Winchester 1886 in .33 WCF

[Lastmohecken]

I went to a small gunshow today, and spotted a pretty nice .33 WCF 1886 Win. I was tempted to buy it, but at the price of 2900, I decided not to, because it was not entirely original, but could be fixed. You know how deceptive the dealers are, you asked them about something that isn't right and they just don't know, but I finally convinced them that the rear sight had been replaced and had no elevator either, but that's a minor issue.

The thing that bothered me more, was the foreend cap was not original. I kept looking at the poor wood to metal fit, with the steel of the forend cap being quite proud of the wood, and at first though the stock had been sanded down small, but such was not the case, as I finally figured out that the forend cap was for an octogonal barrel, and the rifle had a round barrel.

So, someone had for some reason swapped or replaced the original forend cap. Everything else looked pretty good. There's a pretty good chance of seeing this rifle again at the next show. I guess my question is "how hard do you think it would be to locate an original forend cap for a round barrel?

As you can imagine the current one has about a 1/8 inch gap between the barrel and cap on each side of the barrel, which an octogon barrel would have filled up.

It crossed my mind later that I guess I could weld up the current one and finish it down to the wood in other places and make it look right, since I am a welder and have access to everything that is needed, but I hesitate to go that route if I did buy it. If the price was right on the gun though, I might do that.

[buckeyeshooter]

If the man selling the gun was less than honest about what was replaced, I would keep walking.

[Lastmohecken]

Good point. Still yet sometimes opportunities require dealing with people that don't always start out being totally straight. Used gun dealers and used car dealers top the list.

[M. M. Wright]

I would be more concerned about the condition of the bore than worrying about sights. You sound like you want to shoot it and I applaud that. You can easily fix the sights and that fore-end cap but has any thing else been messed with? Too, you need to get at least $1000 dollars off the price unless the finish is all original and still pretty good.

[Lastmohecken]

I would be more concerned about the condition of the bore than worrying about sights. You sound like you want to shoot it and I applaud that. You can easily fix the sights and that fore-end cap but has any thing else been messed with? Too, you need to get at least $1000 dollars off the price unless the finish is all original and still pretty good.

The bore looks pretty good, I don't think anything else has been messed with. But it does make me wonder, why of all things would the original for-end cap be missing. The only thing I can figure is maybe it was messed up some how, or maybe the part was robbed along time ago to fix up another gun, as this gun was possible retired for a long time, due to the caliber being hard to get ammo for, as I think Winchester quite making the ammo around 1940 or so.

And yes, i agree, he needs to come off of the price. If he had been asking around 2000 I might have bought it yesterday.

[3855]

There is probably a reason parts were swapped around on that gun. Beware.

There are 33's around in unaltered condition that can be had for less than 2 grand. You'll be much happier in the end with one of those.

When I started out collecting old guns, I made a pact with myself never to buy a gun I had to make an excuse for. This philosophy has served me well.

Look around a little more, you'll find one what you want.

[Lastmohecken]

There is probably a reason parts were swapped around on that gun. Beware.

There are 33's around in unaltered condition that can be had for less than 2 grand. You'll be much happier in the end with one of those.

When I started out collecting old guns, I made a pact with myself never to buy a gun I had to make an excuse for. This philosophy has served me well.

Look around a little more, you'll find one what you want.

I must admit that is pretty good advice.

[Pete44ru]

Too bad you couldn't check the inside of the forend wod - maybe it was the original octagon whatever chambered bbl that was replaced with a .33WCF round bbl, and not the end cap.

Either way, I wouldn't deal with that seller, either.


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