Winchester Model 1894 Fancy Sporting Rifle with Cody Firearms Museum letter. The Cody letter describes the rifle features as: "38/55 Caliber, Octagon barrel, Plain trigger" and "Checkered stock with pistol grip" and states that it was shipped from the Winchester warehouse on December 24, 1896. The rifle has a blued barrel, full length magazine, forearm cap and receiver. The hammer, trigger, lever and crescent steel buttplate are color casehardened. The forearm and pistol grip stock are highly figured, fancy grain walnut with Winchester Style H checkering and a high polish piano finish. The pistol grip has a black hard rubber cap embossed "WINCHESTER REPEATING ARMS". The barrel has a special order Lyman Hunting Front Sight with ivory insert and a sporting style rear sight with serrated edges and adjustable insert. Special order eyes for detachable sling swivels are mounted on the forearm cap and the underside of the stock. The top of the barrel is roll-stamped with the legend "- MANUFACTURED BY THE -/- WINCHESTER REPEATING ARMS CO. NEW HAVEN. CONN. U.S.A.-" in two lines ahead of the rear sight. The caliber designation "38-55" is stamped on the top of the barrel between the rear sight and the receiver. The upper receiver tang is roll-stamped "MODEL 1894./ -WINCHESTER-/PAT.AUG. 21. 1894" in three lines. The serial number "15674" is stamped across the bottom of the receiver just behind the forearm.

Excellent. The rifle is all original and retains 97% of the blue and casehardened finish. Nearly all of the blue is present on the barrel and magazine; the left side of the forearm cap has some very light finish wear. The blue finish on the receiver, loading gate and bolt shows only very minor edge wear and several insignificant scratches. The hammer, trigger and lever have nearly all of the muted case colors intact. The buttplate has a silver-gray patina but retains close to 90% of the case colors. The stock and forearm are excellent and retain at least 95% of the high polish piano finish; wear is limited to a few very insignificant handling marks. The checkering on the stock and forearm is sharp. Mechanically excellent. This is an outstanding example of an early production, special order Winchester Model 1894 Fancy Sporting Rifle.