Winchester 94 AE First Swiss-American Commemorative

M

MarcoG

Inactive
Hello everybody

I've stumbled upon this gem and for the life of me I can't find any information as to how many of these exist, how well built they are, what defines the edition (I've found a deluxe version mentioned but don't know what is supposed to set it apart).

Does anyone here have some insight he or she would like to share?

This is the sitelink to the store: http://www.waffenboerse.ch/winchester-94-ae-trapper-first-swiss-american-44-mag.html


Regards,

Marco
 
Just remember commemoratives don't sell as good as people think. So even though there might be a high asking price getting that price may be impossible.
 
Very rare, apparently, that any of the comems will bring the original sales price. A few, but darned few. Safest on your billfold to treat them as just a generic lever action.
 
Thank you for your replies.

As someone who has leo as a birthsign, loves Lucerne and is very fed up with waiting for a Marlin lever action (at 'only' 300 Swiss Francs less) to ever arrive in Switzerland, the collectability and resale price isn't all that important to me.

This gun has never been fired and even though I realize that a collector's heart will bleed, I plan to correct that oversight. This gun is going to be a tenth anniversary present for my wife. As such, shooting it will probably halve the resale price anyway.

So from what I gather, seeing how expensive Winchesters are in Switzerland, I expect I'm not being ripped off at that particular price, which is all that really matters, aside from whether it has any bad flaws.

As to the year, I'm a bit confused. The seller lists the year of production as 1981 which would correspond with the John Wayne Duke. I have also seen gun sellers offer a Swiss-American produced in the 90's. So that would explain why this seller listed it as FIRST Swiss-American. However, while this gun shares some designs on the stock, the lever of the Duke is completely different. Eh, again, not the most important question for me. As long as this gun is as reliable as I would expect a gun at this price to be, I'm happy.

Anyhow, I expect just about any gun from the 80's to have a lower chance of being rubbish than one from the 90's... call me cynical, but didn't Marlin's troubles start somewhere in the 90's?

Edit: I think I solved the question of when this was produced. It has a cross-bolt safety. As they were introduced in '92, this being a 1981 model is just impossible.
 
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Looked at the photos on your link.
That carbine is an eye catcher all right.

Not sure what a castle on a lake has to do with John Wayne.
He did make a movie - Hatari - that had lions in it though.

I would take along some dummy rounds to check the cycling of the action.
The straight 94 Winchesters in .44 had some feed issues, I'm not up on the AE version, so checking it first makes sense to me.

Commemoratives usually only hold their value to folks with an attachment to the celebrated event.
Most view them as dolled up shooters.

All my Marlins date from 1979 (.357 carbine) or earlier.
No lemons in the bunch.
Being in Europe, it's a good idea to steer clear of the troublesome years at Marlin with the sale and transition to Remlin.
Sending one back to the factory here in the States can get spendy.

Sound thinking to get a gun for the anniversary. A present you can enjoy and remember together.
You must have a keeper there:)!!

JT
 
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