I rescued a relic from 1895

[David LaPell]

A few weeks ago I walked into a gun shop and found a well used 1894 Winchester rifle made in 1895 in one of my favorite calibers, .38-55. The gun has been around to say the least. Apparently the last owner was in his 70's and had used the gun up until the last year or so. The wood forearm was not original and came off of who knows what, the buttstock appears to be from a Winchester Model 64 that had the pistol grip shaved back more and rounded so that the straight lever would fit. The action works just fine and the rifling and bore are excellent despite the HEAVILY pitted barrel and receiver on the outside. I was able to get the gun very cheap, for $300.
I took it home, cleaned it up as best I could, and started looking for replacement wood for it. I checked to see what it would cost to bring the gun back to it's former glory, and it would be three or four times what it's worth, so I decided it was going to be a shooter or a wallhanger. I didn't want to try and use solder to fill in the pits because of putting any heat to the barrel, so I filled in the worst of them with JB Weld. I took the rear sight, which wasn't correct and was missing parts, so I trimmed it down, rounded it off and then cold blued it and made a sight blank out of it. For a rear sight I used a Lyman tang I had lying around.
I slugged the barrel to see what I was working with, and like many other early .38-55's I heard about, it's oversize, running .378", so I decided to take a chance and shoot it at the range as it is, and was very surprised. I used Winchester factory ammo, 255 grain rounds and at 25 yards I got a group of about 1-inch, the 50 yard group ran two inches on my homemade bison target. I have tried to get in touch with the last owner so I can get some history of the gun, and I decided to write to the Cody Museum to see what they have, still waiting back on the letter, but one thing I can promise, this gun will see the woods come hunting season, I can guarantee that. Next week the hunting licenses come out and I hope to get a doe tag, would love to take a whitetail with this gun.

[J Miller]

Now that is my kind of rifle. Looks like schyt but works great. You can't hurt it, that's for sure.

The original stock and forearm kinda look like the mdl 64 version, but I like the after better.

I'd almost bet that it spent time in a wet saddle scabbard by the looks of the pitting.

Joe

[NC Long Rifle]

I really like stories like that. The pics are great. Thanks for sharing.

[Ray]

Decades of negotiating with so-called muzzleloading riflesmiths leads me to think that to artificially replicate the finish on your rifle I would be charged anywhere between $400 and $700......

[OldWin]

That's cool the bore is good and it shoots. Around here, when the outside looks rough, there's every chance the bore is wasted.
And sometimes they are even when the outside looks good.
That will be an enjoyable rifle. No worries about using it.

[missionary5155]

Looking better every day. I also like the fact it has a good bore. That is the heart of the matter.

[Rusty]

That gun has so much character there's no way I could touch it. It would be great to hear what the original owner had to say. I've seen other rifles with pitting on them like that, that was caused by handling the rifle with bloody hands. Great find.

[piller]

Some history on it would be cool. I hope you can get it.

[Bill in Oregon]

Please keep us in the loop on that beauty. There's not a levergunner alive who wouldn't be proud to take that rifle into the deer and elk woods.