Winchester 38-55

Here in yUK you would have your arm torn off at the shoulder offering it at a gun show like the Trafalgar Meet at Bisley. I reckon I'd be looking at something around $3000 here to take that home with me...

What a lovely piece.

tac
 
You don't see many 1885's for sale here in Canada. But with the barrel cut I'm guessing around $750 or so. But get lots of opinions before you price it and take an average.
 
Similar HiWalls routinely sell at auction in the 950-1150$ range and then add the 10%buyers premium and 13% tax to put the price in the 1200-1400$ range.........IMHO.........and many of them have poor to fair condition bores.
 
Similar HiWalls routinely sell at auction in the 950-1150$ range and then add the 10%buyers premium and 13% tax to put the price in the 1200-1400$ range.........IMHO.........and many of them have poor to fair condition bores.

Auction prices aren't really the same as retail prices. I don't see $1000 in a grey Highwall with a cut off barrel but all it takes is two guys to decide they both want it bad at an auction and away they go.
 
the cut barrel substantially lowers the collector's value, but I have insufficient experience with Model 1885's to suggest a fair price.
 
You never said much about the bore condition other than the original peek at it suggested it was fair to good. If the bore is in good condition then I'd say you have a $1000'ish gun on your hands. As mentioned the barrel chop takes it out of the collectable range but it's still very much a sought after shooting gun by those that enjoy such things.

If it were me posting it on the EE I'd likely start at $1200 and if it's not gone after a week start coming down by $50 a week until it sells. Or if you're after a quick sale then list it at $1K and settle for the first offer over $900. You'll get some quick money and the buyer will be pretty happy as well.

This isn't a rifle for everyone though. If it were .45-70 it would be gone in a blink. But there's enough of us that like the smaller bore sizes that it won't be around for all that long.

When set up with the nice Soule style rear and globe style front sights these rifles are very capable long distance shooters. I'm not that good at it yet but even so the results I've had from my old .38-55 rolling block and my recently bought Uberti Hi Wall have had some scoped rifle shooters nodding and saying ".... not bad, not bad at all".

The .38-55 is very much a reloader's cartridge. Yes there's some available but it's usually sized to the later standard for lever action rifles. The older single shots used a slightly tighter bore and needed a different bullet size to really perform. So if you tried it but found that it didn't do well you likely got the wrong sort of .38-55 ammo.
 
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