A while back I acquired a nice looking little low Wall in a trade with Moody Holler. It was factory labeled 25 WCF, but it is chambered for what we call the 25-20 SS. This would suggest that it is a fairly early one, but from the serial number it was made in late 1904 or early ‘05.
When I got it, we both knew the hammer pivot (split pin) had one leg cracked off and the mainspring screw was stripped, but I had both of those parts in my little parts cabinet because of course I do!
When a finally remembered (or fumbled through) how to reassemble it, and I replaced the fore end screw with a new one because I lost the original while I had it disassembled, it came out nice.
In fact, not just nice but as nice as any Winchester wall I’ve owned recently. The receiver and breech block have been polished to the white, but all the other bluing looks very good after 120 years. The bore is pretty bright… surprisingly so in fact, and even the wood has no major scratches, dents or gouges and the finish is basically intact and strong.
I had some 70 year old, very nasty looking factory ammo, and I picked out the worst looking to test it with. I shot it at 25 and 50 yds with unexpectedly good results, even though most of the old brass split upon firing and had to be nudged out with a cleaning rod. (Did I mention I picked the worst looking of the batch for the test firing?)
By the time I moved to a 100 yd target, I was getting a little tired and so was the rifle, and the ammo I had left in my chosen pile was the worst of the worst. For some reason, the Buckhorn rear and blade sight wouldn’t hold still. Let’s just say my efforts at 100 yds were less than inspiring.
Not surprisingly, out of about 30 rounds I had 4-5 duds and several noticeable slow fires, almost a hang fire but not quite.
All in all I’m very pleased with my new acquisition and hope to take it out to Oak Ridge in about 2 weeks for their classic single shot event, along with my trusty 32-40 high wall.
Froggie
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A 25-20 SS Low Wall (Read 505 times)
