Lever Actions...Just wanting to share......

[Elker_43]

Hello All,
I am lonely for my gun collection and needed to share my misery! In August of this year, my wife and I had to temporarily move to Calif (nasty gun state/my former home state) to get our 17 year old G-Daughter through her senior year of HS as her sperm donor,er..biological father abandon her. Long story in its self.
Anyway, I had just finished my gun room in our retirement home after 8 years of building, the gun room being the final room in a very large home (too many honey do's and promises). The room and the home is equipted with a full security system including cameras which I can access on line at anytime including the outside of my home. Then we had to leave for Calif. and I am now lonely for my guns and gun projects.
Everyday, I log on to my security system and admire all that I am missing......Darn, at 70 years old this is torture!!

If you need to chat about old Winchesters, lets do it as I sit here most of the day reading on line as much as possible about Winchesters. Most of my collection is composed of 92's, 90's, 06's, and a smattering of others. I am attaching a few pics of my gun room, so lets chat a bit.

 

[Magnum Wheel Man]

your's looks nicer than mine... ( room ) very nice collection & display area...I'd been waiting 15 years to get everything together for mine, just started on it late last summer, & just gotten to the point I can start putting guns in the room... I do have an older Winchester octogon barrel pump 22 ( no pics ) but I do have a pic of my 30 WCF on the wall with my other levers... ( Winchester is 3rd from bottom )

BTW... the storage benches are now covered in a nice blue vinyl... & I am still working on my safe / room

I like my bolt guns though... ( maybe because most of the winchesters have gotten out of my price range )...

 

[Elker_43]

Nice!

You have more handguns than I do and a nice collection of bolts! My HGs are a smattering of 44 mags, mostly Rugers and a few old colts. I do have a small show case with Kolb Baby Hammerless which are cute little 22's (smallest revolvers made). You have a nice looking collection and your collection area looks good.

It is a joy to collect something and guns are one of the best. to collect in my opinion. I had hunting rifles for years and started my Winchester collection by buying an 1886 in 33 caliber. That lead me to a few more older Winchesters and getting my C&R FFL. I then ran into a gun dealer from Australia and started importing back to the US many old Winchesters in the late 80s and
90s when the aussie government started confiscating arms and destroying them. My source dried up when the Aussie Government raided my sources' business and destroyed several million dollars of his inventory (including old Winchesters and left him penniless (a long story).

Anyway, I really love my 1892's out of all that I have and am including a few more photos with this post. I did the design on my cabinets myself, based on trips to Cabellas although I had them professionally made.

 

[Magnum Wheel Man]

I have a 2nd room under construction yet, so mine get dusty ( but that's just an excuse to give them a rub down )... love your cabinets... is there useable storage under ??? I have all mine sorted by caliber, with the ammo under the guns in the storage benches, under each gun... still have to finish ( interiour ) of the 2nd room, to get the 2nd 1/2 of my guns out of locker storage & onto the walls...

I load for over 70 different calibers with the Contenders ( yep, got to get all of them up yet ) having the wide variety of guns, I'm not good at remembering the models, etc... also a couple years ago, I started collecting early cartridge pocket guns... ( yes, I had a Baby Kolb, but it did not function, & my local builder buddy wasn't interested in working on something so small, so I parted with that one... I find the early pocket guns quite interesting )

a couple more pics ( remember... still under construction )

the back room a couple weeks ago...

a couple double action revolvers ( modern )

my front room loading bench ( something about a flat surface in a construction area )

 

[tahunua001]

you guys and your fancy walk in arms exhibits....here all I want is a room that I can put both of my gun safes and a workbench so I can do whatever to them.

 

[Elker_43]

Where in Idaho?

tahunua001.....Where in Idaho are you from?

My guns and I lived out of a small 1/2 garage (with everything else)for about 7 years before we moved to Idaho 8 years ago. So I know what you mean about just finding room for a couple of safes and a bench.

I have several project guns I am working, all three being 1890's. One was hanging on a nail on a guys wall by his house and was the barrel only with a 1/2 receiver attached. It is a 22WRF. It was full of mud and the guy found it in a wall of a house he was tearing down in north Idaho.

I traded him a roll of double foil bubble insulation and have rescued it. Soaked it in diesel for a couple of weeks and although the carrier is broken, it can become functional. The bore is not too bad, but will need a bit of work. Only problem is that it will have non matching serial numbers once functional, but I really don't care as I have several non matching trigger assemblies. Oh well, only 22 weeks left here until we get back home.

 

[Elker_43]

Storage - Yes

Magnum
Yes there is great storage under the cabinets and that is where all the ammo and hunting gear/scopes/etc. is stored. There is also a drawer under each of the display cases where I keep the projects and parts.

Looks like a rather large room in your second set of pics and it will be a great addition.

My cabinets are alder wood and the color is the same as Cabellas display in Post Falls, ID.

 

[Magnum Wheel Man]

Feel your pain, but I'm sure your grand daughter appreciates it...

I have a buddy that builds relics... I have one... found in a river by Northfield MN ( rumor is, may have been in a cache of guns stashed by "them famous outlaws" )

the gun is a Martini single shot... the wood was rotted away, along with several of the small parts, but my buddy was able to make everything that was missing, picked up some old wood, & installed a new 50 caliber barrel... it's a little loose, but plenty strong for the old 50-70 cartridge it's chambered in... would be really cool if it could be tied back to the James Gang... I'm not holding my breath though...

I really like shooting the old single shots, got 2 Martinis, a couple Remington Rolling Blocks, & Navy Arms reproduction Rolling Block, & a couple old Stevens... Crack Shot & Favorite... those, ( because of most having long barrels ) will go on a vertical roll around rack in the back room...

