Neighbor has been trying to figure out who made this rifle, about what year and a approximate value of it. I have had about as much luck as him in figuring it out So hey I bring the rifle to infinite well of Wisdom of the Monkeys I know some of you guys are much more knowledgeable than I am about older classic guns than I am What we know is that it is OLD it is a .30-30 lever gun. Pretty sure it is a older Winchester Model 94. I would call in in Very Good Condition and works and fires slick as a whistle.
I'm gonna go out on a limb, and say it's a Winchester 1894 RIFLE, not a carbine. There's one showing on Turnbull Restoration's website (https://www.turnbullrestoration.com...chester-1894-TD-289069_IMG_1721-2000x1125.jpg) that could be a twin.
I could be wrong as well here ,, but in the pic ,, the barrel looks to be a little longer than the ones I'm used to seeing ,, is it longer?? HotDiggity may have some info when he gets here .
I'm betting that the peep site is aftermarket .. but accurate for the period. There were crap tons of peep sight manufactures: Marbel's and Lyman. I'm going to guess it's probably one of those. If they are vintage .. the sight alone can be worth 250 - 600 bucks if it's complete and unmolested.
I had a Marbel's on my Win 94 carbine. Looked just like that, although mine was new production. A friend has an original on an older .32 Winchester chambered Model 94 that looks the same.
Model number is under the peep sight on the tang. Marbles tang sights were a common aftermarket addition.
It has significant collectors value. That's a good price. It'd be very comfortable shooting 170gr hard cast lead bullets with 11gr of Unique. It's a light, comfortable and accurate load.
Look at it this way. It's a sweet rifle. It's old. You'll probably never see another one. And it's yours now. I myself hate validating my expenditures and just focus on obtaining what I wanted and call it good.
Validating more for my neighbor than myself he is also a friend and don't want to rip him off I have it but if he ever wants to buy it back I will gladly sell it back to him for what I gave him for it. It is a pleasure to hold it and a part of history and learn more about these guns in researching it. I suspect if he had taken it to one of the local gun shops though that they would have gave him a couple hundred bucks for it and had it on the display for $3500 10 minutes after he left.
Crank the lever open and look at the UNDERSIDE of the frame under the lever, if it doesn't say Winchester on the upper rear tang under the rear sight, it should under the lever, it could also be a very early Sears and Roebuck, it should show something under the lever!
