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Winchester Model 1895 .30-06 Lever Action Rifle

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles Start Price:25.00 USD Estimated At:1,850.00 - 2,600.00 USD
Winchester Model 1895 .30-06 Lever Action Rifle
Included in this lot is a very fine condition Winchester Model 1895 in rare .30-06 caliber with correct 24” barrel, serial number 84857. According to the Winchester records housed at the Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody, Wyoming, this serial number indicates that this rifle was manufactured in 1913. The standard caliber for the Model 1895 was .30-40 Krag making a rifle chambered in .30-06 a scarce caliber. This nearly 107 year old example displays deep blue covering nearly all of the barrel with only normal light ageing. The receiver displays an attractive aged blue mixing naturally with an uncleaned gray/brown patina. There is fine blue on the bolt (receiver top) and on the box magazine and lever. The front sight is a Marble #57 blade/bead (and so marked) along with a buckhorn rear sight. All the correct Winchester markings on the barrel and upper tang are sharp and clear. The caliber marking on the barrel side is correctly stamped “.30 GOVT. 1906.” The stock is in excellent condition. The forend with correct factory ebony inlay schnable tip is equally excellent. The forend wood shows a darker color indicating that it may have spent a good deal of time in a leather saddle scabbard. The action on this example is tight and the bore is excellent, bright and has very sharp rifling. This is a scarce caliber Model 1895 that has seen normal use, but was exceptionally well maintained. The 1895 was another Jonathan Browning designed action that is unique among lever action rifles in that it has a box magazine ahead of the trigger designed to hold five cartridges. Because the loaded rounds in the magazine are stacked, pointed bullets could be utilized offering much better terminal ballistics than the blunt, flat nose bullets required for tubular magazines in which one cartridge is placed directly ahead of the previous with the bullet tip centered on the primer on the next shell. In this traditional kind of tubular magazine, a pointed bullet could detonate another round in the magazine when so loaded. Obviously, this is not the case with the box magazine of a Model 1895. Interestingly, the Model 1895 in several calibers accompanied Theodore Roosevelt on his famed year-long African Safari of 1909. At the time it was considered the most modern and powerful lever action rifle of its day. This is very fine example in a very scarce and desirable caliber. This firearm qualifies as a Curio & Relic, and requires FFL Transfer or NICS Background Check.