I Only Have One Lever Gun

[gandog56]

But its a bit odd. I have a Win95 factory chambered in 7.62X54R. According to the serial number it was made in 1916.

Too bad Bubba got to it before I did. He put that useless tang sight on. You couldn't cock the rifle without knocking the sight over. So I just got done replacing it with a William's peephole sight that mounts up top of the receiver.

174622

[pietro]

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AFAIK, the majority of the 7.62x54R Winchester 1895's ordered by & sent to Russia (some 293,000 - or 66% of Model 1895 production), never to be seen again - which makes your rifle a rare bird, indeed.

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[Gtek]

I wish mine could talk, Russian acceptance stamping on butt, small cross grain wood block repairs on handguard and a little frosty in the pipe. It barked about twenty years ago when I found it, complete diss and scrub then run about twenty through it and it has been a queen ever since.

[Scharfschuetze]

If it was a Russian contract rifle, it should also enjoy a clip guide for the MN 5 shot clips.

Is there any evidence of that? If not, then other than the sights, it may be as sold and not Bubbaized too badly. The calibre and the date of manufacture puts it in the realm of the Russian contract though.

I envy you. That should be a very fun rifle to load for and to shoot.

Now for the fact that you only have one lever gun... You have my sympathy :)

[starmac]

Talk about a rare bird, that would be someone who has owned a lever action for 20 odd years, and still owns just one.
Those 95's just have never tripped my trigger, but in that configuration I wouldn't be able to pass it up.

[jlchucker]

I wonder whatever became of all of those Czarist contract rifles? Wasn't that a big contract that Winchester had for them? You never hear of very many turning up these days.

[bob208]

in reading the Madis book on Winchesters quite a few were rejected because the Russian inspectors thought the wood was too fancy. now no proof but I believe a lot of the rejected rifles could have been reworked to sell to the public or used for special order rifles.

[Texas by God]

That is a neat gun. Let me borrow it please. Best, Thomas.

[Bent Ramrod]

You might luck out some day and find a Marble's "Flexible" tang sight for your rifle. The bolt will still push the sight back as the lever is thrown, but it will flex straight up again as the bolt is closed. They were made for 86s and 95s; maybe others with a long bolt travel.

Looks like you have a good specimen. Most examples of that model have seen hard use. A friend had a sporterized one that the lever would partially open on firing. Never could figure out if it was recoil or wear, but it was kind of intimidating. Some loadings of the 7.62x54R are nearly up there with the .30-06.

[Ithaca Gunner]

I only remember seeing one at a gun show, and that was years ago.

[Der Gebirgsjager]

If you've only got one, that a wonderful one to have! A great piece of history. Where did they all go? Like the Lugers and Bolo Broomhandles, just disappeared into the vast hinterland of Roosia. I guess corrosive ammo and long, wet and frigid winters has taken its toll on all of these prime historical items, but who knows what may be lingering in a forgotten warehouse in Siberia........

[Artful]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nL9JKassTD4

I think yours was bubba'd - as all the stocks on Russian's were longer forearms - stripper clip guides - barrel sights

[Der Gebirgsjager]

Thanks, Artful. I watched and enjoyed it. I've got an almost NIB Japchester 1895 in .30-40. Only had to chance to take it to the range once, but a great shooter.

[6mm win lee]

I don't know... Is there a bunch of russian stamps on the gun? Does it has shallow slots for the charger guides? If not then it is probably just a plain ol' 95.

http://forums.gunboards.com/showthread.php?409241-Winchester-1895-Russian-Musket-%287-62x54R%29-Restoration-reconfiguration

[Patrick56]

I don't know... Is there a bunch of russian stamps on the gun? Does it has shallow slots for the charger guides? If not then it is probably just a plain ol' 95.

http://forums.gunboards.com/showthread.php?409241-Winchester-1895-Russian-Musket-%287-62x54R%29-Restoration-reconfiguration
The guide was made of two pieces attached in a recess with a screw on both sides. See picture of 1895 made for the Tsar. They were very common in Finland as hunting rifles, unfortunately a lot of them were bored to 8,2x53R and 9,3x53R due to legislation at the time.

175407

[M-Tecs]

About a year ago I saw one with the clip slots. At the time I didn't know what they where so I pasted. That was a mistake.

[ironhead7544]

Beauty. Easy to get ammo for that one.

I also will have to admit that I only have one lever gun right now: Marlin 24" Cowboy 1894 that I bought new in 2000. It covers just about anything I want to do with a levergun. I still want more of them!

