New To Me Winchester Low Wall

[rbertalotto]

UPS just dropped off a little Winchester 1885 Low Wall that I picked up on GunBroker a couple days ago.





It needs love but is in much better shape than I expected. Not bad for $495.00!

It needs a barrel lining so I just ordered a liner from TJ and the appropriate pilot drill bit from PTG. It is currently a 32 Short but it will be a 32-20.

The wood is excellent and metal has been reblued. It has a fair amount of pitting under the new blue job, but not too bad.

Serial number is 13554 so I need to research the DOM

The bore is horrible. Worse I've ever seen. Seems they took reasonable care of the outside but never cleaned the bore.

It needs a bit of my TIG welder and then redrilled and tapped to retain the firing pin.


And I don't believe this is correct...

I'm sure there was a more elegant way of securing the lever pin?

The wood is pretty nice



As is the barrel and most of the receiver...



Since I don't have much $$ into this rifle it might be a good candidate to try case hardening....Ya just can't have enough projects sitting on the bench!

[2ndovc]

That will be really sweet when it's done! The 32 WCF is probably my all time favorite round.

jb

[Pete44ru]

.

I like it, Roy - nice grab !


Apparently, Winchester didn't record SN's between 1913 & 1923, so I'm thinking that you''ll have to exterpolate your SN with the production SN's to get an approximate DOM.


.

[Hawkeye2]

Nice, wish it were mine. While you are at it turn that front sight around too.

[Chuck 100 yd]

I was just going to comment on the front sight being in backwards too. Great little project gun.

[Grizz]

a real beauty and you are the perfect guy to make it right, glad you get to.

[gregg]

like a lot. nice wood and walnut plus Winchester red. big plus on liner and 32-20. great round.

[Griff]

a real beauty and you are the perfect guy to make it right, glad you get to.

Be real interesting to see the 'before' and 'after' pics of that piece!

[rbertalotto]

I woke up early today and headed out to the shop with my just received 1885 Low Wall.

This rifle started life as a RF in 32 SHORT and I need to convert it to CF for a reline and chamber in 32-20

And I also needed to repair a nasty job someone did on the firing pin retainer screw.

I'll be writing a whole article with loads of pictures on my web site later today.

But here is how it turned out:






Going into this I knew the firing pin would not be centered on the primer once I finished. I'm surprised the RF pin hit the cartridge as the breech block sits quite low in the receiver.
Once I reassembled the rifle I threw a 32 Short Colt in the chamber with a live primer to see if it went bang....No Joy!


And it appears to me I'm going to have to make a new link to get the breech block higher and the firing pin centered...Am I correct here?





Are links available in various lengths or will I need to make one? If available, from who?

Here is a before and after of the firing pin retainer screw:


I bored it out and used a 1/4-28 bolt as an insert. I had to drill and tap a hole for a 6-48 screw. This was a challeng as the hole needed to be drilled ay an angle to clear the firing pin and not bind.






Once a bit of blending with 220g sandpaper...don't look to bad!



Any help on the link issue is much appreciated.

[Griff]

According to the Winchester & Browning parts catalogs the highwall & lowall versions of the Miroku produced 1885 use the same link. P/n: B3474844 LINK $13.50. All current calibers are centerfire.

[Malamute]

Nice find on the gun, looks like it will be a great project.

I wasn't all that interested in them in the past, but the past couple years Ive been gravitating towards them more, just for the fun of shooting. I have a desire for a modern one in 22 Hornet and 25-06, though an old one would also be cool in Hornet or other small round.