whats this rifle worth ?

i have a 1894 32-40 26 in barrel half octagon in nice shape. ser#124xxx. also should i fire it? also just found out what i thought was paint on the front sight is actually ivory does this change the value?

unclebob1956 wrote:

i have a 1894 32-40 26 in barrel half octagon in nice shape. ser#124xxx. also should i fire it?

hello unclebob,,your winchester was made in 1898 and ther were 2 model available basically that your can fall into,,the first was a standard sporting rifle ,,this will have plain uncheckered straight gripped stocks and values for this model in nice condition would range from 1500-3000,,then there was a Fancy sporting rifle,,which will have checkered stocks and a pistol grip buttstock this model can range from 2000-possibly over 10000 and i'd recommend either version you have you get a hands on apraisal from an antique gun dealer for insurance value,,as for shooting it.. thats up to you ,,in good mechanical condition why not if your planning on keeping it?,,if your looking to sell it then i'd say no!if as clean as you say it is it may not have been fired much anyway.. so why shoot it? and take the chanch of possibly breaking something like an extractor or other minor part that could be expencive to replace properly,,but again ..it's your rifle if you want to try it out go for it..
bigcurt

bigcurt you made my day thank you very much.i have a question i forgot to ask ,why is the barrel half octagon, was it made special?

thats just one of the options that was offered in barrel contour,,there was round or octagon or half and half,,
bigcurt