Winchester 1873 - needs parts & work

[sesh]

I have to agree with everybody else, get that restored. I'll bet it isn't cheap but I'll bet you can do it in stages to ease the strain on your wallet, and in the end you'll never regret it. That is a beautiful piece of history and it's been in your family for a long time. There's a lot of people out there, myself included, that wish they had some of those classic rifles from their grandparents.

 

[fustigate]

Thanks for the feedback/advice, guys! At first, I wanted to clean it up so it wouldn't get worse (I hated to see something that old and in the family get neglected). But when I realized there was more worth to it than just the family history, I figured it was definitely worth putting money in it (in contrast to my ancestor's Iver Johnson 410 shotgun; one book had it at $25!)

And I'm not crazy for wanting to get it to shoot, right? Someone told me he didn't think that was a good idea, but it's calling to me too much to just clean and hang on the wall. I know there are issues with these rifles (weak bolts) shooting newer loads, but I shouldn't have a problem with .22 short. ...right?

Again, there seems to be some wear to the rifling. So someone suggested shooting it now to see how accurate it was and then deciding how much work I wanted done on it, depending on how much I cared about the resulting accuracy. (I'd have to manually load each round / pull each casing at this point, of course.)
I'm not going to be entering any cowboy shooting competitions and I'm not a great shot anyway, but if it's going to shoot, I'd like for it to shoot decently well, obviously.
Is it safe/wise to try it as it is?

 

[Warhatchet]

IMO -I would have a gunsmih check it out before I put a single round in the chamber-----not to mention all the things that could possibly go wrong when it goes bang.

 

[fustigate]

IMO -I would have a gunsmih check it out before I put a single round in the chamber-----not to mention all the things that could possibly go wrong when it goes bang.

Safe idea. Anything I need to have him check in particular? Make sure the cartridge rim fits against the bore face tight, etc.?

 

[redmax51]

Safe idea. Anything I need to have him check in particular? Make sure the cartridge rim fits against the bore face tight, etc.?

If he's a good smith,he'll know what to check.Just ask him if it's safe to shoot.