Anyone out there have a Buffalo Bill commemorative rifle?

I bought a barreled action at Dad's estate sale that's been laying in the buggy shed for years. $25! The block is frozen in the receiver. I have some questions. First off, is the caliber .38-55? My .30 brush is swimming in it, but the .38 seems a bit tight.

Anyone have some good pics of one? I need to know what all I'll need to make it right, again. Though rusty, the bore appears to be pretty much okay.

The only parts I have are the barrel, lever, action, and the aforementioned block. Front sight is still there, but might need refitting after all the rust is removed.

Looks like a good candidate for my first rebuild, since I really can't make it worse!

P.S.~If anyone has parts they'd like to donate, I'll sure take 'em. I spent $1500 at the auction, and restoring Dad's old saddle takes priority.

Buffalo Bill rifles are 30-30. I have one, but don't know if I can post a pic or not. Go to gunbroker. They have pics of several I would guess.

Yeah, I found those. Mine has the Black chrome polished off. It looks like nickel. I actually think it looks a lot better that the black. I need to get together with someone that has some idea in **** which parts I need to order.

This one will be nice to fix up, simply because I like fancy guns, but not so nice I can't grab 'em and head to the woods or horseback, regardless of weather.

I lost 14 commemoratives in 2000 when my house burned. Including a matched set of Canadian Centienials, and a John Wayne. I still haven't been able to replace them. That JW has gone up a bunch since I bought mine. The others can be had a bit more reasonable.

George, did you save the remains? A lot of the parts could be made serviceable, again, such as the action parts and screws. I need everything, so mag tube, rear sight, screws, etc. would ****ed sure be welcome.

I lost 14 commemoratives in 2000 when my house burned. Including a matched set of Canadian Centienials, and a John Wayne. I still haven't been able to replace them. That JW has gone up a bunch since I bought mine. The others can be had a bit more reasonable.
Ouch! Did you store your guns in a fire resistant safe? I have a pretty good safe (Heritage, Tradition series) and although it's rated for 75 minutes at 1200 degrees, I also know that there are some fires that burn hotter than that for longer, and the contents could be lost anyway.

Getting back to the Buffalo Bill Commemorative, my Dad had one and as someone else pointed out, it's in .30-30. Out of curiosity, how is it that this rifle got to be in it's current condition? Is it just the time spent uncared for that did it in?

I think that it could probably be brought around to being a respectable shooter again, but it sounds like it's going to take some work.

Good luck with it! :)

Yes, they were in a so called fire proof safe. Cost 3500 dollars. Lost everything in it including all guns, some jewelry, and 8000 dollars in cash. I sold all the remains of the rifles to an old buddy. He claimed he would send them back to Winchester to have the rebuilt, but I don't think he ever tried it. He was killed a couple years later, and I don't know what came of the guns. MY house was an old two story frame farm house, and it was quite a fire. The upstairs fell in on the downstairs, so it hard to say how hot it may have gotten. I collected a whopping 2000 dollars from my homeowners insurance policy for the guns. Probably had 15,000 in all of them. 14 Comm's 2 pre 64 70's, 4 Rem model 7's, 2 Colt 1911's, 2 Colt SAA's, and a few more. more.

I am still trying to gather some of them back up, but it ain't easy. I found a couple John Wayne Comm's, but they cost more than the 600 I gave for mine now days. The Canadians had never been out of the original box from Winchester or UPS when I bought them. I wanted to look at them, but the shop owner wouldn't let me open them until I bought them, so I paid him, and opened them up right on his counter. I thought he would pass out as he watched me. I know that most of the Comm's sre not worth a whole lot, but they sure were pretty to look at.