1886 Winchester

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BigTom

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I recently inherited a Winchester 1886 lever chambered in 45-90. The barrel is half octagon and half round. It has a short tube magazine that does not protrude from the forestock..it also has 3 leaf express sites. The wood is a lovely grade and the bore is very good. It does have some scuffs and scrapes and the checkering is worn.
I have yet to find one the same in my online searches. If someone could help in determining a valid description and a value, that would be helpful.

I would like to thank everyone for their input. I have reached out to get a letter from Winchester. In todays search I found a series of bullet molds, and original winchester hand reloading tool and two full boxes of 300 Grain Bullits from Hammerstroms small arms in Regina! This is just getting cooler!1000008355.jpg
 
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BigTom said:
I recently inherited a Winchester 1886 lever chambered in 45-90. The barrel is half octagon and half round. It has a short tube magazine that does not protrude from the forestock..it also has 3 leaf express sites. The wood is a lovely grade and the bore is very good. It does have some scuffs and scrapes and the checkering is worn.
I have yet to find one the same in my online searches. If someone could help in determining a valid description and a value, that would be helpful View attachment 1087786
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What a wonderful inheritance you have received. I'm not an expert on these but I'm pretty sure that was a special order gun which was common back in the day. You could get take downs, different sights, half magazines etc. The take down feature was set up as many people travelled by train in the late 19th/ early 20th century and a full size rifle was hard to stow.

This configuration, if original, is quite rare. You can Google around and find lots of information. Hickock45 has a great video on the '86 in 45-70. You may wish to join the Winchester Antique Collectors association for some very specific help. I got lots of great information from the group there. The value in the US is likely much higher than here. Others in our community here on CGN will no doubt jump in! I've only ever fired one a few times and it was a joy to shoot and very accurate.
 
You got a deluxe rifle with a couple special features there. Be very very careful, a lot of Winchester hucksters will try to get if off you for peanuts hoping you don’t know what you have and screw you out of a tidy sum. I recommend getting a letter from Cody Wyoming (Winchester museum). Also condition of petina, case hardening etc affects price.Check out Merz in the US. Could be worth $10-$15 thousand in the US funds. As mentioned, the rifle is worth more south of the border than here unfortunately. Good luck. Keep us posted.
 
I'm seeing a lot of screaming good deals on guns lately.
I've also noticed other guns that have been for sale for years.
I'm no professional . I don't buy and sell guns or monitor prices.
I do like old winchesters and I have owned several 86s.
You could ask 4500 and advertise it for years.
2500 and probably sell right away?
I know where I could buy a pretty mint 40/82. I'm not fussy about the caliber. I could probably buy it for 2500. Yeah I think it's a low price compared to what stuff used to sell for. I really don't want another gun but I'm tempted at this price.
The whole political situation really has hurt my desire to invest in gun Collecting. Real possibility of getting robbed now a days.
30 years ago gun Collecting was a lot more fun.
If someone gives you a appraisal on what they think it's worth. Ask them if they will actually buy it from you.
 
Not sure why I made you angry John?
Make the guy a public cash offer and prove me wrong.
I'm in Alberta. If we are close enough to do in person deals I have more guns that I would sell you.
 
Valiant said:
Not sure why I made you angry John?
Make the guy a public cash offer and prove me wrong.
I'm in Alberta. If we are close enough to do in person deals I have more guns that I would sell you.
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Not angry, just hate it when folks don’t know they have and get taken advantage of. The worst is when guys croak and the sharks descend upon a grieving widow to take those guns off her hands. Seen it many times over the years. Not saying you’re a shark, I don’t know you from atom, hell you could be more honest than Jesus Chris and Gandhi combined. However do you really think this rifle is only worth $2500?
 
Hey BigTom, if it was my gun and I wanted to sell it I would try to get it appraised. But you’ll need the Cody letter to authenticate it, plus detailed pictures. Personally I try to get it sent stateside. Yes there’s fees and costs but remember if it sells you may recover some costs due to the exchange rate back into cdn funds.
 
johnl said:
Not angry, just hate it when folks don’t know they have and get taken advantage of. The worst is when guys croak and the sharks descend upon a grieving widow to take those guns off her hands. Seen it many times over the years. Not saying you’re a shark, I don’t know you from atom, hell you could be more honest than Jesus Chris and Gandhi combined. However do you really think this rifle is only worth $2500?
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I'm not interested in buying his gun. I'm not trying to get a deal.
Been a while since I've looked but rustywood has had the same guns on website for sale for years now.
I've also noticed same guys year after year at gun shows with same antique cowboy type of guns for sale.
Especially since last federal election I just don't see the antique type of guns that I'm interested in selling for much money.
There are guns with higher prices not selling. But I've been offered some really really good deals lately.
Because of political situation I'm bit nervous to keep buying.
People selling don't seem to want to trade.
 
