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My West Virginia 22 Hornet Find

Sako Collectors Club Discussion Forum

I have an old Winchester 1885 lo wall in 22 K-hornet. Fun gun to shoot for sure.
I used to have one like that, back when an original Winchester single shot didn't cost the price of a small car. As I recall it was in original condition except for the reamed out chamber. I think that converting 1885 Winchesters in .22 Hornet to K-Hornet must have been fairly popular at one time, but I haven't seen one in years. In fact, I hardly ever see an original 1885 (as opposed to the various repros made in Japan and Italy) at all these days. I have two of them, a refurbished .38-55 and a highly customized Winder musket. They are tremendous fun to shoot, but neither of mine is collectible.
 
I used to have one like that, back when an original Winchester single shot didn't cost the price of a small car. As I recall it was in original condition except for the reamed out chamber. I think that converting 1885 Winchesters in .22 Hornet to K-Hornet must have been fairly popular at one time, but I haven't seen one in years. In fact, I hardly ever see an original 1885 (as opposed to the various repros made in Japan and Italy) at all these days. I have two of them, a refurbished .38-55 and a highly customized Winder musket. They are tremendous fun to shoot, but neither of mine is collectible.
I wouldn’t call mine collectable either as highly modified to run hornets.
 
Here’s the 1885
 

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I have two absolutely stunners. One is an 1885 High Wall in 219 Donaldson Wasp topped off with a Unertl 15X Ultra Varmint scope. The other is a first year production Ruger No. 1. Same caliber but with a Tasco Super scope. Both rifles are real tack drivers.

rick
 
I have two absolutely stunners. One is an 1885 High Wall in 219 Donaldson Wasp topped off with a Unertl 15X Ultra Varmint scope. The other is a first year production Ruger No. 1. Same caliber but with a Tasco Super scope. Both rifles are real tack drivers.

rick
Did Ruger chamber that Wasp or is your Number 1 a custom? And let's see a picture of the High Wall.
 
Here are pics of the High Wall Wasp with the Unertl.

That is so typical of High Wall customs of a certain era. (I'm not sure exactly when; maybe the 1950's.) I've seen many at gun shows over the years. Long tube scope, bull barrel, super high cheekpiece, pistol grip, wide forend. I'll bet it shoots great.

Here are my two 1885's. Top one is a Winder Musket, originally made as a training rifle for the U.S. Army. It still has the US and flaming bomb marked on the tang. The Winder Musket is built on a cut-down High Wall frame, not a regular Low Wall. This makes it much more robust than a normal Low Wall. I got this one for cheap at a long-ago gun show from a guy who was walking around with it. It was cheap because it didn't work, and these guns are no fun to work on, but I got it going again. The Winder was originally chambered in .22 short, and so marked. I tried shooting it with .22 Shorts and it scattered them all over the place. A couple more brands of ammo, same thing. Just for the hell of it I put a .22 long rifle in it. The round shouldn't even have gone in the chamber, but it did. So I fired a few and they made a nice tight little group. Turned out that whoever did the custom work had relined the barrel and changed the chambering and barrel twist for .22LR. Shoots great with any good target ammo. The rear sight is original and somebody added a globe front sight with interchangeable inserts. I love the wood and the brass buttplate.

The other rifle is a .38-55 I picked up recently. It's been quasi-restored with a barrel liner and new wood. It's old enough that the frame was originally case hardened, but the smith who rebuilt it blued the action so I'm not going to call it restored. It's an antique - I forget the date but it's before the BATF cutoff. I haven't shot it much but it seems to be quite accurate. It came with a tang sight but at normal ranges it's more comfortable to shoot with the tang sight removed, so I just use the open rear sight.
1885x2.JPG
 
Here’s the 1885
Very nice looking rifle. As with Rick's gun, a very typical period piece with the pistol grip and wide forend. The comventional scope mount allows a classic cheekpiece rather than the super high one needed for the Unertl scope, giving the rifle more of a normal sporting rifle appearance.
 
Here is the Ruger No. 1 in 219.

Sorry about the incorrect info on the scope. I confused this one with a .225 Heavy, The correct scope info is as follows: Gun is in terrific shape and has a 10x Spot-Shot R.A. Litschert scope on it.

Four digit serial number puts in in the first year production category.

Based on the history that I have I believe Bill Ruger built this as a favor for one of his close friends.

219 dw.jpg

rick
 
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