Wow! That's a good looking rifle, and take down!!! Definitely more a looker than the Miroku Browning. Thanks for the info on the M-B edition. I believe it is called the "carbine" despite the 24" barrel because the originals had 28" barrels.
I dithered over the years whether to get the 30-06 or 30-40 but I have a thing for the 30-40, so glad I finally landed one.
Thanks for the compliment.
I should have explained my rifle/carbine statement a bit better. Obviously you had done your homework on an original New Haven made M1895. The stock rifle was in fact offered with a 28 inch barrel as standard. However, their stock carbine only had a 22 inch barrel and a totally different stock configuration. Of course one could still special order stuff around this time, but with the take over by Olin after Winchester's bankruptcy in 1930, special orders were going to eventually come to an end.
Here is a scan from a 1932 catalog to illustrate the difference. The term carbine generally just means a shortened rifle. However, Winchester carbines had their own set of specific stocks, butt plates, barrel/magazine attachments, sling rings, and even special front/rear sights that only their stock carbines used.
Note in the picture that the M1895 carbine has a specific shaped carbine stock and carbine butt plate along with the forearm being held on with a barrel band. The carbine also includes a military style top forearm with a carved out space for a carbine style ladder rear sight. All of their carbines used to come with ladder sights instead of the semi-buckhorn's, but the model 94 stopped in the mid 30's and the model 92 and 95 were discontinued by the start of WWII.
I'm guessing that when Browning/Miroku released their 1895's, they decided to go with a more practical 24 inch barrel length with a shotgun style butt plate. They reference it in the Blue Book simply as a rifle,
Winchester/Miroku did a limited edition run of the old carbine style in 2006 commemorating the 100 year anniversary of the 30-06 cartridge. Here's shot of one I found on the net.
I'd love to find one of the original style carbines at a decent price and in 30/40 gov. However, the market's idea of a decent price and mine are two completely different things.
Cheers
P.S. I went back and checked my 1916 catalog and they offered 3 additional stock models of the Model 1895.
They offered what they termed the sporting rifle in two barrel lengths--24 inch and 28 inch--both with a crescent butt plate.
Then they had a "Fancy" sporting rifle with a 28 inch barrel with checkered stocks and a shotgun buttplate
Next they had a full stocked musket military version that they called the NRA rifle that offered several style of military sights for military type competition. It only had a 24 inch barrel
Lastly was the carbine with the 22 inch barrel.
I'm assuming that by 1932 sales had declined enough that they had simply dropped back to only two stock models.
