The Cody letter describes this rifle as: "Type: Rifle, Caliber: 38/56, Barrel Type: Octagon, Trigger: Plain" and states that it was shipped from the Winchester warehouse on May 20, 1905. The rifle has a blue finish on the barrel, magazine, forearm cap, receiver and bolt. The hammer, trigger, lever and crescent buttplate are casehardened. The loading gate is fire blue. The straight grain, American walnut stock and forearm have a varnish finish. The 26-inch octagon barrel has a Lyman express front sight with gold bead and a buckhorn, sporting style rear sight with screw-adjustable center piece and serrated edges. A Lyman "N-Ni" receiver sight with locking lever is mounted on the left side of the receiver. The upper tang is factory drilled and tapped. The top barrel flat is roll-stamped: "MANUFACTURED BY THE/WINCHESTER REPEATING ARMS CO. NEW HAVEN. CONN. U.S.A." in two lines ahead of the rear sight. The caliber: "38-56 W.C.F." is roll-stamped on the top barrel flat just ahead of the receiver. The upper receiver tang is roll-stamped: "MODEL 1886/-WINCHESTER-/TRADE MARK" in three lines. The 1884 and 1885 patent dates are roll-stamped on the lower tang behind the trigger, and the serial number is stamped on the lower tang between the rear tang screws.

Excellent. The rifle is all original with 97% plus of the bright original high polish blue finish overall. The loading gate shows some wear and retains 80% of the niter blue finish. Nearly all of the muted case colors are present on the hammer, trigger and lever. The case colors on the buttplate have silvered, show some age discoloration and about 85% remain. The walnut stock and forearm are both in excellent condition and retain most of the original varnish finish. Wear is limited to a few scattered and very insignificant storage marks. This is an exceptional example of an early 20th century Winchester Model 1886 Sporting rifle.