After 35 years of digging, I found my first gun

[mr miner/logger]

Was digging at a lumber camp yesterday and dug up an old gun. It's a lever action with an octagonal barrel. It looks like it had a tubular magazine under the barrel but is gone now. The bore is 3/8 diameter. Does anyone have any idea what make or caliber this might be. I know it's difficult to tell by the dark picture.

 

[wayne9452]

The only octagon, lever action i know of was Winchester. They made a few centennial replicas and I have a friend who has one..
Wayne

 

[John-Edmonton]

That is a find of a lifetime! Any chance of a bigger photo with some more detail?

 

[Ken (Trenton Ont)]

I had one many years ago, it was a hex barrel and the barrel was real long, lever action and if I remember right it held 10 bullets it was a 30/30. The first time I went hunting with it, had a buck about 30 feet fired 2 shots and missed him completely. Checked the bore and you could almost drop the complete shell in it. That sure is a great find I have been detecting for 32 years and no gun yet. HH Ken

 

[TobyH]

I used to be a collector of antique Winchester rifles and can tell you what calibers were available for that model and which one is the most likely candidate, but I'll need a larger picture to determine what model it is, and if it's a Winchester. There were other brands that were also made with a lever action and octagonal barrel (i.e. Marlin, Savage, Whitney-Kennedy, and Colt - before they just concentrated on handguns). It's most likely a Winchester or Marlin. There have been a great many different calibers available between the 1870's and today.
Once again, a bigger picture will do the trick.
A very cool find!
Toby

 

[Uncle Willy]

Didn't Remington make one also in that design?

Bill

 

[Uncle Willy]

Quite a find and a rare one. Bet that got your heart thumping. I've yet to find a whole gun - just parts.

Bill

 

[mr miner/logger]

Don't know if this picture will help in identifying the gun or not

 

[Uncle Willy]

The name should be stamped on the barrel just ahead of the reciever. Have you tried cleaning that spot off?

Bill

 

[TobyH]

That, my friend, is a Winchester Model 1873 rifle (shorter carbine models were also produced with round barrels). They were produced from 1873 to 1923. They made a little over 720,000 in total. The vast majority of them were chambered in .44-40 Winchester, which is most likely what yours is. The serial number was stamped on the lower tang, behind the trigger, just under the flat bit of the lever. If it's still readable, I can tell you what year yours was manufactured.
That is definitely a cool find! The Model '73 was - The Gun That Won The West!
Congrats,
Toby

Here's a borrowed pic of one in a little better shape:
[attachment 22130 Model73.jpg]

 

[jeff@middlesex]

n/t

 

[grumpy]

Sir; A real stupid thing I might bring to your attension after owning and operating a gunsmithing business for the past 33 years.
I know this is really off the wall and really rare but handle it with care it may be loaded still and tho there are almost zero to none possibility the ammo would still go off it is possible. We restored a muz loader in the early 80's that was built in the late 1700s that was loaded with rocks and trash for a bullet and the powder was very crude chunks of black powder, when we carefully removed the charge we found to our amazement it still did tend to burn , not good but it did burn. SO stranger things have happened. What would worry me would be more a careless cleaning effort than the gun actually firing, it looks like the metal parts to the old girl are rusted in place but lots of guys use heat a great method of loosing stuck parts to free them up also a great way to loosen gunpowder Use solvents if your going to mess with it and no sharp banging. Sorry for the long wind just my 2 cents worth. Would not want to see anyone so lucy cut their M D fun short.
Good Luck
Grumpy

P. S. Anyone finding an old gun should consider: It might still be loaded, most people were not thoughtfull enough to unload them before they lost them.

 

[NM5K]

Piece of history alright.. If I had to choose a model
to find, the 73 would be up there at the top.
Kinda makes you wonder how the guy lost it to the dirt.
Back in the day, those guns were like their "other"
wives...
They got a lot of the food, protection, etc.. Most didn't
just lose one without a good reason.
MK

 

[Uncle Willy]

Good advice. Thanks for posting that. Sort of like messing with sweating dynamite.

Bill

 

[mr miner/logger]

Thanks for the info TobyH. I looked but I couldn't find any serial number.

 

[silvernail]

Grumpy is right about old loads. I have found four or five old guns with loads in a few years of swapping around. All were muzzle loaders, but I've also seen dug ups with unfired cartridges in them. From the looks of yours, my first guess is that it was destroyed in a house fire and discarded. The hammer seems to be missing, which is peculiar. It's a great wall hanger & conversation piece. Dug ups are popular for decorators and it would probably bring $50+ on a web gun auction -- maybe even up to a couple hundred. Great find.