Winchester commeratives

[Reverend Recoil]

European collectors pay big bucks for the John Wayne collection rifles. I have often wondered how much the John Wayne estate profited from these rifles.

[BB57]

In general, Winchester kept itself both busy and afloat manufacturing “commemorative” rifles and carbines, with most of them being made in numbers far to large to be collectible. Some like the Centennial 66 had production numbers that topped 100,000, and the Canadian Centennial rifles exceeded 90,000. There are four others with numbers in the 40,000-50,000 range, a few with over 25,000 and several with a more limited 19,999, which is still way too many for a collectible.

Winchester eventually figured it out and started making commemoratives with 1000-2000 total.

But at the same time they started doing limited runs for just about everyone. When I was a kid for example, you could order a commemorative “Centennial” Model 94 carbine with the name of your town and its 100 year dates on it. Given that I was from SD, and many of the towns were formed about 100 years ago in SD, ND and WY, it was a pretty common thing to see. Similarly other towns farther east with 150 year anniversaries also were offered “commemorative” carbines. They were all XTR grade carbines and they are still an inexpensive way to get an XTR grade carbine.

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Personally, I have a pair of Legendary Frontiersman, both purchased as shooters. I got into shooting .38-55 via a Big Bore 94 in .375 Win. When jacketed bullets became scarce during the 2008 shortage and then never really recovered in terms of availability or cost, I started shooting cast bullets in it, and quickly found the fast 1-12 rifling twist and oddities of throat versus bore diameter (the subject for another post) were just not ideal for cast bullets, I started looking for a .38-55.

The Legendary Frontiersman (along with the Oliver F. Winchester and Chief Crazy Horse) are still the least expensive way to get a .38-55 lever gun as they sell for $700-$800 in excellent to mint condition without a box. That’s an artifact of Winchester making 19,999 of them in 1979, about 17,999 more than they should have made for an actual collectible rifle. With those numbers the value of all three models is as shooters.

The LF is a rifle pattern with a 24” round barrel, although the round barrel is carbine rather than rifle weight. The silver plated receiver looks very good with a tarnish and over all it’s an XTR grade rifle with polished hammer and lever flats, generally very nice wood with some figure in the butt stock and nicely cut checkering. With the exception of the medallion in the stock, it’s not overly garish.

With the addition of a tang sight it’s also a solid 2 MOA rifle with commercial cast bullets and a bit better with jacketed or my own cast bullets. The rifling rate is 1:15 which isn’t as optimum as the old 1:18 but still works fine.

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I also own a Model 94 Classic, which isn’t a commemorative but is often treated like one. After Winchester’s sales success with the Canadian Centennial rifles with upwards of 90,000 sold in both 24” rifle and 20” short rifle models, Winchester thought their might be a market for a more upscale Model 94 rifle, since it had not had a regular production rifle since it discontinued the Model 64 in 1957.

The Classic was chambered in .30-30 and had a 26” octagon barrel. It had machine scrolling on the receiver similar to the Canadian Centennial rifles, nicely figured wood, a gold plated loading gate and “Winchester Model 94 Classic” script on the barrel. Those last two, and low sales numbers are why many people think it’s a commemorative or treat it like one.

Winchester was wrong about the market for a higher end rifle pattern Model 94 in .30-30, or perhaps they’d filled that market with the Canadian Centennial rifles which were also not overly garish and often purchased as shooters.

In any case they only made about 40,000 of during the four years it was cataloged and it took a couple more years to actually sell them all. There are a number of commemoratives that were sold in larger numbers.





I bought mine in very good to excellent condition for $600. It had been sitting in a local shop for a couple years and I bought it as soon as I heard Marlin 30-30s were no longer being produced. I’d been considering a lever action .30-30 rifle in order to retire my very nice 1926 26” Model 94 rifle from field use. The Classic fills the role well and with a Williams receiver sight is a solid 2 MOA rifle.

It was well timed, as those previously not all that sought after Classic and commemorative rifles started flying off the shelves with customers getting them as shooters. They are a much cheaper alternative to a new Miroku made Model 94.

[Harleysboss]

I bought a Canadian Centenial 30-30 with the 26" octagon barrel from a member here. Once it arrived, I turned right around and shipped it to JES Re Bore in Oregon to be turned into a 38-55. The collector value was out for this one anyway and I wanted a nice octagon 38-55 lever gun and voila!

[Gray Fox]

I'm picking up a '94 Classic tomorrow at what seems to be good price and I've got a Williams Fool Proof with target knobs due in Sunday from Amazon. I'm going to load up some of Larry Gibson's 150 grain jacketed loads with Leverevolution and run them through my chrony on the way to a target to try to see what the rifle is capable of. Then I'm going to cast up a batch of Ranch Dog's TLC311-165-RF boolits to see how they shoot. I'll probably water quench them and lube with LLA.
I've got several appropriate powders to play with. Any of you that have a Classic '94 have an opinion about what the boolets should be sized to? I have the Lyman case neck expander die. GF

[coalsmoke]

I picked up a Buffalo Bill rifle really cheap about 10 years ago. Never liked the long barrel and never found anyone who wanted to trade me a shorty for it, so I chopped it off. It is a sweet little brush poppin pig killer now.


I can't figure out how to post pics.