Winchester 1895

T

treebutcher

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So I was given this old rifle (Winchester 1895) from my father-in-law. As you can see from the picture she is a little rough the bore is not too bad. I have not had a chance to sit down and see how it groups yet. I could get a minute of cereal box shooting off hand with it. I think it is too rough to have any collector value so I was thinking of having it re blued and refinishing the stock. For reference it is 303 British and manufactured in 1910, determined by googling the serial number. Heck of a gift in my books it did come with the condition I give it to one of my daughters.

 
doesn't look too bad.

You think of re blueing it?
I guess the sh*t storm will be starting soon.
better get ready. :)
 
Its the carbine, its worth more then the rifle. If it has a handguard is it intact? Some were sold without them as well but those are an oddball. If you had one in 30-40 krag and it was humped up San Juan Hill with the rough riders it might be worth leaving it alone, but you dont.

You're not going to get rich selling it though so if it brings you some pleasure to have a refinished shooter I dont see the big deal eather. Im not big on clinging to old rusted hunks of crap like they're part of the true cross.
 
You might want to reconsider, not many of these around.

You`d be surprised how good some of them look without refinishing.

Try cleaning up the metal with dry 000 steel wool, and give the stock a few rubs of BLO and see how it looks.

It will likely be worth more than a reblued gun, and you can always blue it later.

Once it is reblued, there is no turning back.
 
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I'm with AX on this one. Unless an old Winchester is horribly pitted I am for leaving it alone. Yours looks to be a carbine minus the hand guard. I use bronze wool and oil on the metal and the stock can be cleaned with turpentine and 0000 steel wool and continually wiped with clean rags. Finish up with a little boiled linseed oil hand rubbed in after allowing it to dry from the turpentine treatment. You will be shocked at the amount of crap in the wood.
 
HINT----Before you get drastic and "restore" it, you might check for markings on it. Things like Canadian proof marks and such.
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I would not know what to look for as to markings. Yes it is the saddle carbine, the top wood is gone along with the saddle ring. I'm not too sure the rear sight is correct it looks like it would interfer with the clips that hold the top wood. The funny thing is the places on the barrel where the clips that hold the top wood on has no marks at all. I figured they would scratch the barrel up a little. So if I don't blue it will cleaning it up with flitz cause harm/devalue it? There are no pits it just looks like the blueing is polished off. As you can tell from the picture there is slight surface rust, just enough that it wont come off with WD-40 and a rag.

If the weather straightens up I want to snowshoe into the local DNR range and see how good she holds off a bench. Thanks for the input guys
 
Good looking old gun. My thoughts would be to leave it as is, just a good clean up. Does the forend wood have slots cut in for the spring clips of the handguard? Guns were ordered without. The front sight looks to be changed. Another pic or two would be good. Bill..
 
Another pic or two would be good. Bill..
Click to expand...
Sure thing
There are slots for the clips in the fore stock. If the clips scratched the barrel then someone did a good job cleaning them up.
Here is a picture of the rear sight, it has Marble's on it. I don't know if Winchester was using them for sights during 1910 or not

You can see the clips would go right over the sight here but there is no evidence of them being installed on the rifle

Here is the front sight

I'm going to try to get to the range this weekend if I can find the time.
 
Nice old 95. I would just clean it up as some of the fellows pointed out. Neither the front nor rear sight are original to the carbine. I have seen a few special ordered without the handguard, but if I recall, the slots may not have been there for the handguard on these carbines. Can't recall for sure, I did not look that carefully. Let us know how it shoots. Check the throat too for pitting. I collect 1894s, but there is something very unique about the 95s. I have had several very nice ones (several 405s, 38-72, 40-72, 30 US, 303BR) wish I would have kept one or two. Let them go to concentrate on 94s.

For anyone who likes 1895s, here is a dandy:

http://www.gunsinternational.com/Wi...riginal-Three-Barrel-Set.cfm?gun_id=100154720

Good luck.

Matt
 
From what Matt74 says, it's probably lost some of it's collectability with the non-OEM sights but it sounds like that's not a concern for you.

Personally I'd leave it as is but keep some oil on it like oldiron recommends. It has the character of time and use which goes well with the family heirloom aspect. I wouldn't even think about working over my Grandpa's Ross before passing it down, it's about the same shape. The thought just seems to rob some of the heritage from it.

But that's my opinion.
 
The sights have been replaced at one time. I'd definately clean up the wood, then see how it looks. After that I'd probably get it blued as well, but that would depend on its value in original condition.
 
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