 

[Magnum Wheel Man]

I spend alot of time in the gun library at Cabelas in Owatonna MN, so I thought the cabinets looked familiar

my panneling & storage cabinets are Hackberry... I wanted something light, with alot of figure, since the room could easily be dark as a cave...

 

[tahunua001]

Elker43,
I live in the Lewiston area. just big enough to act like a city but just small enough that the redneck genes haven't been completely bread out of us yet

I love the look of a glass case full of guns but I am also a bit of a worrywart so I would rather have all my guns locked away where fire and thieves can't touch them than in a place I can readily admire them...it's a vicous cycle, maybe someday someone will invent fireproof plexiglass but untill then I guess I'm stuck with a pair of ugly old safes.

 

[Magnum Wheel Man]

fire & a rash of rural thefts lately were my biggest fears... both rooms are fully theft & fire proof, in fact they are designed with the steel / concrete door opening in, so we can't be trapped in the room, if we needed to go there for a tornado, or if we were not able to get out of the house in case of fire... there are 4 inlet / exhaust fans that can provide fresh air if needed in the case of a house fire

 

[Elker_43]

Magnum,
The fire aspect is certainly one that I considered, however, the look of the showcase and the fact that the house is very new with some fire supression additions so I decided to not have everything stored away in safes whereas I could only dig through them to see them. Currently everything is in safes while I am not at home and I am not generally worried about fires or theft.

The security aspect is such that a complete crazy person would attempt to break in to my place, especially as it pertains to security systems and Idaho where most of the population (1.4 million residents in Idaho) are heavily armed. Besides automatic security gates, my hillside is a deterent to any thought of theft.

My Cabella copies are 1/2 the width of cabellas and each cabinet holds 15 rifles of any size including the small model 4 Remington 22's.

 

[Elker_43]

tahunua001,
I live near Coeur d Alene and just this last year sold a Colt Bisley in 38-40 to the guy that owns Lewis and Clark Traders and I believe he is from Lewiston.....I can't recall his name right now. Anyway he came up to my place as he wanted that Bisley. Had a nice time hosting he and his wife.

 

[jmr40]

Thanks for posting. Next time my wife looks at my 2 safes and wonders if I own too many guns I'll bring up this post.

Serioulsy, congratulations on a great and classy collection of fine old guns.

 

[tahunua001]

beautiful drive from Lewiston to Coeur d Alene, much more scenic than Lewiston to Spokane, I always make it a point to hit Cabelas in Post Falls whenever I go to Spokane just so that I have an excuse to drive the Idaho side back.

 

[mr.t7024]

I had to stop and put my tongue back in my mouth,what can I say but Impressive. I am at this point restoring a 62. I have all winchester 22's,67,60,55 and a 9422.Thanks for sharing,btw I am still drooling lol ! Cliff

 

[riche]

ELKER_43, you have a beautiful collection of Winchesters, I can see why you miss them, I noticed you have a few half magazine take downs with the barrel band, are those early 1894s. The reason I ask, I purchased one similar to those earlier this year, I always wanted a 32spc. So when I saw one similar to yours at a reasonable price, plus it was made in 1907, I jumped on it. However I've been told mine was put together by a gunsmith, so it has no collectors value.Also my barrel is half octagon/half round.

 

[Elker_43]

mr.t7024 and riche,

Thanks for the nice words about my collection. I spent about 20 years building it up and for the past 8 years it just sat in safes until I satisfied all of the honey-do's while building or retirement home....My gunroom came last!
Now I am stuck in California and the collection is back in the safes. I am in a countdown to getting back to Idaho and back into the collection full time.

I only have two 94's and both of them are imports back from Australia. They both are pre-1898 and I probably will move them in the future in order to buy more 92's (button mags of course). The takedowns that I have are 92's. One of them is a pristine 25-20 with a 1/2 oct/rd barrel with a 1/2 mag. It is my favorite and probably the most valuable out of the entire collection.

What I really love is my collection of 1890's and 1906's. I also have four project 1890's and 1906's. I have gathered many parts over the years and as most of us never have enough of anything.

What I also enjoy most about my collection and gun room is the (very) selective people that I show my collection to with the new cabinets and all. In all, with a year of having the collection on display, I have only allowed about a dozen and a half into the room and one teen ager. Not that I don't want to promote the Winchesters and the collection even with a super security system, I am just very close to the chest about who I want to have knowledge of the collection.

Once again, thanks for the thumbs up and "92's Forever".

 

[PatientWolf]

You have a beautiful collection. Since you are fortunate to have the opportunity and resources for such a collection, I think it's great you've been able to assemble and appreciate it. Sorry you have to be away from it, but you'll get the opportunity to get back. In the mean time, thanks for sharing.

 

[Elker_43]

Thanks

Hey PatientWolf.
Thanks.....Do you have any Winchesters? Which ones are your favorites?
Another favorite that I have is the model 63 which in my opinion is the best 22 semi-autos ever made. I have five of them and love to shoot (plink) at targets.

Collecting for me has been fun, however, it has taken a long time to accomplish. I worked exclusivly in the defense industry (private company, not Government) until retirement. All along while collecting, I worked to raise a family, put kids through college and just live within our means. We took vacations in a tent or small travel trailer and kept most of our vehicles for at least 10 years and never bought new vehicles. We also tried to live modestly while others were buying new and living beyond their means. Because of our modest life style we were able to accomplish many things and now retirement is golden.

I guess my thoughts on all of this is that accomplish what makles you happy and do it within the parameters of your means.

Lets talk Winchester's.