This is an absolutely, flat brand new, unissued Winchester Model 1895 Russian contract musket. The consignor noted that this musket was originally sold from the Winchester Arms factory collection in the late 1980s and was never issued or even handled. These Russian contract muskets are usually in horrible condition having seen years of use in Europe and then reimported into the U.S. This musket was originally manufactured in the early part of 1915 and is new! It is correctly chambered for the Russian 7.62x54R cartridge and it has the distinctive stripper clip guides over the rear of the receiver that are only found on the Russian contract muskets. It is fitted with a 28 inch round barrel that is marked on the left rear side with: "-NICKEL STEEL BARREL-/ESPECIALLY FOR SMOKELESS POWDER" and "7.62 M/M" in front of the receiver ring. The top of the receiver is stamped with "7.62/MM." It has the standard two line factory address and patent markings on the left side of the receiver and the underside of the lower tang is also correctly stamped with serial number "155910" with a "B" towards the rear of the tang. The barrel is fitted with the correct, military style tangent rear sight that is marked on the left side of the base with a corresponding number from "4-14" (400-1400 yards) with the face of the slide marked "15-32" (1500-3200 yards). It has a wide blade front sight. The upper barrel band is also correctly fitted with a bayonet lug on the underside, again one of the characteristic of the Russian contract muskets. It has the full length walnut forearm with finger grooves on the sides, and although the forend is correctly cut for the top handguard clips, it lacks the rear handguard and appears to have never have been fitted with one from the factory as the barrel blue and cutout area of the forearm show absolutely no wear! It is also fitted with the correct matching walnut military style buttstock with the trapdoor in the buttplate for a jointed cleaning rod (not included). The mid barrel band and the lower area of the buttstock are fitted with military style sling loops. The loading lever loop has a small brass tag attached to it that is stamped: "78.1/0421".

Excellent plus with 99% of the bright original blue finish overall showing no wear anywhere. The walnut forend and buttstock both have a super medium brown matching color with oil finish. This rifle lacks any Russian proofs and acceptance marks clearly indicating it sat at the factory from 1915 until it was sold in the 1980s. A true time capsule for the Winchester collector.