Today with a great deal of anxiety I picked up a lo-wall 1885 Winchester i'd won.  It came thru an auction and, although there were pictures posted but not much can you tell from a few pictures.  Now, understand that this thing left the factory in 1890 and smokeless powder hadn't even been invented yet.
When I opened the package I was more than pleasantly surprised. The butt-stock has its shave of minor dings and scratches but no gouges or cracks while the unmarred areas still have a lot of the original factory finish left. No rust anywhere and mechanically it's as tight as new.  The bore is dark but still has plenty of lands and grooves which look fairly sharp.  Tomorrow I'm going to clean the bore with Hoppe's and a couple of other liquid solvents to see what's under that darkness.  Overall I have to say I got a really decent deal~!!
Now I'm back in a quandary what to do with it since it's chambered in .25RF.  Before I got my hand on it I was thinking I would have the caliber changed to .38 Special.  Now I'm not so sure.  It's useless as a .25RF and I certainly don't want a wall hanger.  So you see my dilemma. Maybe I'll step up to the plate and cough up for a couple of .25RF cartridges just to see how it shoots. Not looking for any kudos here, just surprised and happy to have this 135 year old piece of history in my hands.

Depends on how much effort you want to spend and if you’re worried at all about keeping any collectors value. Sure shot gave some options for shooting rimfire. It’s tedious but possible to convert 17 WSM.

A center fire block should not be too hard to find. Then you can convert hornet brass and shoot center fire. There are some 25 Halsted brass on gunbroker right now that are exactly that. Not cheap.

It’s a fun cartridge and has its fans, I shot one in competition a few years ago, just because I could.