Poor old Winchester 1890

Picked up a beat winchester 1890 in 22 short at the gun show over the weekend.

Judging by the miss matched serial numbers, the receiver was made in 1910 and the back half was made in 1911. Yep, it looks like many many years ago it was a put together for what ever reason?

Seems to function like it should although the bolt and receiver are choked full of gunk and the bolts awful stiff.
It is missing some pins and small parts, checked online for replacements and there available.

The bore is a sewer pipe with a slight buldge (you have to look real close to see it) close to the last dovetail for the mag tube. Barrel is ringed inside at the bulge.

Other than the abuse it seems like a solid gun. I am sure it's far from a collecters item now, but could make a good shooter with a reline and a little tlc.

Also was thinking on converting it to 22lr, drill out the carrier to the correct length, I noticed this one does not have a carriage? stop. That would be an easy deal to drill out.

So is it really worth the time and effort to get it shooting? I would do the work reline and all.
Or just part her out.
I could easily refit the wood to my Rossi 62A.

Ideas, thoughts on this one??

Attachment 223750
Attachment 223751

Just did one for a grampa gun. Jack First has most of the parts and a 22 short rifle is a hoot to shoot.

FIX IT!! Reline and convert to 22lr. They made a million of them and no one is gonna cry about you resurrecting one from the dead, as it truly is unshootable in its current condition. And how cool are those rifles? The answer is very cool. A compact takedown all steel and wood rifle from the turn of the last century? **** yeah, its cool.

I've got a Remington gallery that is also in need of some repairs. Barrel liner is supposed to be here tomorrow as there are no riflings left in more than half the barrel. It looks like too many steel cleaning rods over the years. These old pieces can be a great find once put back in order.

I picked up a 1906 mfg 1910 that looks a sight worse than yours. I got it for $25.
It needs a barrel re-line also. The chamber has a bulge in it that jams the case in it.
As soon as I take care of a few $ obligations I will get it done. I have to pay someone to do it.
I would say re-line it and shoot the daylights out of it. There are not too many .22’s that are more fun than these.

I would reline to short and shoot it. I have bought project guns and they all seemed to be pumps.
Wins, Rems and Marlins. People try to convert 22wrf to LR and short to LR, and seem to never get
the job done. It turns out to be more technical than most DIYs can handle. I bought a really nice
1890 in WRF that a guy thought he was going to convert to 22Hornet. He only got as far as running a crude series of drill bits in chamber and ruining bolt face. My advice on these type of
guns is line them and shoot them. Unless you think you can do it yourself the cost would be more
than a shootable example in most cases.

I had one about 35 years ago that someone gave me. Anyhow, it was in 22 LR, but the barrel was toast. I ordered a brand new barrel from Numrich - an octagonal, seems like it was a 24". Grand thing to shoot but it clearly defined the phrase "barrel heavy". I tried many many different brands of 22 shells - CCI Mini Mags, Rem. golden bullets, Win Super X, RWS match, etc. It liked cheapo Federal Lightnings best.

What you have is a carnival gallery gun. Parts were intentionally miss matched. Often the sights were drifted off center. The barrel is corroded from years of shooting BP shorts.
Keep it as is. It's a piece of history.

its not a gallery gun( the loading port is the giveaway to quickly identify a gallery gun), but it is worth fixing up. overall that looks to be in ok shape.

You gotta fix it.
I've got one that belonged to my grandfather, my cousins kept it in their basement for too many years. Somewhere, somehow, the bolt has gone missing, otherwise it's complete, except for the rust (at least it's not pitted) and stock that is cracked and needs to be replaced. Moisture and wood apparently don't play well together. Can't even see the rifling in the bore, I haven't decided what to do about that. Mine has a round barrel, a bit longer than the magazine tube. At one time I considered trying to convert it to 25ACP, but that's probably more work than it's worth. So for now, it's in my garage on the bench, but at least it's dry. It's turned into one of my "I'll do it when I have time projects", but the long days at work need to end.
Thanks, KCSO, for the Jack First parts info, I had never heard of them.
They're neat little rifles, don't give up on it.

Years ago I converted my friends 1890 22wrf to 22lr, barrel, carrier, magazine tubes etc. All parts came from Numrich. Back then it was pretty inexpensive, not sure what it would cost now but that is the route I would go also. Since then my friend has died and I now have that rifle, it's a tack driver, and it never fails.

I'd line it and shoot it. I have one in 22 LR that's a great shooter. Has a tang sight on it.

