This is a very unusual factory original Winchester Model 1894 Deluxe Special Order rifle with Winchester Cody Firearms Museum letter. This scarce variation was a special custom order in rare caliber of .25-35 with a full octagon barrel, half magazine and pistol grip stock with checkering on the pistol grip and forend. The serial number is 285370 indicating a manufacture date of 1905. Interestingly, when a half-magazine was special ordered from Winchester, it was standard to provide a round or half-octagon barrel. A full octagon barrel with half-magazine would have been two special order features and is rarely encountered. This rifle was obviously someone's pride and joy hunting rifle that was used for a number of years. Although the checkering is worn, the stock and forend are solid and show very tight wood to metal fit. The walnut stock and forend are the nicely reddish-brown hallmark Winchester’s walnut color and are correctly fitted with early style sling-eye swivel studs. The receiver shows an attractive thinning blue patina with excellent screw heads, indicating that this rifle has not been dismantled or internally repaired. Additionally, the action is still very tight with strong springs and strong safety half-cock on the hammer. The 26” octagon barrel retains fine lightly aged blue and is fitted with a buckhorn rear sight with elevator bar intact along with a small blade front sight. All markings are correctly stamped including the “MODEL 1894, WINCHESTER, TRADEMARK” on the upper tang and the typical standard Winchester address, caliber, and patent dates. On the barrel. The action is tight, and the bore shows fine deep rifling throughout. Accompanying this fine and rare Model 1894 is a Cody Firearms Museum “call-in” sheet identifying this rifle by exact serial number. It reveals the information gleaned from the original Winchester manufacturing and shipping records pertaining to this rifle with serial number 285370. According to the records, this serial number was applied on November 8, 1905, and is listed as: Rifle, .25-35 caliber, octagon barrel, plain trigger, plain pistol grip stock, checkered, Lyman sights, ½ magazine, received in the warehouse on October 27, 1906 and shipped from the warehouse on December 26, 1906. This information leaves no doubt to the authenticity of this rifle and proves it left the factory over 115 years ago with these unusual, non-standard special deluxe features. To understand the rarity of this rifle in a number of respects, according to The Winchester Handbook, by George Madis, by 1941 Winchester had produced 857,613 1894s in .30 W.C.F. (.30-30) caliber; 101,423 in .32 Win. Special caliber and only 16,581 in .25-35 caliber. Further, only 2,983 were made with pistol grip stocks, 1,879 had checkering and 2,671 had shorter than standard magazines. Taken together and considering caliber plus special options, this is an extremely rare Model 1894 that may possibly be a unique example, especially because the full octagon barrel and half magazine is seldom encountered by itself. The Model 1894 was a popular rifle with lawmen, sportsmen and especially with the Klondike Gold Seekers in Alaska beginning in 1898. Many consider this Jonathan Browning designed rifle to be the finest and most modern tubular magazine lever action rifle Winchester ever produced. A rare opportunity to acquire a classic, early production and historically significant Winchester with very fine appearance and supremely rare features. The rifle has a serial number of 285370 and was manufactured in 1905. The firearm qualifies as a Curio & Relic firearm and requires an FFL Transfer or Curio & Relic Transfer.