Dec 23, 2016 4 min read

One thing people who do not own firearms do not understand is that there are a variety of reasons for purchasing a rifle.

The ownership of a good rifle doesn’t begin, or for that matter necessarily end up with, a .30-06 in the closet. Yes, we do buy rifles to hunt with but we also buy them for investment or just to handle and look at them.

The reason for owning 20 rifles might fall into any of these reasons.

Is the spending of $900 for a single firearm justifiable?

Let’s just say I spent that much for a gun I liked and owned it for 10 years. Needing money, I sold it and uncommonly lost money. I had to let it leave my gun cabinet for $800.

The way I look at it, the gun cost me $10 per year and I had the joy of looking at it and wiping it off. One can hardly go out to eat for that much money.

Then there is the gun I bought for $600 and kept despite an offer of $1,200 that same day.

Of course, like any investment, the trick is picking the right firearm in which to invest. Among rifles, if I were to tie up my money in them, I would remember that the name Winchester works like magic.

In a certain style rifle. Remington might offer a better firearm but it is the Winchester that holds value. Not only is this true for the Model 70 Winchester but what about models like Winchester’s second-best seller the 1873?

They even made a movie about the model starring Jimmy Stewart.

Even more treasured among collectors is the 1886. Back in the day of the buffalo hunter, Winchester didn’t make a rifle strong enough to hold big rounds such as the .45-90 and the .45-70.

Meanwhile, the makers of the Sharpes rifle was turning out falling-block rifles that could handle any cartridge made.

This put Winchester at a disadvantage and through its relationship with John Moses Browning it came up with a lever-action rifle strong enough to handle the higher pressures of the buffalo gun.

This was the 1886, and a clean original will bring as much as five figures. Even the most popular sporting rifle of all time is becoming collectable but in most instances it is the rarer rifle that brings big bucks.

The fewer there are, the higher the price.

Not so with the 1894 lever-action carbine or rifle. There were more than 6 million made and yet an original one made before 1964 will bring a decent price.

That is what the Winchester name means. However, there is one Winchester that has never really caught on. That would be the predecessor to the Model 70 rifle.

In reality, this rifle, which was made from 1925 until 1936, became Winchester’s bolt-action rifle.

There is enough similarity in the 70 and 54 that many gun gurus consider the 70 nothing more than an improved 54.

For instance, the 54 had a stamped floorplate and trigger guard and lacked a floorplate that could be opened.

Back in those days, very few hunters used scope sights so the Model 54 was not factory drilled and taped for scope mounts.

There are two things about the Model 54 that jump out at me.

First, it was manufactured in .220 Swift, but only for one year. This was because the Swift came out during the last year of 54 production. The other thing is it was chambered in .30-.30.

This might be the only quality rifle so chambered.

It is awfully hard to get reliable feeding from the magazine using a rimmed cartridge. How Winchester overcame the handicap of that rim I don’t know.

I have seen but a few Model 54s but have an honest respect for this firearm, which incidentally was the rifle that was used to introduce one of the all-time great rounds, the .270. That in itself is enough.

George H. Block writes a Sunday Outdoors column for the Observer-Reporter.