Author Topic: traded with my best friend a colt M4 for a 1894 winchester!  (Read 939 times)

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Offline catman

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traded with my best friend a colt M4 for a 1894 winchester!
« on: October 19, 2003, 09:06:08 AM »
he's happy and i'm real happy, this gun is 90% and is a take/down in 30/30
made in 1899, i also got a 1954 COLT frontier in .22 with the box with the trade. i'm very happy.
been trying to get him to sell me this win. for 8 years and now i have it.
this thing is real purdy.
thank god i have more M4's colts, but now i have a great winy lever
odds are with the prepared.....

Offline Yanqui

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traded with my best friend a colt M4 for a
« Reply #1 on: October 19, 2003, 04:29:24 PM »
You traded a "Colt M4" for a Winchester 1894 Take-down 30-30 and a Colt Frontier 22????????? :shock:

Hombre, you sure got the best part of the deal. 8)

I traded a Ruger Mini-14 with folding stock and mags for a Winchester 94 Wrangler I in 32 Winchester Special and a bag of reloads. Best deal I've ever made. :-D

Enjoy a rifle with class. :wink:

Spelling :oops:
"Beat your plows into swords and your pruninghooks into spears: Let the weak say, 'I am strong.'" [Joel 3:10]

Offline Mikey

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Trade?
« Reply #2 on: October 20, 2003, 10:40:40 AM »
Catman:  Ya'll did real good son, real good indeed.  You got the better part of the deal from my perspective.  Dang good trade.  Does he have anything else?????  Mikey.

Offline Dand

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« Reply #3 on: October 20, 2003, 01:32:56 PM »
Is he still your friend?  I have one of those New Frontier - wo adjustable sights - I really enjoy it.
NRA Life

liberal Justice Hugo Black said, and I quote: "There are 'absolutes' in our Bill of Rights, and they were put there on purpose by men who knew what words meant and meant their prohibitions to be 'absolutes.'" End quote. From a recent article by Wayne LaPierre NRA

Offline Gatofeo

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traded with my best friend a colt M4 for a
« Reply #4 on: October 20, 2003, 02:28:46 PM »
I too have a Winchester Model 1894 takedown in .30 WCF.
It too was made in 1899, according to the serial number of 154XXX.
It has a 26-inch octagon barrel and the flip-up Express sights labeled 50, 100 and 200 (presumably feet, not meters).
Before it was given to me, it was refinished. But whoever did the work was a master. None of the markings are buffed out and the bluing is a dark, shiny black. The wood has a nice, oil shine.
However, the bore looks like a gopher hole, the result of years of firing with corrosive primers, no doubt.
Since it has minimal collector interest because it's been reblued, I've sometimes considered having the barrel relined but keeping it as a .30-30. This would, in effect, make it a new rifle without affecting the exterior.
A couple of years ago, I made some reduced pressure loads and tried the ol' girl out. There was no evidence of excessive headspace with these loads, so I tried some Remington factory loads. Ditto, no sign of excessive headspace or sticky extraction.
Whoever refinished it probably checked the headspace and corrected it if necessary.
I used the 50 yard sight and, as I recall, shots were slightly lower than the bullseye. Someday, I'll wring it out at 100 and 200 yards but I'm not very optimistic about any kind of accuracy with that horribly pitted bore.
Anyway, you have a great rifle there. It's fun to show it to guys who think they know guns. Few have ever heard of the takedown Winchesters, let alone seen one.
One know-it-all, in front of other interested shooters, butted in to say that it was an "assassin's gun" made for covert operations.
Muhahahahahaaha!
I straightened him out.
The story I got was that long ago, many hunters traveled by train to their hunting camps. Toting along a full-length rifle was cumbersome.
So, Winchester responded with the takedown models. Here was a rifle that could be quickly broken down and packed in a large suitcase for travel. Also, it discouraged theft if the rifle was unseen.
Once at the camp, the hunter quickly reassembled his rifle, tried a few test shots for zero, and was ready to hunt.
Sounds plausible to me; more plausible than being an "assassin's rifle!"  :roll:
I've read that the takedown models are not nearly as accurate as the solid-frame models. Perhaps. Somehow, you can adjust the locking mechanism to tighten it as wear naturally occurs, but I've not had to do this.
This Winchester is so tight that I have to hold the barrel group in one hand and gently push the receiver over with the lever as a fulcrum. Relax, it sounds worse than in actual practice; nothing gets strained. In reassembling, it takes some hand-force to align the barrel with the receiver. I can't imagine it being any tighter and still be disassembled by hand.
At the Salt Lake City gun show a few years ago, I saw a beat-up, scarred takedown Winchester 1894 in .30 WCF. It was in pitiful shape but it bore a price tag of $1,100!
I think that seller was trolling for a sucker.
Out West, the old Winchesters bring higher prices because rich people buy them as decorators for their fancy log homes.
Often, these are the same people who attend gun control functions, vote for gun control advocates and decry logging practices.
They don't equate an old "decoration" as gun ownership and they must think their log homes are made from recycled Perrier bottles. Go figure. They'll pay exorbitant prices for any old Winchester that looks like it was once handled by a real, rootin-tootin' Cowboy!
I know. I've run across a few at gun shows who were looking for decorations.
One rich jerk paid $500 for a Winchester 94 carbine with a saddle ring, and it was a beater! I jotted down the serial number --- which was in the 2 million range --- and looked it up at home: made in 1953!
That saddle ring was obviously added by the seller to give it more appeal and a higher value. Winchester stopped adding saddle rings to regular production guns in the late 1920s, as I recall.
How much is your and my Winchester 1894 takedown worth? I'd guess between $800 to $1,500, depending on the eagerness of the buyer. Perhaps $2,000 if some rich jerk really wanted it.
But I won't sell mine. I enjoy owning it too much.
Let me know some of the features of your rifle. I'd be interested in comparing notes.
"A hit with a .22 is better than a miss with a .44."

