Post Civil War but can anyone identify the rifle and suggest a time frame.

kjdavis

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Joined
Jun 12, 2018
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Hi KJ. Nice image. Thanks for sharing it. I'm sure some of the folks who know more will be along shortly to provide some real expertise, but I thought I'd reply to your post in an effort to keep it bumped up on the page. :D

In my completely non-expert opinion, the clothing and hairstyle seem to suggest 1890s. I believe that is when the white collar on a colored or patterned short became popular? And I'm certainly not a gun expert by any stretch, but it looks to me like it could be some kind of sporterized/cut down cavalry rifle?

Paging @ucvrelics.com @Jobe Holiday @johan_steele @Lanyard Puller @Craig L Barry I feel confident one of these guys will be able to ID the gun for you.
 
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Hi KJ. Nice image. Thanks for sharing it. I'm sure some of the folks who know more will be along to shortly to provide some real expertise, but I thought I'd reply to your post in an effort to keep it bumped up on the page. :D

In my completely non-expert opinion, the clothing and hairstyle seem to suggest 1890s. I believe that is when the white collar on a colored or patterned short became popular? And I'm certainly not a gun expert by any stretch, but it looks to me like it could be some kind of sporterized/cut down cavalry rifle?

Paging @ucvrelics.com @Jobe Holiday @johan_steele @Lanyard Puller @Craig L Barry I feel confident one of these guys will be able to ID the gun for you.
Thanks lelliot 19. I know from past experience that this is the place to come for authentic historical perspective.
 
They came in several different calibers 32-20 Winchester.38-40 Winchester.44-40 Winchester.25-20 Winchester.218 Bee. The 44-40 was the most popular.
 
I've got a model '94 30-30 Winchester saddle ring carbine with a round barrel, and a model '92 Winchester in 25-20 with an octagonal barrel. The pictured rifle looks like a round barrel to me. I don't know enough about Winchester rifles to know if the '92 model was the last year for the octagonal barrel.
 
That's Frank Hamer, Texas Ranger in the photo. He is noted for tracking down Bonnie and Clyde. Kind of late for the ACW.
I think we have a winner!!! Also, the rifle John Wayne used as Rooster Cogburn was the same one he carried in "Stagecoach," his breakout film (and some critic call the first "serious" western). The elongated loop does nothing for the function of the rifle; it just makes it look cool. IIRC, it is now in the Cowboy Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City, or it was when I saw it many years ago.
 
I think big loop lever did help with spin cocking the '92 and you can see the big loop doing its thing with Chuck Conners too and he added the device that fired the Winchester on the closing, which is pure fantasy .

Both of them boys are big'uns and have fists like a ham, kinda hard to fit into those tiny levers !
 
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It is indeed Frank Hamer, and he was known to carry an 1894 Winchester SRC. I am not sure of the caliber but a fair guess would be 30 w.c.f. There is a good story of Hamer ending the career of one Ed Putnam with a pretty good shot from that carbine. He also carried a 4 3/4" blued and engraved Colt SAA 45 that he called "Old Lucky". It was presented to him in 1913 and I believe this picture pre-dates that year. (I think this pic was taken in 1906 when Hamer was 22 years old and had been assigned to Ranger Co C under Cpt. John H Rogers. This is one of the pictures taken after Putnam was killed.) Captain Rogers presented Hamer with a .32 Colt Revolver that was found on Putnam to remember his "first Ranger gunfight". It has been written that the taking of Bonnie and Clyde was was one of the least significant events in Frank Hamer's long career in law enforcement.

As to the big lever loop on John Wayne's 1892, it was first used in the movie Stagecoach and served no purpose other than John Ford was trying to build an image, and wanted a unique gun that audiences would identify with Wayne. It was used in several of his movies after that. If you look at the movie Horse Soldiers you will see several '92's as well. although they have been "Henryized". The forearms are removed and the frames are painted to look brass. Not the most historically correct movie ever done on the war between the states.

The 1892 and the 1894 rifles were both available with octagon barrels, as well as round. The carbines all had round barrels. There were "short rifles" which have 20" octagon barrels and no barrel band. Watch closely in the movie "The Searchers" during the fight with the Indians at the river. John Wayne is sometimes shooting an 1892 SRC and other times a short rifle. The round barrels on the rifles were standard and the octagon was an added cost.

Dan
 
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