Offered for sale is an extremely rare and unusual Winchester 1894 rifle in scarce and desirable .25-35 caliber, serial number 1074014, made in 1931. What makes this rifle so unusual is that it is one of the last full length 26” barrel rifles to be produced. During this time, Winchester had discontinued the rifle variation of the famed Model 1894, but continued production with the popular M-1894 20” carbine. During the end of rifle production, it is known that Winchester turned out some very unusual variations because the company wanted to use up their existing stock of rifle barrels in all configurations and calibers. Some very odd rifles were produced during this time! This rifle is one such example. Somewhere in the factory Winchester must have had a leftover 26” extra lightweight, half-octagon barrel in the rare .25-35 caliber that was still in stock. These barrels were the lightest weight Winchester ever turned out and used only on special orders. Since they tapered rapidly toward the muzzle, most of the extra light barrels were 22” in length. A full length 26” rifle barrel of the extra lightweight is considerably rarer than the still rare 22” version! Further, most extra lightweight barrels were full round. The popularity of any length extra lightweight barrel rifle was limited, and specimens today are seldom seen. Additionally, the standard caliber for all rifles was .30 WCF (.30 Winchester Center Fire or .30-30) and an extra lightweight, half octagon in 25-35 caliber is nearly unknown. At the muzzle, this barrel measures only slightly over ½” in diameter. By comparison, the magazine tube actually has a larger diameter than the barrel! For this reason, collectors often call these thin barrels “Pencil Barrels.” According to the very detailed and exhaustive book on the Winchester Model 1894 by Robert Renneberg, “Rifles become increasingly scarce after serials around 1,000,000.” This would indicate a date of 1927. It is further stated, “Rifles phased out at approximately 1,070,000.” Again, this would indicate a manufacture date of 1930. With the Great Depression just beginning and sales of all Winchester models declining rapidly, Winchester was scrambling to use up old barrels that were on hand before spending resource money on producing new ones. According to production figures, for the year 1931 Winchester produced a total of only 2,400 Model 1894s. By 1934 this production number fell to 1,192. By comparison, before the stock market crash of 1929 and the start of the Great Depression, in 1927 when Winchester was phasing out the 1894 rifle in favor of the carbine version, Winchester produced 29,967 Model 1894s! This example has the standard rifle or curved “crescent” butt plate used only on rifles that were being phased out, not on carbines. It also has a special half-magazine that extends to the end of the octagon part of the barrel or approximately 2 3/8 inches past the steel forend cap. The receiver blue has mostly flaked to silver/gray which is typical of Model 1894s of this vintage because the receiver case hardening and bluing process had changed from previous applications leaving the metal surfaces prone to quickly losing or “flaking” the blue finish. There is fine blue on the loading gate, lower tang, on the bolt and on the upper tang around the hammer. The screw heads are generally excellent, and the barrel retains the late style Marbles flat top buckhorn rear sight with elevator bar intact along with a small blade front sight. All markings on the upper tang are excellent as are the Winchester address, patent dates, “NICKEL STEEL BARREL ESPECIALY FOR SMOKELESS POWDER” and caliber designation on the left flat of the octagon portion of the barrel. The barrel retains a fine deep blue appearance and the bore shows fine deep rifling throughout. In all, an exceedingly rare and unusual “final production/parts clean-up” Model 1894 rifle. Very few rifles in this unusual configuration and rare caliber can exist today. This example would be a good fit for the most advanced Winchester collection. This firearm qualifies as a Curio & Relic, and requires FFL Transfer or NICS Background Check.