GUN FALL 2017
The live portion of this session begins on Tuesday, October 31, 2017.
FINE EARLY WINCHESTER MODEL 1866 SADDLE RING CARBINE.WINCHESTER1866 SRC2422644 RF HENRYCal. 44 RF HENRY. Standard carbine with 20" barrel, full magazine, front sight integral with front band and 2-position, 2-leaf flip rear sight graduated 100, 200 & 500 yards. Barrel address has the Winchester and King's patent dates and address. The receiver side plates and buttplate are gun metal (bronze or brass). Left side of receiver has a staple and ring. Mounted with uncheckered straight grain American walnut with straight stock and rifle crescent buttplate with trap. Top tang channel of buttstock is marked with the last 4 digits of matching SN which are also found inside toe of buttplate. Left side of buttstock has a hand scratched name that is indecipherable. This is one of the earliest "Winchester" marked '66s just after they changed the barrel address from the earlier Henry marking. These early '66 carbines were in great demand on the western frontier by just about anyone who made their living on a horse. This encompassed all the cowboys, outlaws and lawmen as well as ordinary citizens. These carbines usually saw extreme hard service under very adverse conditions and are almost never found in orig configuration with high orig finish. PROVENANCE: Ray Saign; The collection of Tim Zissler. CONDITION: Fine plus, all matching. Barrel retains blue in sheltered areas, being mostly a smooth blue/brown patina. Magazine tube retains about 60% strong original blue with an area of what appears to be blood pitting just below the front band. Front band retains 20-25% bright orig blue. Forearm band is a blue/gray patina. Receiver, side plates and buttplate retain sharp edges showing only light wear with a few very light scratches and all retain a wonderful medium to dark mustard patina. Buttplate has a ding in the point of the heel. Loading gate retains about 60% thinning fire blue and the trigger about 75% blue turning plum. Lever and hammer have mostly turned to silver and dark patina. Wood is sound with a few minor scratches and retains most of an old refinish. Hammer will not catch at full cock when operated by the lever but will catch when retracted manually (a cursory inspection of the interior of the action disclosed that a simple cleaning would probably fix this problem). Otherwise mechanics are crisp. Strong bore with sharp rifling and some shine with moderate pitting. 52463-4 JRL (15,000-25,000)