You can also go to Paco Kelly’s Leverguns.com website.It is a web site dedicated to lever guns and the boys on there are devoted lever gunners and could give you a ball park idea of he price.Also If you want to know all about and are interested in selling it though I agree get a Cody Letter and the best price you probably get for it will be in the States where the big money still is for guns
 
Get the letter from Cody
Big thing is if it is all original.
Then if you want to sell it, ship it to the states. Huge difference in prices.
I shipped a original 50-110 down to Rocky Island Auctions, along with a couple original Colt single action army pistols.
And I got $30000.00 USD more than up here. Even with the shipping, import and auction fee's
The 50-110 sold for over 20k usd and it was not in unreal shape. the CSA pistols however were in amazing shape.
Even if you want to keep the rifle the cody letter is nice to have .
45-90 rifles while not as common as 45-70 rifles are not exactly rare, but if yours is original(factory ordered button mag, high grade wood and such)
It can be worth a large sum in the us
 
Its a pretty special gun. Apart from 50 express the 45/90 is the most desired chambering in the 86. Yours is a deluxe gun, pistol grip at least 3x wood, half round barrel, half magazine, sling swivels, checkered stocks, looks like shotgun butt?
A plain Jane 86 in 45/90 will fetch 3k or close depending on condition in Canada. Yours would fetch 3 times that here more in US. Though always had to be importer marked if sent to US and collectors loathe any markings that don't belong.
A factory letter is smart. It may have belonged to someone of historical note.Well worth finding out.
 
So how do you sell in the States?
I'm not trolling. I'm interested in this.
Could someone from Alberta just take a bunch of rifles to Montana and put them in consignment at gun shop?
Do you have to have a residence in Montana and you just say you are leaving them at you snowbird winter place?
Probably have laws against everything.
How do you ship expensive guns? Doesn't Canada post have $5000 limit on insurance?
How would a normal non dealer who had a few guns to sell do this?
I'm thinking with handgun freeze and only dealers can purchase right now that somehow they are exporting but I bet if you tried to sell them your registered handgun that you wouldn't get much from them?
 
Valiant said:
So how do you sell in the States?
I'm not trolling. I'm interested in this.
Could someone from Alberta just take a bunch of rifles to Montana and put them in consignment at gun shop?
Do you have to have a residence in Montana and you just say you are leaving them at you snowbird winter place?
Probably have laws against everything.
How do you ship expensive guns? Doesn't Canada post have $5000 limit on insurance?
How would a normal non dealer who had a few guns to sell do this?
I'm thinking with handgun freeze and only dealers can purchase right now that somehow they are exporting but I bet if you tried to sell them your registered handgun that you wouldn't get much from them?
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No not at all.
They need to be exported to the states, threw a special process.
It can be done, but is a pain in the butt. And only really worth it if they are high dollar units.
Rock Island Auctions is where I sold mine threw, and they have a process that walks you threw the entire process.(this was pre covid, so not sure if it different for them now.)
Now I have only sold threw them, and cannot tell you how others have sold threw the states.
There are fee's and shipping costs plus the cost of the auction.
But in my case it was well worth the effort as the 3 guns I sold were epically more valuable down south.
 
Arcosdad said:
https://www.ima-usa.com/products/or...e-in-1894-serial-89916?variant=40642557280325

Some interesting historical comments here for the OP. Yours is the model above the one described in the article, the so called Deluxe!
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Yeah I saw this article but there are differences too. The one I have has an octagon barrel at the receiver that becomes round at the forestock. It has express sites and has wood inlays in the forestock and pistol grip. The wood in the one I have has beautiful figure in it too
 
BigTom said:
Yeah I saw this article but there are differences too. The one I have has an octagon barrel at the receiver that becomes round at the forestock. It has express sites and has wood inlays in the forestock and pistol grip. The wood in the one I have has beautiful figure in it too
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Mike Webb said:
Its a pretty special gun. Apart from 50 express the 45/90 is the most desired chambering in the 86. Yours is a deluxe gun, pistol grip at least 3x wood, half round barrel, half magazine, sling swivels, checkered stocks, looks like shotgun butt?
A plain Jane 86 in 45/90 will fetch 3k or close depending on condition in Canada. Yours would fetch 3 times that here more in US. Though always had to be importer marked if sent to US and collectors loathe any markings that don't belong.
A factory letter is smart. It may have belonged to someone of historical note.Well worth finding out.
Click to expand...
1000008354.jpg
 
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