![]() I am all for historical accuracy and realise that original is the way to go but I notice some numbers “tattooed” (numbers made up of dots like nail pokes), anyway, the rifle S/N is 408xxx and the tattoo is 459xxx. I took to attempting a fix by filling in the missing parts with epoxy and I was somewhat successful, but. The reason that it took so long to put together is that the butt stock is badly damaged. I can see a spiral inside the barrel and it is clean but I cannot detect any lands that could be rifling. I put it together and all the mechanical parts are fine. I have a Winchester Model 1894, 32WS in serial number range 408xxx, my investigating tells me it was manufactured in 1907 some say 1908~~. It's priceless to us as well (the rifle, not the moose head which was donated to the local gun club). 300 H&H Magnum from the same era that has a lot of stories attached to it as well, like the moose it killed in the Yukon having its head mounted and shipped home for a lot of money, only to find the only place it would fit was in the garage. I don't care what the gun's market value is, not much probably, it's a family heirloom and the memories that play when the gun is handled are priceless. Collected all together the stories attached to this rifle would fill a book and be a pretty good history of my family and close friends for the last 60-odd years. It shows its history although I refinished the stock (it's got a surprisingly good figure I discovered after I stripped it to the wood) and redid a small compass that was inlet into the stock after the gun's original owner (my dad's best friend since the 1930s and the CCC) got lost on a watch-drive in the Adirondacks in about 1955. I have a Model 94 that was bought new in about 1951 that's been on who knows how many deer hunts and has killed a lot of whitetails. Without the letter frorm the Buffalo Bill museum, you would not know which it was, so you would not know which way to repair it (whether to repair it to look like a carbine or a rifle). ![]() Remember, many old Winchesters were working guns, not collector items until recently. It has a carbine forearm and a rifle buttstock (I would guess this repair was done by someone who could not cut the notch for a barrel tenon used to hold the rifle forend on or who had a carbine barrel and forearm sitting close at hand). If so, look at the underside of the barrel about 2"-3" from the muzzle it may have a small notch where the other barrel band would have been. From the looks of the front sight base, it has a post-war (produced after WW2) carbine barrel on it the original barrel for an 1898 rifle would have been different. But the issue of the mismatched parts will count against that gun either way. So either a full length magazine tube or the right magazine cap would be better. Factory half mags or 2/3 mags had a domed "button" end, from the pics yours looks like a flat end.
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