Lot 18: Special Order Winchester Model 1886 Lever Action Sporting Rifle

The Cody letter describes this Model 1886 as: "Type: Rifle, Caliber: 40/65, Barrel Type: Octagon, Trigger: Plain" and "1/2 Magazine". It further states that this rifle was shipped from Winchester on August 26, 1889. The rifle has a blued barrel, bolt, loading gate and trigger and color casehardened magazine tip, forearm cap, receiver, hammer, lever and crescent buttplate. The stock and forearm are straight grain American walnut with a varnish finish. The full octagon barrel has a sporting style front sight with nickel-silver blade and sporting style buckhorn rear sight with screw-adjustable center-piece. The upper receiver tang is factory drilled and tapped. 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: "40-65 W.C.F." is roll-stamped on the top of the barrel between the rear sight and the receiver. "-MODEL 1886.-" is roll-stamped on the upper receiver tang. The 1884 and 1885 patent dates are roll-stamped in two lines on the lower tang behind the trigger. The serial number is roll-stamped in script numerals on the lower tang in front of the tang screw. The combination of special order full octagon barrel and 1/2 magazine is rare on Model 1886 rifles.

Very fine. This rifle retains 85% of the vivid original color casehardened finish overall. Nearly all of the professionally restored blue finish is present on the barrel. The Winchester legend and caliber markings are sharp. The bolt and trigger have 95% of the blue finish. The loading gate retains 85% of the fire blue finish. The stock and forearm are both in very fine condition and retain 90% of the original varnish finish with scattered minor handling marks and noticeable thinning on the forearm. This is an attractive representative example of a Winchester Model 1886 Sporting Rifle with special order full octagon barrel and 1/2 magazine.