What is this lever gun?

3Crows

3Crows

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I snapped this photo in a restaurant in Sabinal, Tx. The photo was taken (or presented) circa 1994 I think and is of a well known in the area Texas Ranger upon retirement. Even though the photo is hung in a public place I did not feel right about posting the whole photo.

The rifle is a Winchester 1892 (type?) I think but the rifle appears to be stainless steel and the front sight and the butt stock and plate do not look right. The butt stock plate is flat for one thing and does appear to be steel. I am almost of a mind this is an early stainless Puma Model 92. Since Rossi brought the 1892 back in or about the mid 70s it could be a Puma or it could be that the black and white photo just displays the worn and polished blue as silver.

 
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The front sight is likely custom. If that is custom then the butt plate is too.

If a gun has a few custom features it may have a few more to include a refinish in hard chrome.

However, light can be deceiving. I have seen good color pictures of blued guns which appeared stainless.
 
If you look at the front sight blade it appears much darker than the ramp, barrel and receiver. It sure looks stainless or nickel plated to me.
At first I thought the gun looked like a Marlin 1894 to me. But the rise of the front of the receiver indicates a Winchester 92 or 94, but there are no visible screws in the receiver forward of his hand. The way he’s holding it there should be 2 screw heads showing possibly 3.
 
Okay, I am clueless evidently. I did not immediately recognize the name. Once Googled I discover the gent is well known, even did some acting and owned a huge collection of his favorite rifle, one for every year of production, Model 94 Winchester. That rifle is just likely a blued and worn rifle that has been loved all the way down to bare metal. The butt stock and plate still seem odd and so do the sights. But, perhaps he did have a chrome plated and custom rifle among his collection, custom fitted or several such. It is a Model 1894 Winchester.
 
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A lot of time bluing can look like this with old black and white pictures and movies, look up old military pictures and they have that shine sometimes. The rear sight looks like a marbles think I have the same one somewhere.
 
Probably a 14” 1894 Trapper with added sights and a “shotgun buttstock” rather than the standard or crescent options.

100+ years ago there were lots of options one could order from Winchester.

Stay safe.
 
That is Joaquin Johnson and he was a Texas Ranger. The picture was used in his biography, One Ranger. He provides a detailed description of his lever action in the book. I will look it up tomorrow and provide the details if someone doesn't beat me to the punch. It was a custom build to his specifications.

It is a great book by the way.

D9BD80C7DF119A7F2C2B5D38A2CFA6BE4D41F0B5.jpeg

ETA...Jeff Bridges used Ranger Johnson as the basis for his character in Hell or High Water.
 
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Comment #8 hit thr nail on the head. That is modified or ordered different. Any way been fun thinking about it
 
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According to the book it was a 1957 mfg. Winchester 1894 in .30/30. He took it to a gunsmith, Lem Sinclair in Utopia TX, and had the barrel cut to 16 1/4 inches and brushed hard chromed. His preferred load was 150 Winchester Silver Tips and he always kept a few hundred rounds in his vehicle with the loaded rifle in a scabbard on the floorboard.
 
ECVMatt said:
According to the book it was a 1957 mfg. Winchester 1894 in .30/30. He took it to a gunsmith, Lem Sinclair in Utopia TX, and had the barrel cut to 16 1/4 inches and brushed hard chromed. His preferred load was 150 Winchester Silver Tips and he always kept a few hundred rounds in his vehicle with the loaded rifle in a scabbard on the floorboard.
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Somebody might think I'm fibbing but last night when I first read the thread, that was going to be my guess. It looks like the standard 94 carbine front sight, just remounted on a shortened barrel. The even luster on the barrel and mag tube definitely make it look like it has a "white" finish on it like hard chrome or nickel and not just worn off.
 
I saved and cropped the picture @3Crows posted and if you look close you will see little dark smudges where screws should be. So, I was wrong. There are screws. They are hard to see and the original photo was probably grainy this washing out details.
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For some reason I cannot post it as I see it on my phone. Weird.
 
The reason I did not post the entire photo is that it had some personal details, sentiments and autograph and as well I did not realize exactly that he was such a public figure.

The rifle caught my eye because it was clearly a short barrel, the shotgun style flat buttplate, the sights and the finsih just did not square with my (limited) knowledge of Winchester rifles. It is interesting that we often have threads concerning modifications to rifles and should I or should not I. Then here is a fellow who used his weapons to protect himself and others and the rifle is clearly modified.

