Winchester 1873

All my gun cleaning with BP is done with hot, hot, hot soap and water and patches. Then swap the barrel dry and run a patch of bore butter. Cleans up really well. Haven't had a bit of problem with fouling or rust so far in about 15 years.

Whale oil is best but ummm, its kinda frowned on these days. I used the hot soap and water , thought it was good till I bought soem TC contendor bore cleaner. Works great. Also balitol (sp) oil is great also, specially for cap and ball revolvers.

I have used the tc bore cleaner and it worked well I just haven't replaced it since I used it up and haven't really missed it. I've heard good things about ballistol but haven't given that a shot yet.

Hmmm....we have a problem here. I was at a gun show today and came across some original cleaning rods for an Winchester 1873 carbine so I bought them to complete my Winchester. Well, I came home and put them in the buttstock and they didn't fit. I measured the rifle and it is the right length, measured the rods and they were the right length. Is the stock on this rifle fake? I'm a little sick over this.

The rifle I measured is 38" which I'm pretty sure is right for a carbine and the rods are 7".

Well, I figured it out! I took my Winchester to have it looked at and the stock is off a Winchester 1866! It's interesting though because the gut that looked at it said it looks like it was put on the rifle a long time ago, like back in the 1800's. Pretty interesting.

I wonder how much over lap these 2 guns had? I know with the Winchester 1897 that the early ones over lapped the Winchester 1893 I think it was? Anyway. Some of the serial numbers over lapped and I would bet even some of the parts. If so that stock could have been put on in the factory.

Have you tried calling Winchester? They have historians on staff and will answer any questions they can you may have.