Not a Winnie collector, but I was born and raised on a ranch where we had a bunch of rimfire Winnie 1873's, 1890's 1903's and 1906's. Every ranch vehicle carried one for predator/varmint control (including deer), plus all the ones that belonged to every family member. So we had some that were 22Short only, some 22 Long only, 22LR's and 22 Win Auto (1903). I don't remember any of the 1890's on the ranch having round barrels, but that was in the 40's/50's so I'm not positive. All 3 of mine had octagon barrels. But, lots of those old pumpers saw very heavy use and got rebarreled or relined - barrels gave out before the action did. Of those I kept much of my life, I relined one of my 1890's (c 1901) and one of my 1906's (c 1914) that I had shot out by the early 70's, and the 1906 again before it started splitting lead and was retired in the mid 80's. So I wonder if your rifle has been rebarreled? Might have the shorter 1906 barrel on it for example, and they are tapered barrels. You could check the proof marks on your barrel against Winchester to find out.