I am more knowledgeable for Marlin rifle models but Winchester not so much so it caught my curiosity. Did Winchester ever produce chrome nickel plated short barrel 1892/1894 rifles? Matt gave us the answer regarding this particular rifle, it was modified, cut and plated. I assume he went to the flat steel butt plate to speed up shouldering, interesting that it still appears to be a steel plate, no pad.

A couple more full of lever guns:



 
earlthegoat2 said:
The front sight is likely custom. If that is custom then the butt plate is too.

If a gun has a few custom features it may have a few more to include a refinish in hard chrome.

However, light can be deceiving. I have seen good color pictures of blued guns which appeared stainless.
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It's a Williams front sight, and a flat shotgun type buttplate, which was used on early 92s and 94s.
 
entropy said:
It's a Williams front sight, and a flat shotgun type buttplate, which was used on early 92s and 94s.
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Here is the cover of another book he wrote and the rifle is likely the same.

Note how even with this better quality color photo, it still seems as if the rifle is stainless or silver color coated in some way.

BTW, Joaquin Jackson passed back in 2016.

IMG_3679.jpeg
 
Matt, post number 11, states the rifle was per his info chrome plated. Which makes sense for a weapon tossed in the floor of a vehicle in a leather scabbard and seeing use in a rough life. I guess even a Texas Ranger got tired of gun maintenance and just had the dang thing plated ;). His 1911 appears to be still in blue.
 
3Crows said:
I am more knowledgeable for Marlin rifle models but Winchester not so much so it caught my curiosity. Did Winchester ever produce chrome nickel plated short barrel 1892/1894 rifles? Matt gave us the answer regarding this particular rifle, it was modified, cut and plated. I assume he went to the flat steel butt plate to speed up shouldering, interesting that it still appears to be a steel plate, no pad.
Click to expand...

The rifle would've come with a steel buttplate.

1712678347238.jpeg
 
I have a '94 saddle ring carbine that is 105 years old. It has the crescent steel butt plate and is not a joy to shoot even in winter where your clothing gives some padding. It's shiny as I removed what little bluing remained when it was given to me.

Thanks for the post though. I'm always interested in Texas history as I am one even if I live just across the line in NM now.
 
There is a chapter in the book called, Things I Carried, it goes into detail about what he carried both on him and in his car or truck. Amongst other things he carry a light weight Commander in a custom leather holster made off the Brill pattern on a daily basis, a second Govt. model in the car, many 1911 magazines and more ammo in the trunk. Additionally, he kept and M2 Carbine and an AR-18 handy as well as a Model 29 for when he was on horseback. For all of these, he also kept more ammo in magazines and boxes in the trunk. For shotguns, he liked the Remington 1100, and yes you guessed right, more ammo in the trunk. There were some other guns he carried, but those were the ones he seem to like the best.

All this might seem a bit overboard if you have never been to rural Texas. When the nearest Walmart is a couple of hours away, the last thing you want to do is run out of ammo.

I would have loved to look in that trunk, it had to be quite a sight.
 
ECVMatt said:
All this might seem a bit overboard if you have never been to rural Texas. When the nearest Walmart is a couple of hours away, the last thing you want to do is run out of ammo.
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And the nearest backup further away. West Texas is a vast and empty area. A lawman patrolling such an area needs to be prepared.

And traveling though or in and about West Texas, I carry extra ammo because cell service is even further away sometimes and in the extremely unlikely event bad hombres were to set upon me, I can only count on me and what I have with me.
 
3Crows said:
And the nearest backup further away. West Texas is a vast and empty area. A lawman patrolling such an area needs to be prepared.

And traveling though or in and about West Texas, I carry extra ammo because cell service is even further away sometimes and in the extremely unlikely event bad hombres were to set upon me, I can only count on me and what I have with me.
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Agreed!

A lot has changed since I lived there in the late 80's, but back then the nearest Walmart really was an hour and half away. I can tell you that we double and tripled checked our shopping list because if we forgot the milk, we weren't having it for week or so. We were usually driving an unregistered truck running on farm diesel so we tried to minimize time on the road anyways. Those were great times!

All that said, I agree that a lawman should be ready for an extend stay and prepared for what troubles might come. They would have to be ready to solve problems by themselves by whatever means were available. I bet he was not the only one with a trunk full of fun.
 
People that have never been to West Texas, southern NM, and Arizona have no idea of just how far it can be between towns and many of those are so small there is no Walmart or much of anything else to be found. My "local" one is only 20 miles away but it's 40 or more miles for people that live at the ends of the county. Next closest is over 65 miles so yes, we check our lists carefully. Eddy County to the west has two and then it's a fer piece on west to another.
 
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