsome rifle which I would be proud to own. I never had a .38-55 either, always thought it would be a delicious cartridge to play with in a hunting rifle. Nice snag.

Seeing the better pics I'll go out on a limb and guess it was nitre blued.

38-55 with that condition...buy first, worry later. I'm guessing there is someone out there waiting to pay you more than your cost should you decide not to keep it.

+1 on that. That's a sharp rifle, refinished or not. I'm a little envious given my current wants 😂

Can you see me waving my hand and hear me shouting OH-OH-OH from MD?