This is a much sought after example of a 44-40 Winchester Model 1873 Lever Action Rifle that was manufactured in 1885. The rifle has the Third Model receiver with integral dust cover slide rail and dust cover with serrated edges. The rifle has a full octagon heavy weight barrel with full length magazine and crescent buttplate. The barrel has the standard sporting style front sight with nickel-silver blade and sporting style, buckhorn rear sight. The upper tang is factory drilled and tapped for a tang sight. The buttplate has a sliding brass trap door and the butt trap contains the standard, four-piece jointed steel cleaning rod. The barrel, magazine, forearm cap, receiver and dust cover are blue and the hammer, lever and buttplate are color casehardened. The stock and forearm are straight grain black walnut with a varnish finish. The top of the barrel is roll-stamped "WINCHESTER'S-REPEATING ARMS.NEW HAVEN. CT./KING'S-IMPROVEMENT-PATENTED-MARCH 29.1865.OCTOBER 16.1860." ahead of the rear sight. The caliber designation, "44 CAL." is roll-stamped between the rear sight and the receiver. "44 CAL" is stamped in script letters on the bottom of the cartridge elevator. The upper tang is roll-stamped: "- MODEL. 1873-" in fancy letters with foliate devices at either end of the marking. The serial number "203345" is stamped in script numerals on the lower tang between the lever latch and the tang screw.

Very fine. The barrel, magazine and forearm cap retain 70% plus of the blue finish with some minor edge wear. The receiver has light finish wear of the edges and side plates with a few insignificant handling marks. The sides of the hammer and lever retain most of the case colors. The case hardened finish on the contact points on the hammer and lever has faded to a silver patina. The buttplate retains traces of the casehardened finish with the balance having aged to a mottled gray patina. The markings on the barrel, receiver and cartridge elevator are sharp. The stock and forearm are both in fine condition. The left side of the forearm has a number of minor scratches and handling marks; the right side shows less wear. The stock has less wear than the forearm; wear is limited to a few, very minor, scratches. This is a very good, original, example of "The Gun That Won The West"!