Original Item: Only One Available. This pretty much is the Cadillac of late 19th century big game hunting rifles! Many consider the Winchester 1886 to be the finest lever action repeating rifle ever made, and this example is truly a "Gun of a Lifetime", the DELUXE EDITION! Even better, it was FULLY RESTORED, with the finish on the metal and wood completely redone to factory levels! At the same time or possibly before, the original 45/90 chambered barrel was removed, and a new smokeless powder barrel chambered in .33 W.C.F. was installed, with the appropriate adjustments to the action. This round was introduced in 1902 and was one of the standard options on the 1886 after introduction, so barrels were definitely available, sometimes fitted at the factory itself!

This magnificent fully restored example is chambered in .33 Winchester (marked 33 W.C.F. on the chamber) with a 24" round barrel and half length magazine tube. This configuration with the shorter magazine was very popular for hunting, and has an iconic look. It has the classic Winchester "blade" front sight, and iconic "buckhorn" adjustable rear sight. The serial number on the lower receiver tang is 69264 denoting the year of manufacture as 1892, one of 10,214 made that year.

This rifle also comes with a copy of the original Factory Records from the Cody Firearms Records Office, who now houses the original Winchester factory records. These indicate that the rifle was originally ordered as a "deluxe" hunting rifle, with a checkered stock, pistol grip, set trigger, and a sporting leaf sight. The original caliber was 45/90, or .45-90 Sharps, a classic "Big Game" cartridge. The order for the rifle was received in the warehouse August 08, 1892 and shipped August 09, 1892 as part of order 2725. Unfortunately there is no other information available for the serial number. While the .45-90 was popular at the time, once smokeless powder became widespread, there were much better calibers to choose from.

The side of the barrel has crisp Winchester address and patent markings, which read:

It also has the markings indicating it was made from improved steel for smokeless powder:

---- NICKEL STEEL BARREL ----
ESPECIALLY FOR SMOKELSSS POWDER

This 1886 has John Browning's PAT. OCT. 14. 1884 and JAN. 20. 1885 patent dates stamped on the lower receiver tang. The upper tang simply marked - MODEL 1886. -, the standard marking for this model. The stocks on the rifle are magnificent, with very crisp checkering and a lovely gloss finish that really brings out the grain and chatoyancy of the high quality figured wood. The buttstock looks to be probably BURL walnut, and really takes the cake. It is fitted with a great hard rubber WINCHESTER REPEATING ARMS butt pad on the end. It is unlikely that we have ever had a better set of stocks than the ones on this rifle.

This example is offered with a crisp tight action in fully functional condition. The fully restored metalwork shows excellent bluing and case hardening. The bore is in very good condition, showing crisp lands and grooves with a mostly bright finish. It does show some signs of minor use, and probably rates a 9 out of 10.

These are nearly impossible to find on the market in such fantastic restored condition. Just what you needed when going "On Safari" with "T.R." Ready to display!

Specifications-

Year of Manufacture: 1892
Caliber: .33 W.C.F.
Cartridge Type: Centerfire Cartridge
Barrel Length: 24 Inches
Overall Length: 42 3/8 Inches
Action type: Lever Action Repeater
Feed System: tube magazine

More on the Winchester Model 1886

The lever action repeating rifle we know as the Winchester Model 1886 was conceived in the mind of a young John Browning in Ogden, Utah around 1883. At the time, Browning and his younger brothers, all in their teens and twenties, were building an amazing single shot rifle in a small brick factory/sporting goods store they had built with their own hands in downtown Ogden. Between 1879 and 1883, the Browning Brothers made about 600 single shot single shot rifles. Since they had no distribution set up, the rifles were simply sold locally off the racks placed in the front of their store. Legend has it that in 1883, a Winchester salesman named Andrew McAusland came across one of the Browning Brothers rifles in his travels. He purchased the rifle for $15 and shipped it back to Winchester thinking it might interest his company back East. He attached a letter stating such with along with the hopes they would reimburse him the fifteen bucks. All that was stamped on the gun was a serial number and the name Browning Bros., Ogden, UT. The rifle impressed management at Winchester so much that Vice President T.G. Bennett (Oliver Winchester's son-in-law) boarded a train for Ogden in hopes of buying the design from ????... well, quite literally... whoever these Browning guys were.

What I wouldn't give to go back in time and see that Yale-educated Vice President of Winchester Repeating Arms Company dressed in a suit wandering the frontier-era streets of Ogden, Utah in search of the Browning Brothers shop. Can you imagine his surprise when he realized, that the rifle (in 1883, his company had no equivalent to this rifle in their product line, nor a single model that could handle calibers 45-70 and up), had been in production for four years by young Mormon brothers in their teens and twenties on the American frontier? These guys were living quite literally on the very last stop for the railroad on the frontier just about as far as you could get from the Industrial Revolution back East... yet at that moment, they were arguably building the best single shot rifle in the world. At any rate, to get to the point, Bennett purchased the rights to manufacture the Browning Bros. rifle and made them Winchester dealers, "jobbers", in the process. The rifle would be manufactured by Winchester as the Model 1885 Single Shot.

Before departing, John Browning told Bennett about another design he was working on: a new lever action repeater that could handle the 45-70. Bennett was quite interested and encouraged Browning to let Winchester have the first crack at it when a prototype was completed. The following year in 1884, it was John and his younger brother, Matt Browning, who boarded the train, this time for New Haven, CT with their new rifle in tow. This new lever action was granted US Patent No. 306,577 on October 14, 1884. John Browning was just 29 years old. BTW, this was his fifth patent! The 1886 was the first lever action repeater that could handle the Gov't 45-70 as well as the 45-90 and 40-82. These were the first three calibers offered in their new lever action but many more calibers would come over the next several years. The 50-110 was offered for the first time in the Model 1886 in 1887.

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