Winchester Highwall 218 Bee

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lpel

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Trying to get a value on a Winchester Highwall I have in 218 Bee. Trying to decide if it is worth selling or just hang on to it.

It is a Winchester Highwall serial # 1299xx. It was been convirted to 218 Bee many years ago. Barrel on it is from a Winchester 22 Long rifle. It has a vintage scope Weaver Model 330 with pretty decent optics for its age. Not sure what else I can tell you.

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Hmm, nothing yet. Not a good sign.

Is the action at least worth anything? What if I were to add "rare" or "hard to find"? Would it be worth more?
 
Of course the action is worth something. BUT
Condition?
Original caliber? Rimfire? Centerfire?
Set trigger?
Coil spring?
Looked at your photos.
Might be a "Winder" model, not sure.
Action (per photo) looks in good condition.
 
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Don't know much about "walls". Will do more research to see if I can find out more info.

I would say overall condition is good.
No idea of original caliber. I does seem large for it to have been a rimfire but just a guess.
Not a set trigger.
Don't know where to look if it coil spring? Vs leaf? Just a guess on my part.
 
With the serial number in the 129K range, like as not, it is a coil spring and like as not started out life as a military training musket or the same model as sold to civ's for marksmanship training.

It has been customized as was the style in the day, likely in the 1950's when nobody much gave a damn about old single shot rifles.

I have seen some prtty nice customs built on High Wall frames, in the $2500 range, pretty much set up and ready to shoot BPCR with (name brand barrel, good quality sights, nice wood, etc.) and have seen bare actions as low as $450-$550. So I would consider those two points as some pretty broad limits to work between, unless you can come up with a known name for who did the work, etc.

So somewhere between those numbers.

The later actions that were intended for Muskets apparently did not get the same heat treating that the heavier caliber and earlier guns got, apparently for cost savings at manufacture. Not that it makes a lot of difference, as the action is hell for strong, but it just was.

It is not impossible that this was converted to .218 at Winchester, as they had a very active and affordable custom service in the day. Aside from the barrel makings on the top, you would need to look under the fore end wood to see if there are any other markings there that may provide more info. With the fore wood off, it will be really obvious if it is a leaf spring model or not, as the leaf spring is anchored on the barrel.

Some clear, well lit, close-ups would help a lot to see condition. Use a tripod if you have one, otherwise play with the camera, take lots of pictures, and choose the very best ones to post.

Cheers
Trev
 
Thanks for the info so far fellas. I really appreciate the information. Will look in more detail at rifle and try some quality photos.

As for now it is headed to the gopher patch this afternoon.
 
It's neither BP nor an antique. It has no collector value either. 129900 was made after 1919. After 1917 according to these guys. No W's. gun-data.com/winchester_model_1885.html
Anyway, there was a Model 1885 on Gunbroker, in May, that apparently did not get any bids. Guy was asking $1495US. Another on Gunrunner that sold at $960US in 2010. Not that U.S. values mean anything here.
 
I am going to go with trevj more or less and put the price around $500 for the action and guess at $100 further for the scope. As a complete gun, I don't think the price would go much higher because the barrel is a 22 rimfire barrel. Interestingly enough, I bought a small Martini last fall, which turned out to be a .218 Bee using a 22 rimfire barrel. It does shoot although is not spectacularly accurate, probably because of the rimfire barrel. While on the subject, the .218 Bee is a nice cartridge to shoot; relatively quiet and relatively inexpensive to load for

cheers mooncoon
 
In reference to the Martini, what diameter of bullets are you using? a lot of these were converted to the Hornet, Bee, I even had one in .222 Super (.222R). They were usually 1-16 twist with a bore of about .222, at the time we used .223 dia bullets and even had good luck with some Hornady .222 dia. 40gr designed for the S&W .22 Jet, any of these are worth a try. As far a value goes, it may be for the action only, but I would try the smaller dia. bullets first before selling, you may end up with a decent shooter.
 
steyrman said:
In reference to the Martini, what diameter of bullets are you using? .
Click to expand...

I started with 40 grain by .224 diameter because 22 LR bullet weigh 40 grains. Strangely the 45 gr by .224 shot better than the 40 grain bullets. I think that I have to deepen the rim recess a small amount because at the moment if I go slightly beyond a moderate load, the gun is hard to open. Reason is that a Martini firing pin does not start retracting until the block has moved down a bit, hence the pin tends to hang up in the dent in the primer. I guess we have drifted off a ways from the original question re the value of a high wall

cheers mooncoon
 
The gun shoots decent as is. I have some 55 gr cast bullets for it and have shot .224 in it as well. The limiting factor is the scope. Just not enough magnification. It looks like it would be difficult to put decent optics on it . As well I just find the high wall to be too big of an action for the caliber.

I have a couple of reasonable offers on it and am waiting to confirm. Will likely sell it and look for something else in 218 Bee. Something about it just interests me. Maybe an H&R conversion! Or ..... Wonder if I could get something built for a reasonable amount of $$$$.
 
I have a 218 Bee in a military action and a 22LR barrel of 16.5:1 twist. It does not feed flawlessly in that too long of an action but it sort of works. The 45 grain .224 Hornady bullets with Fed 205 primers and H4198 (13.0 grains) gave me a 1⅛" group at 50 yards. However, when I tried the Hornady 55 grain SP w/c bullets with up to 13.5 grains of H4198 the bullets all key holed. I don't think the case was full so a little more powder may stabilize the 55 grain bullet. I like the nice cannelure in that bullet.

IPEL-I would be interested the loading data for your 55 grain cast bullets. Did they stabilize?
 
I'm not up on all of the old scopes out there, but there might be some collector interest in that old scope.

You might make out better splitting the gun from the scope.

I know that the old scope is not the best for accuracy, but someone might think is looks pretty cool on their vintage gun. I know I looked high and low for a Unertl for my Martini project, and then I had to look some more for the Posa mounts.
 
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