[Dan Cash]

When I was a kid back in 59 or 60, there were lots of these Russian 95s around and were hard to sell; bad bores and no ammo. No one wanted that "furrin" junk. That went for anything 9mm too.

[Ballistics in Scotland]

There were two 95 Winchester contracts for Russia, but the date seems to put this rifle in production for the second, which was actually made by the British through the JP Morgan organisation.

The 95 hadn't sold nearly as well as the 94 on the domestic market, and the attraction of the first contract, for both sides, was that unlike the Remington contract for Mosin-Nagants, or the British one for P14 Enfields, it should have been fast to come on stream from existing Winchester facilities. There were, however, extensive delays. Probably both sides were somewhat to blame, but the Russians refused to let the rifles be tested with the ammunition Winchester was making for them, and getting past the Russian inspectors without much difficulty, and they demanded a change to a different sort of clip. Similar things went on in the second, British contract, but apparently to a lesser extend, and it did go through on schedule, being completed by the end of 1916. I suppose it is possible that there were small additional purchases, but that is the only way any of these rifles could have been stranded in the US by the 1917 revolutions.

It would be interesting to find out just what Cyrillic markings on these rifles actually mean. They could be for rejection by Russian inspectors, who certainly were in the US. Not that should affect the value much. I am sure some of the rifles they rejected had little or nothing the matter with them, and most likely ended up on the US civilian market.

Both contracts comprise a small proportion of the rifles used by Russia, and everything, material and human, had a very high attrition rate in Russia in those days. Some from the first contract may also have fallen victim to the sabotage of the most engaging Captain von Rintelen, who became a personal friend of Admiral Hall who caught him. He was a guest, and his daughter a bridesmaid, at the wedding of Admiral Hall's daughter, with eleven British admirals, and there is a wall I wouldn't mind being a fly on.

http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks08/0801121h.html

Czarist Russia gets a raw deal from popular historians. No nation, including Japan, has ever developed modern industry faster - although starting too late. They always supported their allies better than anyone expected, up to the level of their sometimes pathetic abilities. But in 1916 and through much of the British contract Russia had wised up, and inflicted one of the most destructive defeats in history on Austria-Hungary, at a time when the Western allies desperately needed it.

That forend does indeed seem to be cut-down or a replacement. It wouldn't be hard to make one, but I think you would have to make or adapt a band and nosecap, and if it is going to be that unoriginal anyway, I'd be inclined to keep it the way it has probably been for most of the last century. Numrich offer a Marbles tang sight, but I don't know if it is the one mentioned. Does the tang have the usual Winchester stamped name etc.? If not, non-original screwholes could be welded up, polished and blued.

https://www.gunpartscorp.com/Manufacturers/Winchester-33573/Rifles-42602/1895-40291.htm?page=3

[bob208]

I too remember these 95's setting around with no one wanting them in the late60's early 70's.

[TXGunNut]

Talk about a rare bird, that would be someone who has owned a lever action for 20 odd years, and still owns just one.
Those 95's just have never tripped my trigger, but in that configuration I wouldn't be able to pass it up.

Agreed on all counts, except somehow a couple have wandered into my little flock without getting run off. One is an early smooth sided (1896) rifle in 30US and the other is a much nicer shooter circa 1915 also in 30US. The 1895 is an odd duck but I like it.

[desi23]

From discussions I have read on Gunboards there were a number of these 1895's that came out of Spain in the 1950's when Interarms bought up a large number of guns that were piled up in their arsenals. It would appear that they were included in the military aid Stalin sent to help the Spanish Republic in their battles against Franco and the nationalists. Yours could be one of these that a previous owner customized. The 50's and early 60's were a prime time for surplus and sporterizing, lots of old, cheap guns and not much collector interest in military guns.

[Ballistics in Scotland]

That sounds likely enough, and unfortunately means they probably passed through a succession of owners who were more concerned with surviving politics than gun cleaning.

[Earlwb]

I remember as a kid, my baby sitter showing me his 1895 rifle chambered for the ".30 Rissian" caliber as he pronounced it. I was in awe of it at the time. I had never seen another one in that caliber though. If I remember right the Russian inspectors rejected quite a few for some pretty lame reasons most of the time. But for some rifles instead of reworking them, they probably sold them in the US or to some other country. So it is possible there may be some in the USA that never went over to Russia. The rest likely got imported from Finland or Russia or some other country as surplus years ago.