My 1873 is not standard!

[Marc]

I got a copy of the Winchester Book last week and have been reading the 1873 section. Madis says that standard 44 caliber rifles have the receiver with the straight front ring. 44 caliber carbines and some short rifles have the stepped front receiver ring. My 44 rifle has the stepped front receiver ring. Either at least one 44 rifle(mine) had the stepped ring from the factory or mine is not original. Not that it matters because I bought it as a shooter. It does make me wonder what further information has come to light since the Winchester Book was published. A friend just bought Pirkle's book and it basically echoes Madis on the 44 receiver rings.

[Grizzly Adams]

As a rule, all 44 caliber 1873s receivers will have the straight front receiver ring, and that includes carbines in 44. 38WCR and 32 caliber rifles and carbines, and 22 caliber rifles will have the stepped receiver. The exception is SOME rifles in 44 caliber with shorter than standard barrel lengths were built with the stepped receiver. (I don't think anyone knows exactly why Winchester did this.)

If your rifle has a shorter than standard barrel, it may be original. ......or it may have been rebarreled to a 44WCF at some point.

Here is a pic of one of my 1873s that started life as a 38WCF and was restored. It now wears a 44WCF barrel.



If you look closely, you can see the step in the forward/top part of the receiver just ahead of the dust cover

[Marc]

Nice looking rifle!

My rifle has the standard length octagon barrel. The bottom of the carrier is also stamped 44 Cal. That is easy enough to change though. It is later production and was made in 1916 according to the serial number lists. I wonder how much substitution of parts happened at the factory toward the end of production when numbers produced were low.

[Hobie]

I thought I might weigh in. I saw a .32 WCF rifle yesterday with the stepped receiver. I made a mental note of the serial but I've lost it. IIRC it was a 6-digit in the 140K range but like I said, I don't remember now.