Make: Winchester
Model: 1894 Saddle Ring Carbine (SRC)
Serial Number: 42749
Year of Manufacture: 1895 (Winchester Serial Lookup pg. 9)
Caliber: .32-40 Winchester Center Fire (WCF), AKA .32-40 Ballard
Action Type: Lever Action with Side Loading Gate fed by Full-Length Magazine
Barrel Length: 18” Round
Sights / Optics: The front sight is a beaded blade pinned to a split base fixed to the barrel above the muzzle. The rear sight is a V-notch with a flip-up ladder sight and V-notch slider dovetailed to the top rear of the barrel.
Stock Configuration & Condition: The stocks are two-piece smooth walnut featuring a banded forend, a straight grip, a straight comb, and a carbine-style buttplate. The stocks show mostly light nicks, scratches, and compressions, as well as some minor handling marks. There are some moderate dings on the forend and buttstock, with some of them having darkened with age. There is a thin crack at the rear of the comb adjacent to the buttplate. The LOP measures 13" from the front of the trigger to the back of the buttplate. The buttplate has gone to white with fairly evenly scattered nicks, scuffs, and scratches. Overall, the stocks are in Very Good condition as Antique.
Type of Finish: Blue and Case Color
Finish Originality: Original
Bore Condition: The bore is gray and the rifling is well-defined. There is fouling and erosion in the bore. In this writer’s opinion and for the age, this bore rates a 6 or 7 out of 10 as Antique.
Overall Condition: This carbine retains about 70% of its metal finish. The balance of the finish shows thinning and wear throughout with some corresponding surface oxidation and patina forming. There are scattered nicks, scratches, scuffs, and patches of contact wear. The screw heads are well-defined. The markings are clear. Overall, this carbine is in Very Good condition.
Mechanics: The action functions correctly. There is a lever safety and the hammer has a half-cock safety position. We have not fired this carbine. As with all previously owned firearms, thorough cleaning may be necessary to meet your maintenance standards.
Box, Paperwork & Accessories: This carbine comes with a letter from the Cody Firearms Museum confirming this carbine’s configuration and original shipment date from the warehouse in September 1898.
Our Assessment: The Model 1894 was another Winchester lever action rifle designed by gunmaking genius John Moses Browning, and it became one of the most famous and popular hunting rifles of all time. It was the first commercial sporting rifle to sell over 7 million units, and was also the first commercial American repeating rifle built to be used with smokeless powder. It was introduced in 1894 in two black powder cartridges, the .32-40 and .38-55 Win. rounds, but by August 1895 Winchester had developed a different steel composition that could handle higher pressures, and the .25-35 and .30-30 WCF chamberings were introduced. As R.L. Wilson relays in his excellent reference work “Winchester An American Legend”, Winchester’s announcement of the Model 1894 in their November 1894 catalog certainly proved prophetic: “We believe that no repeating rifle system ever made will appeal to the eye and understanding of the riflemen as this will and that use will continue to warrant first impressions.”
This is an early Antique Winchester Model 1894 Saddle Ring Carbine made in 1895. It has an 18" barrel chambered for the .32-40 black powder cartridge. This Model 1894 shows its age, having mostly honest cosmetic wear, but retains strong mechanics, and would make a nice display piece with its "been there, done that" appearance.
RIFLE