Winchester Model 1886 Sporting Rifle with Cody Firearms Museum letter. The Cody letter describes this Winchester Model 1886 as: "Rifle, 40/82 caliber, Barrel Shape: Round", and "Plain trigger". The letter states this rifle was shipped from the Winchester warehouse on September 5, 1887, and returned for repair on March 12, 1906. The rifle has a standard 26-inch round barrel and full-length magazine. The barrel has a gold-plated Beach folding combination front sight and a buckhorn sporting style rear sight. A Lyman marked folding combination rear sight with coarsely knurled post is mounted on the receiver tang. The barrel, magazine, forearm cap, receiver, bolt and trigger have the Winchester blue finish. The loading gate is fire blue. The hammer, loading lever and crescent buttplate are color casehardened. The stock and forearm are straight grain American walnut with a low luster varnish finish. The top of the barrel is roll-stamped with the two-line legend "- MANUFACTURED BY THE - /- WINCHESTER REPEATING ARMS CO. NEW HAVEN. CONN. U.S.A. -" with arrows at either end of the markings. The caliber "40-82 W.C.F." is roll-stamped on the top of the barrel between the rear sight and the receiver. The 1884 and 1885 patent dates are roll-stamped on the lower tang behind the trigger and the serial number is stamped in script numerals ahead of the rear tang screw.

Excellent. This rifle retains nearly 95% plus of the strong original blue and casehardened finish. The loading gate has 85% of the original nitre blue finish. The barrel, magazine and forearm cap show almost no wear. The blue finish on the receiver and bolt is free from handling wear and is nearly 95% complete with some light age spotting and the left side and bottom. The case colors on the hammer and lever are strong deep and vibrant. The crescent buttplate shows minimal wear with muted case colors. The stock and forearm have most of the varnish complete and are both in excellent condition; wear is limited to a few scattered and very minor storage marks and several shallow indentation marks on the lower left side toe of the stock near the buttplate. The barrel and receiver markings are crisp. This is an excellent example of a early production Winchester Model 1886 Lever Action Rifle.