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Frontier Firearms from the Lifetime Collection of Larry Ness
|
- Sale 1987
Live
| Cincinnati
Jun 8 | 10:00 AM EDT
Live
| Cincinnati
Sale 1987
| Cincinnati
| Cincinnati
Estimate$800 – $1,200
.44-40. 24" octagonal barrel with full-length magazine. SN: not legible. Blued finish, smooth straight-gripped walnut stock and forend. Markings essentially illegible on barrel and tang due to wear, no visible serial number. Butt replaced with one from a Winchester 1866 with brass crescent buttplate and with wood showing some 50 empty tack holes with a few broken brass shanks remaining. Buttstock missing the original sling swivel and the trapdoor in the buttplate. Buckhorn rear sight a replacement, dovetailed blade front sight. Lever loop broken, firing mechanism not functional, rifle in about relic condition. Mr. Ness' tag notes that this rifle was found in the "Sand Hills" of Saskatchewan, Canada along with a Northwest Trade Gun. Many of Hunkpapa Sioux under Sitting Bull as well as other Sioux and Cheyenne took refuge in Canada in the aftermath of the Battle of the Little Bighorn, in an attempt to avoid US military reprisals. It seems quite possible that this hard used and period composite Winchester was utilized by one of those Native Americans either at the battle or in the period immediately after it. An honest and real "Indian Gun" from the period.
The Collection of Larry Ness
Fair. Metal heavily oxidized with a thick brown patina, weak markings, moderate surface roughness and some pitting. Not mechanically functional, bore poor, heavily rusted and oxidized with hints of rifling. Wood dry with some cracks, chips and loss and showing substantial wear.
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Tim Carey
Associate Vice President, Head of Department, Arms, Armor and Militaria
