Also, there was the question of caliber. I already have a Winchester Model 53 in 44 WCF (aka 44-40). I had a Winchester 1892 in 38 WCF (38-40) and there was something about that cartridge that really grew on me. I sold the '92 last spring, but I sure did miss the 38-40 cartridge. I decided that I would hunt for an original Winchester 1873 in 38 WCF caliber.
Word spread on the grapevine and a fellow I knew said he knew an old retired fellow that had one. It turned out that the old fellow had owned this old '73 for 40 years. Prior to that, he said it used to hang on the wall of a sporting goods shop in Cowansville, Quebec, just a few miles north of the Vermont border with Canada. It is beautiful, rolling country, with a mixture of Maple-forested hills and farmland in the valleys. The old '73 had hung on the wall of that store as long as the old fellow knew; the store owner appeared to have taken it on trade sometime in the distant past and just hung it on the wall, along with some other old Winchesters, as a decoration. When the owner closed up shop 40 years ago, the old fellow I bought this from, bought it from the old proprietor. Long story short, this old '73 appears to have earned its keep bagging Whitetail deer along the Vermont-Quebec border a hundred years ago when life was simpler, there were no cars, and people used cedar rail fences to keep their cows in and heated their homes with wood. This particular gun is serial number 400100B, which puts it around 1891 mfg. date. The action is tight and smooth with no droop on the lever. The bore has strong rifling but scattered pitting .... it looks like it will give me 5-shot groups at 100 yards of around 3". I will harvest a Whitetail deer with this old vintage Winchester for old times sake, where I will be hunting in Maple and Cedar woods where the shots are less than 50 yards.
I like this old rifle. It is an honest old classic that no one has ever messed with. It also has some nice figuring in the buttstock wood, which really appeals to me. You can tell that it once earned its keep by bringing home a lot of venison. A couple photos are below. The quilt, by the way, was made for me by my grandmother when I left home at 18, 37 years ago. The saddle is my old saddle from my teenage years. It saw a lot of hard use, rain or shine, summer or winter, a lot of thick bush, and is pretty beat up, but it has a soft life now, here in my office.
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