Winchester 1894 Saddle Ring Carbine Scarce Antique Pre-1898

This is a nice very early Winchester Model 1894 Saddle Ring Carbine with a scarce Pre-1898 Antique Serial Number in the 38,000 range. It has all the signs of having belonged to a cowboy or a lawman as you can tell it was carried in a scabbard on horseback for a few years. It's a Standard Carbine Configuration with 20" Round Barrel, Full Magazine, Semi-Crescent Carbine Buttplate with Ladder Sight and Saddle Ring. Caliber in .30 WCF a.k.a. 30-30 with the Nickel Steel Barrel Marking next to the rear sight.

People ask me why these early carbines are worth so much more than later ones and it's really three things that separate them from a run of the mill 94 carbine...even pre-64s. The first is they're Antique Pre-1898 which something collectors love for both historical as well as numerous legal reasons. With collecting antiques, it's like going back 200+ years when an American citizen was allowed to use his own judgment and make his own decisions as to how he disposed of his property. That's a very foreign concept nowadays! Second, there weren't many carbines produced in early production and third, The quality from that era speaks for itself!

So touching on the second part, Winchester was more focused on producing rifles in the 19th century on early production Model 1894s. Thirty years later in the 1920's, that inverted with carbines being the primary configuration. However, early on, carbines were not as common and being a utility gun, many saw very hard use and lived out in the elements. As the 20th century came about, technology and modern times somewhat curbed the hardscrabble lifestyle of most Americans and with the emergence of the automobile made saddle ring carbines obsolete by around 1930.

What I like about these early carbines is that not only did they live in the 19th century, they have a lot of little nuances that are lost in later production. The primary difference is that these early saddle rings came standard walnut wood. It was well-fit and the walnut from this era is interesting...it's light and grainy on these carbines. By the early 1900's, Winchester opted for gumwood for their stocks. It was lighter, cheaper, less prone to crack but ugly! If you scratched the finish, typically a red-stained varnish it was a sandy yellow color underneath. Winchester used gumwood on nearly all their carbines from roughly around 1904 to the early 1920's when they went back to walnut but by then, while it was better material, Winchester's production quality had dropped and the wood had a more bulbous contour...nothing like the wood to metal fit and sharp elegant stock combs of the early ones made in the 1890's. Other early features you'll find on this carbine are the German Silver blade front sight. Again, Winchester changed this to a cheaper steel blade sometime in the early 1900s. The hammer has the decorative dipped border at the top of the checkering which you'll find up to around the 200,000 serial range as well as the early 2-line Winchester barrel address at the 12 o'clock position on top of the barrel. The original ladder rear sight has the proper early 200 to 900 yard graduations instead of the later 0 to 20. Upper tang has inventor John Browning's August 21, 1894 Patent Date. A couple of other noteworthy features you'll find on early guns are the high quality metal polish and heat blued finish with beautiful sharp edges. I can look at an 1894 from several feet away and usually tell the bluing on a later gun...it looks thicker, almost painted on and the contours are more rounded from the polishing. These early ones were works of art and the levers and hammers were case color hardened up to around 1915.

Condition-wise, this one is at about the lower end of NRA Antique Fine. It shows used but it wasn't worn out or abused. The barrel and magazine tube show about 50% original blue that is towards the protected areas. Barrel bands are worn bright almost certainly from a leather scabbard with blue in the protected areas. The receiver shows about 30% thinning original blue that is strong in the protected areas and around the saddle ring staple which kept the leather scabbard from wear. You can still see a nice little ring of fire blue along the edges of the loading port and the hammer has quite a bit of original case colors remaining on the profiles. Lever is mostly silvered out with a few hints of colors in protected spots and the buttplate is all silver. The original walnut stock: Very Good condition with about half the original oil finish remaining. The wood has plenty of light abrasions and nicks from use on horseback but has never been cleaned, sanded, or refinished. Wood to metal fit is perfect. Bore is Excellent. Nice markings and knurlings throughout and the majority of the screws and pins are Excellent with nice slots. Just a nice early 1894 Saddle Ring Carbine that looks like it saw the last few years of the American West during the late 19th century with a great look to it.

Item# i570

$2,750