The forgotten Winchester..

mglentz4125

Full Member
Dec 27, 2016
127
978
Harbor Springs, MI
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Garrett AT PRO
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All Treasure Hunting
Early this fall I stumbled across a very old cabin (inhabited 1820s - 1890s range). I was finding axes, farm equipment, horseshoes, cookware, pots, pans, coins. Your usual "pioneer starter kit" kind of stuff. Then the butt plate of a rifle right before it started to rain buckets. Once I knocked the crud off I realized that the butt plate still had the screw in place so concluded: if the screw was stuck in the butt plate then there was a fair chance that the rest of the gun was in there as well and returned. I believe that is a forgotten 1894 Winchester lever-action rifle my friends. Bucket lister for me. Cheers! ** UPDATED: 26 inch barrel. Added some more pics. Any gun experts please correct me if the model is not accurate.
 

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Last edited:
Upvote 53

billb

Silver Member
Sep 23, 2010
4,569
10,145
New York
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1
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Excalibur2,,silver sabre
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Early this fall I stumbled across a very old cabin (inhabited 1820s - 1890s range). I was finding axes, farm equipment, horseshoes, cookware, pots, pans, coins. Your usual "pioneer starter kit" kind of stuff. Then the butt plate of a rifle right before it started to rain buckets. Once I knocked the crud off I realized that the butt plate still had the screw in place so concluded: if the screw was stuck in the butt plate then there was a fair chance that the rest of the gun was in there as well and returned. I believe that is a forgotten 1873 Winchester lever-action rifle my friends. Bucket lister for me. Cheers!
Congratulations on your nice recovery
 

Digger RJ

Gold Member
Aug 24, 2017
19,312
33,446
SW Missouri/Oklahoma
🥇 Banner finds
1
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2
Detector(s) used
Minelab CTX 3030; Minelab Equinox 800;
XP Deus 2
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Early this fall I stumbled across a very old cabin (inhabited 1820s - 1890s range). I was finding axes, farm equipment, horseshoes, cookware, pots, pans, coins. Your usual "pioneer starter kit" kind of stuff. Then the butt plate of a rifle right before it started to rain buckets. Once I knocked the crud off I realized that the butt plate still had the screw in place so concluded: if the screw was stuck in the butt plate then there was a fair chance that the rest of the gun was in there as well and returned. I believe that is a forgotten 1894 Winchester lever-action rifle my friends. Bucket lister for me. Cheers! ** UPDATED: 26 inch barrel. Added some more pics. Any gun experts please correct me if the model is not accurate.
Nice!!! Congrats!!!
 

ToddsPoint

Gold Member
Mar 2, 2018
5,204
12,164
Todds Point, IL
Primary Interest:
Metal Detecting
That's an 1894. You can tell by the cutouts on the top of the receiver for the locking lug. With a straight grip and 26" octagon barrel that configuration would be called a sporting rifle. Serial number would be on the bottom of receiver toward barrel. Caliber marking would be on barrel, left side near receiver. If you can get the serial you can easily find the year it was made. It would be fun to attempt a restoration on that thing.
 

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