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Has any member experience with Winchester (Cody Firearms Museum?) letter.
A friend as picked up a very early 1894 (serial number 694)32-40 rifle and is toying with obtaining a factory letter to help when he goes to sell it.
I have never done this and would be interested in finding out from someone who did if it was worth it and how to go about it.
many thanks and my appolgies for a non double question
Dave K

never got one from winchester but did get several from colt. i only see 2 benefits to a factory letter: if the gun in question is a high end $$ item and there is or even could be the slightest doubt as to its originality or if there were some significant historical provenance such as famous former owner. if it's just a run of the mill factory gun and has never been altered i seriously doubt you'd even recover the cost of the letter. don't know what their's are; the last colt i got was $60 but has been a while and i think has gone up. i believe winchester used to be a little cheaper.

roger

The Cody website is pretty specific about which models and which serial number ranges of specific models are available for research. Access this information before requesting a letter on a gun with no available records. I would certainly request a letter on a three digit 1894 if information is available.

Just to add a bit to what fnb25 posted above:
I just got a factory letter from Colt verifying that the otherwise ordinary Colt Police Positive Special which I own circa 1915 which is marked W F & Co on the butt is in fact a pistol that was shipped to Wells Fargo. In this case it made very good economic sense to get the factory letter.
I have also obtained factory letters on my high end shotguns to verify original condition. This IMO will be handy when the time comes to sell.
My practice is that if the firearm is high end or has some extra feature such as engraving I'll get a factory letter.
Jim

Dave K, I did get a letter from Cody on my Win.1894 Sn 177x many years ago. It show the configuration, like barrel type,lenght, caliber, date it was shipped.
It is nice to have it.
Casey

ok, his question specifically said "... to help when he goes to sell it." and carefully reading my original post i noted "... some significant historical provenance....". the WR gun in question obviously fit that criteria so you had good reason to want one. had your colt not been so marked you'd have had no reason to expect the letter to show anything out of the ordinary. it MIGHT have anyway but that'd have been a gamble. and likewise i also specifically said "...if the gun in question is a high end $$ item..." it's worth it.

so far no one has disagreed with anything i wrote, just what they percieved i wrote. and i'll stick by what i said, if the gun is a common standard in all respects run of the mill factory gun that is unaltered all the factory letter is gonna show is "winchester 1894 made in 1894 chambered for 32-40 with round barrel (or whatever) and shipped to such and such jobber in chicago (for e.g.)" and that's about it. it's nice info but other than the exact shipping date and destination - UNLESS SOMETHING UNUSUAL TURNS UP

ok, his question specifically said "... to help when he goes to sell it." and carefully reading my original post i noted "... some significant historical provenance....". the W F & co gun in question obviously fit that criteria so you had good reason to want one. had your colt not been so marked you'd have had no reason to expect the letter to show anything out of the ordinary. it MIGHT have anyway but that'd have been a gamble. and likewise i also specifically said "...if the gun in question is a high end $$ item..." it's worth it.

so far no one has disagreed with anything i wrote, just what they percieved i wrote. and i'll stick by what i said, if the gun is a common standard in all respects run of the mill factory gun that is unaltered all the factory letter is gonna show is "winchester 1894 made in 1894 chambered for 32-40 with round barrel (or whatever) and shipped to such and such jobber in chicago (for e.g.) on such and such date" and that's about it. it's nice info but other than the exact shipping date and destination - UNLESS SOMETHING UNUSUAL TURNS UP as i noted in my first post - that letter isn't going to show anything that one can't tell from holding the gun in his hands and looking up the year of mfg of the serial #. is nice to have, is very neat, is very cool but if that gun is laying on a table next to #695 which is an identical configured rifle in same caliber and exactly equivalent condition and neither have particular historical provenance nor special order features the one having the letter isn't necessarily going to fetch a whopping big price difference and you'll be lucky to net the cost of the letter out of it over what the one w/o the letter will sell for.

Thanks all for the input and help.
He has now joined the Cody Museum and that allows for 40 searches.The one turned up a shipping number and date 1/26/1895, caliber 32-40.Evidently this may well be one of the earliest or perhaps the earliest,32-40 shipped as most where 38-55 when production started
here is a link to the gun,hopefully the letter will also confirm the sights. 1894 -694

With an original Winchester lever gun or single shot, the letter always adds to the value because without the letter, the buyer has no idea if the gun was manufactured in the configuration or caliber in which it is offered. Provenance to a particular buyer is just an additional bonus, not the only feature that adds value.

Dave K,My Winchester is 38-55 and was shipped a week later on Feb. 2nd 1895. Do not have a destination only order No.
I wished I could find out how it got to Colorado.
It was sold with a Colt 1878 DA in 44-40.
This Colt DA Is very unusual it have 5 1/2" barrel
and no ejector.
Casey