Glaciers
Alaska Land of the Midnight Sun
Well I picked up this old shooter yesterday and brought it back after selling it and a bunch of other 1885's to a friend, then Swede sold it to another mutual friend, Wally. brief story in this thread: https://www.artfulbullet.com/index.php?threads/1885-high-wall-38-55.6493/
I have a few pictures for you, now this is a 134 year old rifle, a brown gun, but the action is tight and crisp. It is a second year rifle, serial number just in the 2000 range, with some early features. Nothing special, it's not a Sporting or a Schuetzen rifle, just a good basic High Wall. The items that are out of the norm are in the very early rifles they sometime used triggers that were drilled for the "set" screw for the single set trigger even though some rifles, like this one have a standard trigger. The barrel is a number 2, round and 28". The standard, or most common was number 3 weight, octagon, 30 inches. It does have a shotgun butt and basic sights. It's also the early octagon frame and scroll style caliber markings. Winchester stopped making the octagon frame in the 2nd or 3rd year, can't remember exactly. Also another early item was the upper tang has no markings.
The advantage for me, while I like the High Wall rifles, the standard 30" number 3 is a heavy rifle. while this is no light weight, it is a lighter than standard rifle.
Octagon frame, later frames were rounded. Scroll caliber markings.
Open up the lever and you can just see some case color remaining.
Crescent or rifle butt plates were standard, less common were shotgun butts.
Over all a clean but aged rifle in all original shape. It has more age spots then I have but it is somewhat older. This rifle while not a "collector piece" is interesting as it has quite a few non-standard features. It was a stand out in my small High Wall collection as it was a regular rifle, everything else was fancy Sporting rifles with hook butt plates, fancy checkered wood, long barrels, less common calibers, 40-70 Sharps Straight, 50 Express. The 1885 was a rifle that could and commonly was a special order rifle. So this rifle stood out in comparison, the ugly duckling in the middle of the swans.
I picked up some molds from Brad so I'm going to see what I can put together for this rifle to do a little shooting. The bore is dark and a little rough, but the rifling is strong. I've had good luck with bores rougher than this one, so I'm going to scrub it and see what happens.
I have a few pictures for you, now this is a 134 year old rifle, a brown gun, but the action is tight and crisp. It is a second year rifle, serial number just in the 2000 range, with some early features. Nothing special, it's not a Sporting or a Schuetzen rifle, just a good basic High Wall. The items that are out of the norm are in the very early rifles they sometime used triggers that were drilled for the "set" screw for the single set trigger even though some rifles, like this one have a standard trigger. The barrel is a number 2, round and 28". The standard, or most common was number 3 weight, octagon, 30 inches. It does have a shotgun butt and basic sights. It's also the early octagon frame and scroll style caliber markings. Winchester stopped making the octagon frame in the 2nd or 3rd year, can't remember exactly. Also another early item was the upper tang has no markings.
The advantage for me, while I like the High Wall rifles, the standard 30" number 3 is a heavy rifle. while this is no light weight, it is a lighter than standard rifle.
Octagon frame, later frames were rounded. Scroll caliber markings.
Open up the lever and you can just see some case color remaining.
Crescent or rifle butt plates were standard, less common were shotgun butts.
Over all a clean but aged rifle in all original shape. It has more age spots then I have but it is somewhat older. This rifle while not a "collector piece" is interesting as it has quite a few non-standard features. It was a stand out in my small High Wall collection as it was a regular rifle, everything else was fancy Sporting rifles with hook butt plates, fancy checkered wood, long barrels, less common calibers, 40-70 Sharps Straight, 50 Express. The 1885 was a rifle that could and commonly was a special order rifle. So this rifle stood out in comparison, the ugly duckling in the middle of the swans.
I picked up some molds from Brad so I'm going to see what I can put together for this rifle to do a little shooting. The bore is dark and a little rough, but the rifling is strong. I've had good luck with bores rougher than this one, so I'm going to scrub it and see what happens.