Offline catman

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traded with my best friend a colt M4 for a
« Reply #5 on: October 20, 2003, 03:23:39 PM »
friends i'm still very happy and Gatofeo you should see this rifling in this thing perfect, i have shot this rifle many times and love it. i hate to tell ya'll this but i'm going on the 3rd season elk hunt in colo. this year and guess what going as my first gun besides my 30.06 win. pre 64, you got it the OLD 30/30 takedown. my .02 and thanks
(love the old win levers) they DON'T make guns like this anymore.
odds are with the prepared.....

Offline 86er

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traded with my best friend a colt M4 for a
« Reply #6 on: October 20, 2003, 05:22:26 PM »
:D Catman, congrats on the most excellent trade. Out west here such deals don't come around often. Yeah, I've seen greenhorns pay outrageous prices for "clunker" Winchesters. They love 'em with buggerred screws and "iodined" finish. Some dealin' fellers got no scruples.
  Gatofeo, I have three 1886 lightweight takedown rifles and four solid frame guns. The truth is, I can't tell the difference in accuracy between the two types They all are quite accurate and have accounted for a lot of game over the years.
I get my kicks from an 1886.

Offline catman

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traded with my best friend a colt M4 for a
« Reply #7 on: October 21, 2003, 05:36:52 PM »
Gatofeo,
she is very very tight, this is scary. have got many hunting rifles in my safe, and very nice ones at that, this is my prize gun. hate to say but this one will go to the woods this year just to say i got one with it. this is a rifleman's rifle, this is a shooter, great aimer. you just don't get this quality in crafsmanship at all anymore. guess i'm starting to show my age of 47 in my ways. dad always said as you get older your wants and needs change. i guess i'm slowly getting there and understanding what he was talking about. wish DAD was here to see it, he was a dam good shot and my best friend.
odds are with the prepared.....

Offline Gatofeo

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traded with my best friend a colt M4 for a
« Reply #8 on: October 28, 2003, 07:00:22 PM »
Hmm ... sumpin weird is going on here, Catman ...

Your name is Catman.
My name, "Gatofeo" means "ugly cat" in Spanish.
We both own Model 94 rifles made in 1899.
You're 47, I'm 48 years of age.
You father is apparently dead. Mine died five years ago and I still miss him, as you obviously do.
In scientific parlance this is known as a co-inky-dinky.  :eek:
"A hit with a .22 is better than a miss with a .44."

Offline Robert

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Two strange guys with beautiful rifles.....
« Reply #9 on: October 28, 2003, 07:26:01 PM »
from different parts of the country....who knows.....you could have been separated at birth...Maybe you could get on the Oprah show......
....make it count

Offline catman

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traded with my best friend a colt M4 for a
« Reply #10 on: October 29, 2003, 01:57:39 PM »
is a little strange, but oh well i have seen stranger
odds are with the prepared.....