South African Model 1873 Winchester

[Patrick Chadwick]

It is also possible that the letters were stamped at some later date.

73 Besl matches in Germany
4 in Austria
0 in Netherlands
0 in South Africa
150 in USA

Above are for private persons, not businesses, listed in "White Pages" or equivalent.

I may well have missed something, but the statistics seem to make it most likely that the name was stamped on the barrel by the owner after it arrived in the USA. Please search yourself to confirm/alter these results:

[Centurion]

Patrick: this gun NEVER arrived in the USA--it was manufactured there in 1897 and subsequently arrived in South Africa: it may have been stamped with an American individual's name, and that same individual took it to South Africa. However, it was unusual for an American owner to have had the factory install sling swivels. This was more-typical of a military or European user. The gun found its way to the UK, where it was subsequently auctioned-off. However, it was never licensed for use in the UK, as it would have required British proofing, and there are no UK proof marks present on the gun. I'm waiting for the shipment details from Cody to determine more info on who it may have been shipped to and to confirm whether the sling eye and swivel were factory-added. As to whether the initials actually represent a surname; it would be unusual for an owner of that era not to have added his first initial to the surname, as typically-done on the wooden stock-carved identities.

[Centurion]

Attachment 69003Attachment 69004Attachment 69005

More on African Winchesters--1866 and 1876 Winchester Rifles used by Henry Morton Stanley during his epic expeditions to locate David Livingstone. Their firepower was credited with saving his men on multiple occasions when attacked by hostile African tribesmen.

[Centurion]

Attachment 69006Attachment 69007Attachment 69008Attachment 69009Attachment 69010--Winchester M1873 Sporting Rifles shipped directly to South African clients/dealers in the 1880s--so-called "seven-leaf" rifles, after the number of sight leaves. Some of these may have been used by the Boers against Empire troops.

[Centurion]

Attachment 69011Attachment 69012Attachment 69013--rare military-contract M1873 rifles, the Spanish and the Naval Contract Rifles, supplied directly by Winchester to client nations other than to South African Colonies.

[Centurion]

Attachment 69014Attachment 69015Attachment 69016--There is photographic evidence that Canadian Cavalry officers purchased and carried non-issue firearms--Col. Sam Steele with his M1896 Broomhandle Mauser Pistol (similar to that carried by Winston Churchill), and unidentified officers posing with what appears to be a lever-action magazine gun, or posing with an 1878 Colt Double-Action Frontier Revolver.

[Centurion]

In my previous posts I had been focussed on the Canadians as the most-likely colonial troops to have favoured Winchester rifles as personal favourites supplementing the standard issue weapons of the day. I was therefore surprised to receive a picture from an English gentleman of no-less a personage than Lord Robert Baden-Powell (founder of the Boy Scout movement), then colonel-commanding officer of the South African Scouts, who clearly favoured his Winchester saddle-ring carbine for personal defense:

Attachment 69061

[vintage hunter]

I was therefore surprised to receive a picture from an English gentleman of no-less a personage than Lord Robert Baden-Powell (founder of the Boy Scout movement), then colonel-commanding officer of the South African Scouts, who clearly favoured his Winchester saddle-ring carbine for personal defense:

He may have but in that photo he's posed with a medium frame Colt Lightning carbine, not a Winchester. Note the absence of a lever loop and also that the barrel/mag tube is visible between the stubby fore end and his right hand.

[Centurion]

--Yes, on second view I have to agree with you. I guess, in any case, it documents that some officers did not solely carry standard-issue firearms.

[Bruce_in_Oz]

Didn't the RCMP have a swag of "slightly different" (musket pattern) '73 and '76 Winchesters?