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Incredibly Rare Documented Engraved 1 of 1000 Winchester Model 1873 Lever Action Rifle
36
LOT 1037
Rare Documented
“One of One Thousand”
Winchester Model 1873 Lever Action Rifle with Extra Length 30 Inch Barrel, Ammunition, and Factory Letters - Serial no. 31271, 44-40 WCF cal., 30 inch octagon bbl., blue/casehardened finish, deluxe checkered factory walnut stock. The Winchester Model 1873 remains one of the
most iconic American firearms, and the One of One Thousand Model 1873s are among the most desirable of all antique American firearms. Only 132 One of One Thousand Model 1873s were ever manufactured
out of over 720,000 Model 1873s manufactured making them among
the rarest and most valuable of all Winchester firearms. The One of One Thousand program was announced in 1873 and more fully explained in Winchester’s 1875 catalog under the headline “Variety of Arms.” The details of this section are covered in depth in Edmund Lewis’s book “The Story
of the Winchester 1 of 1000 and 1 of 100 Rifles”: “Every Sporting Rifle we make will be proved and shot at a target, and the target will be numbered to correspond with the barrel and be attached to it. When one hundred barrels are thus proved, the one making the best target will be selected and set aside, and another hundred proved in the same way, and so on until one thousand have been tested and ten targets selected with the
barrels with which they were made. They will then be made up into Guns, in which each part is selected with the utmost care and finished in the finest manner. They will then be again subjected to trials for accuracy, and the best of the ten selected and marked ‘One of a thousand,’ the price of which will be $80.00 to $100.00. The other nine will be marked ‘one of a hundred,’ and the price will be from $60.00 to $75.00 each. Sportsmen
will readily see that this severe process of gleaning will be a slow and expensive one, and the result be but a limited number of choice Guns,
and that orders should be given in advance of their wants, or patience exercised with the necessary delay of filling them.” A regular Model 1873 for comparison cost $50 when the rifles were first debuted. Despite this higher cost, many of these premium rifles were sent to the West where highly accurate rifles were especially desired by men like Montana’s Granville Stuart, and they often show signs of genuine frontier use. In open country, a highly accurate rifle was desired for both hunting and defense, and while a rifle like a Sharps Model 1874 or Remington Rolling Block could certainly be incredibly accurate at long range, a Winchester Model 1873 that was highly accurate could both strike targets at long range and allow for rapid fire which often proved necessary in the West in conflicts with Native Americans. Stuart wrote to Winchester, “If poor Custer’s heroic band had been armed with these rifles they would have covered the earth with dead Indians for 500 yards around and it is probable a portion of them [meaning Custer’s men] would have been alive when Gibbon and
Terrys forces reached the bloody field. Why the Government does not adopt your arms is beyond any comprehension.”The included factory letters lists this incredibly rare rifle as a “1 of 1000” with a 30 inch octagon barrel, casehardened finish, checkered stock, and set trigger when it was shipped on November 20, 1878. This rifle was part of a shipment of six consecutive 1 of 1000 rifles (serial numbers 31266-31271) shipped on November 20, 1878, in order 13488. Lewis notes, “All six rifles had identical features except for two guns, which had longer barrels” on page 73 in his discussion of rifle 31270. They are listed in his table of Model 1873 One of Thousand rifles from the warehouse ledges shown on page 26. This rifle was the last from that six gun shipment and was the only one with a 30 inch barrel. Lewis notes that, “The 30-inch barrel is a rarity on a 1 of 1000.” 31268, 31269, and 31270 are also pictured and discussed in “Winchester
1 of 1000” by R.L. Wilson. This rifle has the classic fourth style “One of One Thousand” marking in script with an engraved border and scroll final on top at the breech, factory scroll engraving and inlaid silver bands at the muzzle and breech, a gilt Beech style combination globe and blade front sight, adjustable sporting rear sight, full-length magazine tube, the Second Model guide rail secured by two screws and dust cover with knurled thumb print and smooth rear edges, a long range peep sight mounted on the upper tang, an adjustable single set trigger, no caliber markings, serial number on the lower tang in script numerals, and a deluxe figured forearm and straight wrist stock with style-H checkering and crescent buttplate