Winchester Model 1886 Fancy Sporting Rifle manufactured in 1895. This rifle is accompanied by letters from the Winchester Arms Museum and the Cody Firearms Museum Records Office. The Winchester Museum letter describes it as: "rifle, 45/70 caliber, 1/2 octagon barrel, plain trigger, checkered stock, pistol grip, rubber butt plate, 1/2 magazine (4 Ctgs)" and "Lyman rear, leaf & (unreadable) front sights". The letter states this rifle was shipped from Winchester on July 25, 1895. The rifle has a blued barrel, half magazine, bolt, loading gate and trigger. The forearm cap, receiver, hammer and lever are color casehardened. The forearm and pistol grip stock are highly figured, fancy grain walnut with "Style H" checkering and a highly polished piano finish. The pistol grip has an ebony inlay. The black, hard rubber, shotgun style buttplate is checkered with the round Winchester Repeating Arms logo in the center. The barrel has a Lyman "Hunting Front Sight" with colored insert and rare Lyman folding two-leaf rear sight. The front leaf has a wide sighting notch, and the rear leaf has a flat top with bright triangle. A Lyman folding combination rear sight with coarsely knurled post is mounted on the receiver tang. The top barrel flat is roll-stamped with the two-line legend: "-MANUFACTURED BY THE-/-WINCHESTER REPEATING ARMS CO. NEW HAVEN. CONN. U.S.A.-" ahead of the rear sight. The caliber designation "45-70" is roll-stamped on the top barrel flat just ahead of the receiver. The 1884 and 1885 patent dates are roll-stamped on the lower tang behind the trigger and the serial number, "104230", is stamped in script numerals behind the tang screw.

Very fine overall. Nearly 90% of the blue finish is present on the barrel, half-magazine, bolt, loading gate and trigger. 60% the case colors remain and have faded slightly on the forearm cap, contact points on the top and bottom of the receiver and on the bottom of the lever. The hammer, sides of the receiver and lever show strong case colors. The highly figured, fancy grade, walnut stock and forearm are in excellent condition with at least 90% of the high polish piano finish. The checkering on the forearm and stock is sharp and shows minimal handling wear. The stock and forearm have a few scattered, relatively minor, handling marks that do not detract from the overall excellent appearance of the fancy grade walnut. This is an attractive example of a special order Winchester Deluxe Model 1886 Fancy Lever Action Rifle.