"Refinished" Winchester 1892 Trapper .44wcf

[Safestuffer]

Long story short, keep your eyes peeled.
An unlucky shop let this one slip out last week as a refinished gun at a refinished-gun price but it turns out to be a high condition factory original finish. In this case their mistake cost them much $$$ and landed me probably the nicest rifle i will ever own.

20260110_105122.jpg

20260110_104940.jpg

20260110_105022.jpg

20260110_105040.jpg

20260110_105303.jpg

[samsi]

Very nice!

[Pat C]

Everybody needs a win once in a while. That was the 2025 superbowl championship of gun buying in 2025

[OldWin]

If I'm not mistaken, I saw this carbine over on the Colt forum ( how many minty Trappers can there be?). There were some very good pictures posted of it, and it definitely appears original to me. This was an incredible find. Trappers are scarce in any condition, but in that condition are unheard of.
Thank you for sharing it here.

[Bill in Oregon]

Good for you, Safestuffer! Beautiful little carbine.

[geobru]

Congratulations on a really nice rifle.

[Walker]

Nice find!

[LeverGunner]

WOW! That's awesome. Glad someone here got it.

[KWK]

Holy moly! Quite the boo-boo.

[Tycer]

Oh my. Was that sight shipped with that carbine?
Edit: Answered my own question.

The so-called ladder sights on Winchester carbines were a military type sight, Winchester called them leaf sights. Such sights were common on most military carbines and rifles from the Civil War period on for some time. Winchester had always been trying to intereat the various militaries in their guns, the carbines and musket style rifles being done up in military style butt plates, sights, sling rings (today called saddle rings) and barrel bands. Look at most military arms of the Civil War period onwards, the similarity is apparent.

Winchester was very slow to drop many things, some quite odd. The screw slot in the end of the magazine cap had a purpose at one time, the caps used to be threaded into the end of the tube on the early 1873s, but they changed to a screw threaded in from the side of the tube to retain the cap. They didnt stop cutting the screwdriver slot until the late 20s or early 30s. The sling ring had a purpose on military cavalry carbines, it was attached to a wide shoulder belt or sling with a large snap clip that could slide on the sling strap, the gun was so attached to a cavalry trooper so he wouldnt lose his gun when riding or if/when he came off his horse, the gun generally being slid into a short socket type scabbard on the right rear of the saddle where it stayed vertical and didnt flop around when riding. Despite much legend and myth, nobody seems to be able to come up with any period writings or images of any civilian use of the sling rings such as the popularly believed use of a loop of leather to hang the gun off a saddle horn, many sling rings were cut off and discarded because of the noise they made and marring the receiver finish. We think of them as a cool old time thing, but they didnt serve a useful purpose unless one used a cavalry type carbine sling (which some people do today as a single point type sling).

The markings on later carbine leaf (or ladder) sights were a simple reference scale, not a range scale. Yes, they ended up using the same sight on all carbine models. I believe the early 1873 carbine sights and 1866 rifle sights had actual range markings. If you look at them, they are progressively farther part as the range increases, (and numbered for each range) which wouldnt work out as range markings on the later sights, as they are evenly spaced and numbered. I believe most of the tang sights used werent marked for range, but an evenly spaced scale intended for reference. One would need to shoot the load they were going to use and memorize or record the ranges and settings. I believe the marking go to 20, not 2000.

The 3 different aiming points some use with buckhorn sights wasnt really that great an idea. The factory had most of that covered with a better idea in any event. The sporting sights were better designed than most understand, and theres not really any need to try such methods as holding the front blade up in space between the ears of the rear sight. The steps on the sight elevator were intended to be sighted for 50 yards for the first step, and an additional 50 yards for each step up. Most older elevators had 5 or 6 steps, giving 250-300 yards of range. Winchester had 3 different sight elevators for different type of cartridges for the same sporting sight. Many had a small plate in the rear face of the sight held in position by a small screw, the plate could be adjusted to fine tune the zero to the elevator steps. This all seems lost on later generations and Winchester hasnt promoted or encouraged it for ages.

[Pat C]

The #44 ladder sight was standard carbine sight for all 1873, 1892 and 1894 SRC . The dovetail was first moved in early 30's to accommodate the 22H Rifle sight but had to use the short 3C Elevator. Post war it was moved again to allow for longer thumb piece elevator.