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The Wood Looks Pretty Good? Might Be Sad News for Value.
Photo 27 Left side of stock. The reason the wood looks pretty good is that it has been sanded and refinished. Bad news for value. Almost terminal. You can tell by the poor fit of the metal butt plate to the wood. There is a gap at the upper inside curve and the wood is short of the end of the plate at the bottom.
Photo 39 Right side of stock. Same problem with the inside upper curve. In addition, the wood is sanded lower than the metal at the upper end of the steel butt plate. The wood should actually be just a bit higher than the metal edge.
Look for Wood Replacements
Photo 30 Left side of fore end. Obvious wood replacement at left upper corner. Rear sight elevator is not original. That is the vertical triangular metal piece on the sight.
Look for Other Non Original Parts
Photo 29 Left side of receiver. Upper screw is not original. End of stock wood fits poorly at metal. And as you mentioned it is missing the dust cover.
Photo 59 Bottom of lever and stock. You can see just how poorly the wood fit to the receiver is on the upper side.
Look for Re-Bluing Jobs
Photo 31 Left side of barrel. From this photo and others of the metal it is obvious that the rifle has had a poor re-bluing job sometime long ago. The high edges of the octagon barrel are almost the same color as the flats and they should show much more wear on them. In addition, the lever is blued. They were originally case colored and should be much more grey than they are. One other problem is that Winchester receivers almost always have less blue on them than the barrels. On this rifle the receiver has the same coverage as the barrel. A sure sign of something not original.
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