The carbine has the very desirable color casehardened receiver with casehardened hammer, lever and carbine style buttplate. The 22-inch barrel, full length magazine, barrel bands and bolt have the Winchester blue finish. The loading gate is a fiery niter blue. The stock and forearm are straight grain American walnut with a varnish finish. The barrel has a nickel silver "Rocky Mountain" style front sight blade fitted in the steel block front sight base and a folding leaf, rear sight. The upper tang is factory drilled and tapped. The lower barrel band and stock are fitted with sling swivels for a narrow 3/4-inch sling. A staple mounted saddle ring is located on the left side of the receiver. The top of the barrel is roll-stamped with the two-line legend: "- MANUFACTURED BY THE-/- WINCHESTER REPEATING ARMS CO. NEW HAVEN. CONN. U.S.A. - " between the lower barrel band and the rear sight. The caliber designation: "45-70" is roll-stamped on the top of the barrel between the rear sight and the receiver. The upper receiver tang is roll-stamped: "-MODEL 1886-". The lower tang has the 1884 and 1885 patent dates roll-stamped behind the trigger and the serial number is stamped in script letters behind the rear tang screws. The accompanying factory letter lists this carbine in .45/70 caliber and fitted with a German silver knife blade front sight when it was shipped from the warehouse on December 24, 1896, along with an extra German silver blade sight (not included). The serial number was applied on November 25, 1896.

Very fine. The barrel, magazine, bolt and trigger retain at least 95% possibly factory refinished blue finish. Wear is limited to several minor scratches along the bottom of the magazine. The factory legend and caliber markings are sharp. The upper and lower barrel bands show high point wear and retain 85% of the blue finish. The loading gate has 90% of the fire blue finish. The receiver and hammer retain 75% plus of the original casehardened finish. Most of the finish wear is concentrated on the underside of the receiver where the case colors show light handling wear. The case colors on the sides of the lever are strong while the finish on the contact points on the bottom and inside of the lever has faded to a gray brown patina. The buttplate retains 80% of the case colors with strong colors on the heel. The bottom of the buttplate has faded to a mottled gray-brown patina with some scattered light pitting and spots of age discoloration. The straight grain walnut stock and forearm are in very good overall condition. The stock retains most of the original oil finish and the forearm shows light-moderate handling wear. The forearm has a professionally repaired crack in lower front, scattered minor dents and handling marks. The stock shows some handling wear on the right side of the wrist with a few very minor handling marks in other areas. Winchester Model 1886 Saddle Ring Carbines were made in relatively limited numbers. Carbines were purchased as "working" firearms. As a result, Model 1886 carbines typically saw hard use and are very difficult to find with any amount of original finish. This is a very fine representative example of a Winchester Model 1886 Saddle Ring carbine.