Early Winchester Model 1894 Lever Action Rifle manufactured in 1895. This rifle is accompanied by a Cody Firearms Museum letter that describes this "Model 1894 as: "Rifle, 38/55 Caliber, Octagon Barrel" and "Plain trigger". The letter states that this rifle was shipped from the Winchester warehouse on July 31, 1895. The rifle has a charcoal blue octagon barrel, full length magazine, forearm cap, receiver and bolt. The loading gate and extractor are have a fiery niter blue finish. The hammer, trigger, lever and crescent buttplate are color casehardened. The stock and forearm are select American walnut with a piano finish. The barrel has a Lyman folding combination front sight with colored bead and a sporting style, buckhorn, rear sight with serrated edges and screw-adjustable center piece. The upper tang is factory drilled and tapped. The top barrel flat is roll-stamped "- MANUFACTURED BY THE/WINCHESTER REPEATING ARMS CO. MEW HAVEN. CONN. U.S.A. -" in two lines ahead of the rear sight. The caliber "38-55" is roll-stamped on the top barrel flat just in front of the receiver. The upper tang is roll-stamped "MODEL 1894./-WINCHESTER-/PAT. AUG. 21. 1894." in three lines. The serial number is roll-stamped across the bottom of the receiver just behind the forearm.

Exceptionally fine. 95% of the original blue is present of the barrel, magazine and forearm cap. The receiver and bolt have 98% of the blue finish intact. Wear is limited to several insignificant scratches and light handling marks on the sides of the receiver. The loading gate and extractor have nearly all of the bright original nitre blue finish intact. The hammer, trigger and lever have strong case colors and show minimal wear. The case colors on the buttplate have faded but at least 85% of the original finish is present on the buttplate. The walnut stock rates excellent with close to 95% of the high polish piano finish intact; wear is limited to a few scattered and very insignificant storage marks. The barrel and receiver markings are crisp. This is a really attractive example of a very early production Winchester Model 1894 Lever Action Rifle.