Nearly a year ago, a local gun store got in several used custom made single shot rifles, one of which caught my eye. It was a new manufacture Winchester Low Wall that had been re-barreled with a heavy 27" barrel in .22LR. The barrel was unmarked, but the rifle had a spirit level front sight and a lower quality vernier tang sight. The trigger had been lightened nicely. It was priced at $1250, but the shop owner said he would take $1050 out the door. I really liked the rifle. It would be perfect for the Smallbore Long Range Silhouette matches that our club holds, but I felt the price was still too steep for a used gun. The rifle languished on the store gun rack for months, getting lots of lookers but no takers. I guess everybody thought the same as I did.
One of the clubs I belong to holds a fund raising raffle each year at a local gun show, with a Henry Golden Boy .22 as the prize. I was the main volunteer and sold a lot of tickets, even buying $10 worth myself. When it came time for the drawing, a little girl from the attendees was asked to draw the winning ticket, and darned if she didn't pull one of my tickets! That was a little embarrassing for me, but I wasn't about to turn it down. I didn't want or need the Golden Boy, but I figured it would make good trading material. The required California dealer transfer was through the very shop that had the coveted Low Wall Winchester. I asked the store manager what I could get in exchange for the unwanted Golden Boy, and he offered a $385 store credit. Hmmm, applied toward the Winchester, that would get my out of pocket cost right about to what I wanted to pay for it, so I went ahead and bought the Winchester.
The first thing I did was replace the mediocre tang sight with a top quality MVA vernier sight with Hadley eyecup that I had been saving in my gun parts stash. The rifle shot very well and I was quite pleased with it. Then I got to thinking about the scope class rifles that some of the guys were shooting in our Long Range Silhouette matches. My Browning High Wall .40-65 Black Powder Cartridge Rifle has an MVA scope that I could also use on the Low Wall, so I had the Low Wall drilled and tapped for the needed scope mounts. I had to buy a taller front mounting block to get the scope aligned properly, but the scope went on all right and it shoots and looks great! I'm looking forward to using it in silhouette competition. Now for the pictures, one with the iron sights and one with the scope:
]Shasta