My uncles owned a Penny Arcade at a permanent amusement park. The park was torn down to
make room for a housing developement in 60s. They sold a lot of the games, but kept the games
that were antique mechanical models and the shooting gallery and guns. My uncle had them in
a barrel in storage for years. He had the loading tubes, parts and the 22 short gallery ammo for
them. I was pestering him to get one of those rifles and he would get off even one. He thought
he needed all them to sell the whole shooting gallery outfit. He did give me a case of Peters 22s
Krumble ball ammo to shut me up. It wasn't to long after that there was a break in and all those
rifles where stolen. I was to young to worry about the model. I'm not sure if they were 1890s or
M62s. All I remember is they had hammers, round barrels and had chains to attach to counter.

It looks like your cartridge lifter has the little pivoting stop lever that allows it to use shorts, longs and long-rifles interchangeably. If you reline it to .22 LR, you should be able to shoot everything in it.

Definitely worth a reline. That model is nearly bullet proof. I’ve seen them in truly advanced stages of neglect and abuse, but they fed, fired and ejected like new. Sometimes the extractor gets worn and needs to be replaced, but normally they just shoot and shoot and shoot.

My 1906 has a crummy but still shootable bore. It get all the range pickups I find, and I pump them through the gun by the magazineful. They have to be real duds to fail to fire with the big firing pin of the 06.

It’s my “catharsis gun.” :)

Fix it up as close as you can to original, you will not be disappointed.
I bought a '90 on local farm sale in '57, 22 WRF for $19.
Hate to covert that into bales of hay I had to handle behind baler for that.
Actually, it would have been 19 hours, bales ?.
Still have it plus another '90 WRF and '06 ?.
Must be short as I have one carton of shorts I've kept for 30+ years.
I did buy a few cartons of 22 WRF centennial ammunition when They were produced.
It survived a fire in 2008 but isn't as pretty as it was.
Good luck which ever way you proceed.

I got a "steal" on one chambered in .22 short which was sold as a parts gun. A fairly competent gunsmith restored it for me at a fair price, with the ONLY problem being the only loading tube he could obtain is cut for .22lr. Hence, I need be sure neither I, nor anyone else, EVER inserts a cartridge other than the "short"! He guaranteed I'd be able to do this but once ;), and neither he, nor anyone else, may be able to ever render repairs if done :(. Other than that, it is remarkably accurate, and a hoot to shoot. In its early days (?), someone stacked bullets in the barrel -- oops -- 1st one did not go all the way through, and a few more (???) were shot into this bullet before shooter stopped. So, I, too have a bulge in the barrel. I do not have access to a bore-scope, but a brush free-floats in the bulged area, seeming like about (my guess) more than 1/8" clearance. However, albeit I am super vigilant that all bullets do exit the barrel, again, it is both a wonderful piece of history as well as fun to shoot. Mine is .22 short, 1900 manufacture, and has a 96,xxx serial number.
ENJOY YOURS!
.geo

!. the Photo you included shows a .22SHORT only carrier/Lifter. It does NOT appear to have the 'toggle' part nor the pivot pin for the 'toggle'.

Used Replacement S-L-LR carrier/Lifter assemblies show up on Ebay periodically; so a drop in replacement is possible.

Clean your Barrel bore thoroughly to remove accumulated lead and other fouling usually found in these old firearms. I had a Barrel that looked like Junk as received; but Cleaning showed sharp Rifling still existed and it does shoot well. It took me several cleaning sessions to get all the 'Crud' out.

One of my 1890 Actions has no serial number on either the front housing nor the Trigger group frame, so even that happened in the Production Life.

I also have two .22WRF ones that are set up to handle both .22WRF and .22WMR interchangeably. they are a "Hoot to shoot" with mixed Ammo. Surprises bystanders At the Range.

I also have a piece parts project that will become a 20" inch barreled .25ACP version of the 1890. It is collection of used parts and a "Scrapped" barrel that I had John Taylor reline for me.

Best Regards,
Chev. William

I love reading these threads, where an old favorite is resurrected. I have my Uncle's Win 62A, and it needed some TLC too. I thought the bore on it was toast, but it just had never been cleaned in decades. Another one I would never part with.

Picked up a Winchester 1890 last week. In good condition but the bore is a little rough.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by xringdave

Picked up a Winchester 1890 last week. In good condition but the bore is a little rough.

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Please do a through cleaning of your bore before pronouncing final evaluation on it.
Most 1890/1906 series rifles were seldom, or never, cleaned properly in their previous lives.

Chev. William

You can strip it down, play a torch up and down the barrel and bounce the muzzle on a hardwood block. All kinds of dirt laden lead will come out. Then clean it normally and see what's what.

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