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1929 Woodsman Sport and 1940ish Police Positive Target.

Canadian Militia issued Snider-Enfield Mk.I* infantry rifle. Originally made as a P53 rifle-musket in 1860 at the Enfield arsenal in Britain, this would have been converted to a breechloader and sent to Canada around Confederation in 1867. The Snider-Enfield was the main weapon of the Canadian militia up until the Ross rifle in 1905 as there was never enough budget to fully replace it. The two .577 Snider rounds are both originals, the paper wrapped is British and the brass foil Canadian.

Original ad clipped from an issue of the Saturday Evening Post. It’s actually surprisingly hard to find period ads for the Winchester lever actions considering how popular they were.

This was the original .45 ACP pistol developed for US Army trials and an important step to the 1911 - basically a beefed up version of the 1902 Military .38 ACP for the new cartridge. While the design was being iterated on they actually sold the 1905s commercially to finance the project, but because it was never intended to be the final version they never set up a full production line so the pistols were partially handmade.

This one is one of the last ones made in 1911 before production switched over to the 1911. It has British commercial proofs so was sold in the UK - I no evidence of this but I suspect it was a British military officer’s sidearm, mainly because who else would buy it? It’s unfortunately refinished but for a gun this rare I’ll live with it.

This was the original .45 ACP pistol developed for US Army trials and an important step to the 1911 - basically a beefed up version of the 1902 Military .38 ACP for the new cartridge. While the design was being iterated on they actually sold the 1905s commercially to finance the project, but because it was never intended to be the final version they never set up a full production line so the pistols were partially handmade.

This one is one of the last ones made in 1911 before production switched over to the 1911. It has British commercial proofs so was sold in the UK - I no evidence of this but I suspect it was a British military officer’s sidearm, mainly because who else would buy it? It’s unfortunately refinished but for a gun this rare I’ll live with it.

This is a British Martini-Henry Mk.III in .577/450, made at Enfield arsenal in 1884.
These were the British military rifle from 1871 to 1888 and are exceedingly simple to use. They had some issues early on with these foil brass cases with separate iron head where when the rifle heated up they’d get case head separations, but otherwise the rifle was very successful in service and modern drawn brass cases were introduced in 1885.

My Lee-Enfield No.5 carbine made by Royal Ordnance Factory Fazakerly in February 1945. Although these are widely known as the Jungle Carbine, that was never an official designation and one of the first issues of these was actually to British paras sent to liberated Norway in 1945.

These aren’t just a shortened rifle, they have a number of lightening cuts to the barrel, receiver and even the bolt handle to being the weight down, as well as a short range rear sight, rubber recoil pad and flash hider. You usually find these with the pads dried out and rock solid, which can make for an unpleasant kick with the light weight. Fortunately this one is still pretty soft and it tames things quite a bit.

But I like classy old guns and I guess that means I’ll end up with a lot of Winchesters.

The Winchester 1894 is far from forgotten, hell they’re still making them 130 years later, but these early ones are a lot less common. Everyone knows the 94 carbine in .30-30, but when the model first came out the smokeless powder cartridges weren’t quite ready yet. The initial chamberings were actually .38-55 and .32-40 black powder, with the .30-30 coming out a year later, followed by the .25-35 and .32 Special.

The sporting rifle configuration with the 26” barrel (octagon or round) and crescent butt was originally the most popular but by the late 30s the 20” carbine was far outselling it and the long barrel model was dropped in 1937. Winchester renamed the model from the 1894 to the 94 around 1928, both to simplify their number of scheme and make it seem more modern.

I got this one pretty cheap in an auction that clearly included someone’s collection of long barrelled 94s - this was far from the prettiest and the .30-30s were definitely the ones everyone wanted, but this one is unmessed with and went pretty cheap so I’m very happy with it!

Just picked up this classic old lever gun, a 1908 Winchester 1894 sporting rifle in .38-55. Everyone knows the 94 carbine in .30-30, but when the model first came out the smokeless powder cartridges weren’t quite ready yet. The initial chamberings were actually .38-55 and .32-40 black powder, with the .30-30 coming out a year later, followed by the .25-35 and .32 Special.

The sporting rifle configuration with the 26” barrel (octagon or round) and crescent butt was originally the most popular but by the late 30s the 20” carbine was far outselling it and the long barrel model was dropped in 1937.

I got this pretty cheap in an auction that clearly included someone’s collection of long barrelled 94s - this was far from the prettiest and the .30-30s were definitely the ones everyone wanted, but this one is unmessed with and went pretty cheap so I’m very happy with it!

If you’re unfamiliar this was the 3rd version of the the Winchester-Hotchkiss, which was a 5 shot repeating bolt action with a tube magazine in the butt. It was developed for US military trials to replace the Springfield trapdoor but was never adopted. The first couple models had issues with stock breakage because of the safety and cutoff levers but this one solved it by just going to a two-piece stock.

Honestly for an obscure model that failed at trials, and not being in very good shape, it works a lot better than you’d expect. If you think about it this came out before the 1886 and would have been their first .45-70 repeater - the market wasn’t ready for a bolt action and by the time they were this was obsolete, but it’s actually a pretty good rifle.

The third in a series of rifles developed for US Army trials to replace the trapdoor Springfield, a 5 shot .45-70 with a tube magazine in the butt loaded through the action. This one is a commercial carbine rather than one of the trials guns. It actually works surprisingly well in my experiences with it.