Winchester 1894 Lever Action 38.55 Value $$$ PICTURES

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Samson

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I have a Winchester 1894 with a build date of 1901 in 38.55 Lever action 26' rifled barrell 1/2 octagon that Iam looking for a value on.This gun is funactionable,barrell has deep groove with some slight frosting and is very tight.Will cycle and eject with no problem. The wood is in good shape with some dings and safe bumps and the receiver doesnt contain much original bluing.I will be putting in the EE for sale shortly.I have pictures if interested by email at pinehill1@sympatico.ca. Thanks Samson
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Deduct 50% for fair condition, add for early prod., add for caliber, this puts it at $1100 in the USA, less here, not sure how much less. This is a guess, don't shoot the messenger, 94s tend to sit on the shelf.IMHO
 
You don't mention if it's a 26" barreled rifle, or a 20" barreled carbine. Rifles are generally worth more. Octagon and half-octagon barrels are also premiums. So are full-length, 2/3, 1/2 or button magazines. Curved rifle or flat shotgun-style buttplate are variables too.
I've seen a few come up on the exchange. Generally, 26" barreled rifles have been in the $600 to $750 range. I did see one that looked to be hugely overpriced at about $1500.
 
A few more details would be helpful, as Kilo Charlie mentioned, especially a photo or two.

Things are changing pretty fast here in Canada over the past 12 months. With the drop in the Canadian dollar, a large number of old Winchesters have gone south of the border in the past few months. Some types that you could find with some searching and time last year, are now much more difficult to find here in Canada, just 12 months later. Some of the rarer old Winchesters, such as the Model 53's and Model 65's have become extremely difficult, if not impossible, to find in original condition. Model 1886's and 1876's are becoming much more difficult to find. Model 1894's are still relatively plentiful in 30-30 caliber, especially in the carbine version, but the 38-55's are another story.


For the 30-30, the 1894 carbines are much more common than the 26" rifle version. The opposite is true for the 38-55. It is not too difficult to find a 38-55 rifle, but 38-55 carbines in decent condition are very hard to find. 38-55 carbines, because of their rarity, will be worth more than a 38-55 rifle in the same condition. For example, I have both an original Model 1894 38-55 rifle with a full octagon barrel and an original Model 1894 38-55 carbine. The rifle was easy to find, but I searched around for about a year before I found a nice carbine in the same caliber, and had to pay almost double what I paid for the octagon rifle.

Overall, I've been thinking of posting a survey of what kinds of Winchesters people have seen at gun shows in the last month or so. I haven't had time to think through how to organize it, but I suspect the results may be disturbing for the harder to find guns. I'll see if I can put together some sort of survey this week.
 
Winchester 1894 Lever Action 38.55 Value $$$

Thanks for all input on this Model94.I need to post this on EE forum soon as I need to thin out the cabinet to make some cash flow ,but I need as much from this sale as possible.I dont want to price it to high as it will not sell.Tonite I will give it a good cleaning and oil as I had it out for a test fire this afternoon.Works great.Samon
 
I see that your rifle has some special order features ..... half octagon barrel and button mag. That tends to raise the value several hundred dollars. It is hard, however, to get an accurate feel from the photos as to how much wear it has, and whether there has been any re-blueing of the receiver (if it is original, you should be able to see striations along the sides of the receiver from the original forging) or sanding and refinishing of the stock (would should be proud or at least flush with the metal). I don't think the barrel has been re-blued. Another factor is the condition of the bore. Does it have strong sharp rifling with no pitting, or a wee bit of very light pitting here and there, or is the pitting quite noticeable and the rifling about half worn down?

I'm going to give a tentative estimate as to the value of this rifle, but given the steady exodus of old Winchesters to the USA over the past 6 months, I might be on the low side, but here goes .....

If the rifle is unmessed with (no re-blueing, no sanding of the wood, no chopping off a bit of the muzzle, or reducing the length of the mag tube) and it still has roughly 60% of the blue on the barrel, turning more of a plum patina, and if the bore is good with strong sharp rifling and only a tiny bit of pitting here and there, then given that it is a half octagon with a button mag and assuming that it will letter that way, then 12 months ago, I might have said around $1,200 to $1,500. However, with the steady drain of desirable Winchester to the USA, that might be a bit on the low side now.

When you put it up for sale, you really do need to take more photos so prospective buyers can decide its condition. One of the right side of the buttstock, one of the right side of the reciever, one of the right side of the forearm, and one of the right side of the barrel, then the same for the other side. Then one from the top showing the rear sight and the front of the receiver, then one of the printing on the barrel. Photos should not be dark or blurry.
 
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mpjustin said:
up top he said it has a 24inch barrel, shouldn't it be 26?
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That is a good thing to check up on. Since it is a special order barrel (half octagon) it is very possible that it is an original 24" barrel (which along with the half octagon, would increase its value), however, there are two ways to check up on this. The first way is to get a factory letter, or a serial number search done at Cody. A quick way to see if something is wrong is to measure the distance between the muzzle and the centre of the front sight .... it should be 15/16". Also, the distance from the muzzle to the front of the front sight dovetail slot should be 3/4". I've been told by a fellow in the USA that restores old Winchesters that Winchester, regardless of the barrel length, used a muzzle-mounted jig to cut the front sight dovetail slot, which is why the front sight slot dimensions are standard for these old Winchesters. If your rifle does not conform to these dimensions, then there is a good chance that the muzzle was damaged at some point and a little bit taken off. If that is the case, it will result in a reduction in value.
 
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its worthless ... I'd be glad to take it off your hands if you give me 50 bucks and pay the shipping ... and my gas to get to the post office.



Being serious I have no clue what it's worth as I'm too poor to buy lever actions, unfortunately. I try and keep my mind off of them by avoiding them lol.
 
The standard barrel length for the model 1894 was 26 inches, though later in the 1894 era, some of the last rifles manufactured had 24 inch barrels as standard. As a rule of thumb, any 1894 rifle with a 24 inch barrel below s/n 950,000 should be considered a special order gun while those after are probably standard issue. If a 26" barrel is shortened to 24"s the front sight dovetail would also have to be recut. Unless the Winchester front sight dovetail jig is available to cut the dovetail at an exact 90 degree angle, it would be almost impossible for anyone to cut it with the same precision as the Winchester factory. Kirk's measurements and / or Cody info can confirm, but it could certainly be a special ordered 24" barrel...wouldn't surprise me any given it is also a part octagon with button mag...a very nice combination.
Also regarding the barrel length, it is measured from end of muzzle to rear of chamber, and for a 24" barrel, could be anywhere from 24 3/16 to 24 3/8". As for the price, if it was in the standard rifle configuration and in this condition (going from what I see in the pics), $800 would be at the high end, but given it is part octagon with button mag (a nice combination) and possibly ordered with a shorter barrel, it would be more.
Matt
 
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Winchester 1894 Lever Action 38.55 Value $$$

The barrel is 26" and the measurments are correct.Muzzle to center of front site is 15/16".Muzzle to the front dove tail is 3/4".Those asking for pictures I have lots more ,but I didnt want to fill the forum with Pics. pinehill1@sympatico.ca
 
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