Old photo of 1873 Winchester short rifle?

[rangerider7]

What do you think? RR7

[Malamute]

Sure looks like it. It's square enough to the camera I dont think it's just the perspetive.

Nice old picture.

[1894c]

nice...very nice... :)

[gamekeeper]

It's not a Uberti that's for sure..The young man looks proud to own it, nice old photo..

[bdhold]

great photo - nice hat

[Sixgun]

Don't know for sure about the rifle but I have always wondered why the people in the old days always seem to be dressed up with ties and such. Even pictures from the 1930's will show a crowd of people and most of them have ties on. ------------Sixgun

[bdhold]

that was full dress
anyone who wasn't dressed that way was a laborer at labor

[Griff]

I'm not sure either, Jack. But he ain't a "poor" boy for certain. Not by his dress, anyway. I'm thinkin' he could walk his hand down that barrel 6 times, @ 4", that'd be 24", at 3-½", that'd be 21". I'm thinkin' that barrel is at least 22". Wish the picture was in better condition, I'd like to see the dog better.

[gak]

Yes, cool pic. Definitely a short rifle. I'm thinking someone with photoshop skills could scale a known short rifle or regular carbine on top of it to verify exact length.

[Sixgun]

that was full dress
anyone who wasn't dressed that way was a laborer at labor

(Not to steal the thread but I'm really curious.

Bulldog and Griff,
Look in "Sixguns" by Keith. It even shows him with nice clothes on when he is outside of his little house showing off with the Triplelock.
Was a person looked down upon if he/she did not have "dress clothes" on?

My paternal grandfather was a coal miner and in the old pics I have seen (teens through fifties) he always had a tie on. The only time I wear a tie is at funerals and even then I rip it off as soon as I can.

It was common practice up to the eighties to be dressed up when boarding a plane. Only thing I ever wore on a plane was jeans and a decent shirt. Maybe that makes me a redneck--if so, I'm a comfortable redneck. --------Sixgun

[Hobie]

Jack,

It wasn't dressing up. Those clothes were often reserved for special occasions, if one could afford them. You can see this in the fishing photo above. The guide is the one without the coat and tie. My own great grandfather is dressed down in this photo.

A E Flint Oct 1912 Nova Scotia.jpg

[Mike D.]

Looks like a .32-20 carbine to me.

[gak]

Looks like a .32-20 carbine to me.

I dunno, what with the rifle butt and forend. Someone might've ordered the former on a carbine, but I doubt the latter, and greatly doubt both. Looks an awful lot like this supposedly documented 20" short rifle.

With my limited photo enhancement abilities, hard to make out the hanger configuration exactly on the OP"s photo, and the shadowing looks like it's a round barrel to me (?) Vs the typical octagonal, so a short round-barreled rifle perhaps? Maybe cut back from an original 24"?

[rat patrol]

Enlighten me about the short rifle.

I have my great grand fathers. Family lore says it was cut down but the barrel shows no signs of cutting and the Letter from the Winchester museum doesn't discuss barrel leangh.

[gak]

Enlighten me about the short rifle.

I have my great grand fathers. Family lore says it was cut down but the barrel shows no signs of cutting and the Letter from the Winchester museum doesn't discuss barrel leangh.

I'm sure I will be corrected here if off base, but IIRC, a "short rifle typically is/was thought of literally as.a shorter barreled octagonal rifle--averaging 20" like the round barreled carbines--but all else the same as the "long" rifle (which otherwise were I believe usually 24" on 73s, 92s, 26" on 94s)....with typical rifle features: rifle (sharp crescent) butt, and capped, not carbine banded, rifle forend. Also, like its longer rifle cousin, no front barrel band but a mag tube "hanger." .The latter, admittedly, a feature shared with smaller caliber'd carbines (but which were usually round barreled). Also, usually, the rifle leaf/buckhorn sight vs ladder carbine style.

I should also add/repeat - we're talking typical catalog offerings. Back in those days, you could have just about any combination of features you wanted--special order. But most "short rifles" were equipped as above I believe.

[Nate Kiowa Jones]

I copied the picture, blew it up and ran the contrast up. It's a 24" rifle cut back about 2". Notice the mag tube hanger. At first glance it appears to be a barrel band but contrasted it is the rifle type hanger. But, it's only about 2" or less from the muzzle. Normally it would be about 4".

[rat patrol]

If I recall correctly mine has the barrel band and the barrel is about 16" measured with a tape from the receiver forward.

Its a second run 73 in 32.20 too.

[gak]

If I recall correctly mine has the barrel band and the barrel is about 16" measured with a tape from the receiver forward.

Its a second run 73 in 32.20 too.

If original/unmessed with you've got one of the rare 'n precious ones. "Real" unmolested 73, 92 and 94 trappers (aka baby carbines) are some of the Holy Grails. I would think you've got an expensive one on your hands. I'm not a "collector" so have hardly have seen them all, but not sure I've actually seen a factory shorty in .32-20 either.

[earlmck]

That's a great picture there, RR7. I'd bet that young fellow was a big man when he got full growth on him. Coulda' been my great-great uncle Joe McKinney: here's an excerpt from his story (lifted out of "Frontier Times" by a cousin of mine who missed the date on the magazine, but probably late 30's, early 40's). This would have been 1877 with Joe 19 years old that he is talking about here:

. My mother was anxious to make a Christian farmer out of me, but she made an ignominious failure, causing me a great deal of trouble and herself, too. I arrived back at Uvalde all right side up with care, and went to work for my uncle Julius, first looking after his pasture and cattle on the Leona. The deer and turkey and javelina, or muskhogs, were very numerous. The first morning that I went out in the pasture for a saddle horse, I killed two deer before breakfast. He furnished me a 44 cal. Center fire carbine, 73 model, and all the cartridges I would shoot at muskhogs, and what I would shoot at deer or turkey, whenever we needed the meat. I have killed those musk-hogs and laid them up in piles. I would generally kill more than one out of every bunch. I had been accustomed to the old brass lock rim-fire snapping Winchester and old muzzle-loaders, and when I got hold of the 44 cal. Model ’73, I thought it would never be improved upon, but the guns of today are as far ahead of it as it was ahead of the old snapping brass locked Winchester; but it was a fine little gun in its day.
The western man who had used the old cap and ball guns and the old snapping Winchester had a right to be very proud of his ’73 model and he was, I assure you.