3 old winchesters

morleyr

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Today was my lucky day!!I was given 3 rifles and a shotgun,first a winchester model 1894 in 32-40 with half oct and half round barrel,winchester 1895 in 35 wcf,and a winchester highwall in 30us,and a texas ranger 12 gauge.need some help finding approx values for these,and ammo maybe???thanks
 
Damn. Wish I had some of that luck!
Values depend on condition, as well as other factors including special order options and rarity. It is difficult to provide an assesment without a very good description, and pictures are the best if you can post some.
Matt
 
Yes, the .30 Army cartridge is the commercial designation for the .30-40 Krag. Brass is still available. I would load for it with a hard-cast lead slug, though.

You can make up a slightly-short version of the .35 Winchester for your '95 from Krag brass or, better, from .405 Winchester brass: straight FL resize. This was a real bear-buster of a cartridge and actually was loaded in the commercial ROSS Rifles for a few years.

As to the .32-40, this was originally a Ballard cartridge from the 1870s that Winchester adopted and gave their own name to. It was a favourite with many of the old-timey shooters (including Harry Pope) for the 40-rod (220 yard) offhand 100-round matches that were popular a century ago. Brass is hard to find nowadays, but Lee makes the dies and they are cheap, too. I load this for a couple of friends and make them out of .30-30 brass which they don't bring back, often as not. I'm running short of .30-30 brass, of all things! The loading manuals will list several loads for this cartridge, including some almost up to .30-30 power levels. OLD guns (and yours is one) almost always respond best to a load closely approximating the original 1873 performance. You can get this by loading 17 grains of IMR-4198 with a 170-grain bullet for a .32 Special. Yes, the correct bullet diameter is .320", but running a .321" won't hurt it.

Good luck and have fun!
.
 
Lucky bum indeed!

Well thankfully I can say that we need some pics to assist you in evaluating what you ask for.

32-40's are pretty sought after, and one with a half-oct barrel more so, a 35 Win 1895 can be a great shooter with a great round if loaded well and in a good barrel, and a highwalll is just cool no matter. The Texas Rangers shotty depends on what make and config.
 
i will get some picts taken....but im off for a 3 week huntin trip as of friday so ill have to do it when i get back....ill also need a part or two,a couple screws if you know where to buy em??Was also thinking of rebarreling the high wall as its heavy or better to keep it original???thanks guys!
 
3 week hunting trip....lucky guy, I wish I was out.

Anyhow, I would personally keep the highwall as it is depending on how old it is. If original, I would leave it, its not like you can't buy or build 30-40 Krag still, so its not a difficult cartridge like some others.

As for screws, can't help you there, but the other Win chaps can most likely!

Have fun on your trip!
 
Please don't rebarrel that High Wall! That gun has survived over a century as it stands, in its original configuration, and you don't want the guilt of being the guy "who rebarreled that beauty" another 40 years from now when some descendent of yours is holding the rifle and shaking his head. If you want a custom High Wall, there are actions gallore from Pedersoli, Uberti, etc. Those are the appropriate guns for a project, not an original! If you want the money for a newer repro, I'll buy that .30-40 Highwall to save it from the machine shop.
 
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