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My father bought this rifle in a pawn shop outside of Fort Sheridan in 1936. it has a 30 inch barrel and is in 38-40 caliber, magazine holds 17 cartridges plus another in the chamber. Some
years I ago I did shoot some nice 100 yard targets from a rest using the tang sight. I did manage to save one target. In 1991 I got a Winchester Factory letter which did not really state that much information but still interesting.Attachment 105494Attachment 105495Attachment 105496
Nice old rifle, I was fortunate to own a carbine some decades back in mid '80's. All I could find out at the time was because of the collector that owned it, there was some odd feature. I never found out what.
:bow:
What a lovely old '73, and amazing to be in one family for so long too....:thup:
Odd that the factory letter doesn't mention the barrel length 2" longer than standard
Over the years I have seen a few 38-40 caliber rifles with a 30 inch barrel, longest that I know about is 34 inch Model 1873 in 32-20 caliber.
I was told that the rear tang sight on my 1873 is from a Winchester Model 1886 rifle, no reason to change it as it has no doubt been on the
rifle over a hundred years now and does work very well.
Standard barrel length for an 1873 rifle was 24". Anything more or less is/was special order. Longest known is 37" shortest is 12".Quote:
Originally Posted by #1oilman
The models 1873 and 1876 are my favorites, I have 2 -73's with longer than standard barrels. A 44 WCF Deluxe with 28" octagon barrel pistol grip and checkered XXX wood and case colored receiver and a 38 WCF with 30" round barrel that letters with plain wood and a pistol grip which was an unusual request.
We used to see lots of those when Vern Vosler was still alive and packing his Winchester collectibles around the prairie gunshows. I was posted to Wainwright through the '80's and used to go over all his finery...muskets with bayonets, special order guns and like new early Winchesters... Those were the days.
I remember Vern well, Vossler Collectibles. I remember when his stuff went through the Haynes auction too. I was never really into Winchesters but his stuff was nice!
Vern's guns still show up in Calgary, just in other hands. By the way the Calgary show is coming fast!
I'm not going to make the Calgary show...again...unfortunately. The dealer I used to go with stopped.