In 1932-1933 my parents were dirt poor ranch and farm workers struggling to survive the depression. Being childless at the time, they took in a homeless 11-year old waif who was being held in bondage by a local rancher. He wanted $50.00 to release the boy, Mom somehow came up with it, a princely sum in those hard times. Mom and Dad found work at a dude ranch at Torrey Lake, outside remote Dubois Wyoming and moved there. She homeschooled the boy to the 8th grade. In his teen years, the boy, Earl, worked as a cowboy on some of the local ranches. For a summer's labor at the Double Diamond Ranch, now owned by famous lawyer Jerry Spence, he took partial pay in the form of this 1886 Winchester, .33 WCF caliber. He tanned the cowhide for the scabbard and made it himself. He joined the Navy in 1940, serving throughout WWII and Korea also. He died while still on active duty in 1954, and the rifle passed to me.
The rifle is definitely not a collector gun. It shows the dings and scars of years on the saddle, as does the scabbard, the hair almost rubbed off on the one side next to the horse. There is very little blue left on the gun, the bore is not too good, but it still shoots fine. I put the Marble's tang sight on it for metallic silhouette, and use cast bullets. Lots of fun to show up at the range with this rifle (hey, mister, what kind of gun is that?) and I shoot it in honor of the cowboy and sailor who owned it before me.
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