Winchester 1876 "Centennial Model" Sporting Rifle with special order features and Cody Firearms Museum letter. The Cody letter describes "Model 1876, serial number 14361" as: "Rifle, Casehardened, Barrel Shape: Octagon, Plain trigger, 1/2 magazine" and "Sling & Swivel". The letter further states that this rifle was received in the Winchester warehouse on June 2, 1881. The rifle has the Second Model receiver with screw-fastened dust cover guide and dust cover with serrated rear edges. The full-octagon barrel has a standard sporting style front sight with nickel-silver blade and folding leaf rear sight graduated to "10" and marked "1876" on the top of the leaf below the elevator bar screw. The crescent buttplate has a sliding brass trapdoor and the butt trap contains a four-piece, jointed, steel cleaning rod with brass tip. Sling swivels are mounted on the forearm tip and stock. The upper receiver tang is factory drilled and tapped. The barrel has a blue finish. The dust cover, bolt and loading gate are a fiery niter blue. The magazine tip, forearm cap, receiver, hammer, trigger, lever, and crescent buttplate are color casehardened with strong case colors. The stock and forearm are straight grain American walnut with a low-luster finish. The top barrel flat is roll-stamped with the two-line legend: "WINCHESTER'S-REPEATING ARMS. NEW HAVEN. CT./KING'S-IMPROVEMENT-PATENTED-MARCH. 29. 1866. OCTOBER 16. 1860." ahead of the rear sight. "CAL. 45-60" is stamped on the top barrel flat just ahead of the receiver. "MODEL 1876." is roll-stamped in fancy script on the upper receiver tang. "45-60" is stamped in script numerals across the brass cartridge elevator. The serial number is stamped in script numerals on the lower tang between the lever latch and rear tang screw.

Very fine. The barrel has 80% of the blue finish intact with scattered light pitting on the flats extending about four-inches from the muzzle. The legend and caliber markings are crisp. Nearly 95% of the nitre blue finish is present on the dust cover, loading gate, and bolt. The forearm cap, receiver, hammer, trigger, lever, and buttplate have vivid case colors. Finish wear is limited to some scattered and very light pitting located on the right side plate behind the loading gate, near the top of the left side plate and on the buttplate toe and heel. The upper left edge of the receiver has some scattered spots of age discoloration and the lower edges of the receiver show some handling wear. Due to the strong case colors, the small spots of pitting and age discoloration are barely noticeable. The stock and forearm are both in excellent condition and retain close to 95% of the original finish with a few very insignificant handling marks. This is an attractive looking example of a very desirable special order Winchester Model 1876 Lever Action Rifle with highly desirable casehardened receiver.