Well, there is no IT, to start with. There are several different makers of Winchester 1885 Single Shot copies (The company didn't call them "highwalls" or lowwalls".) and there are some differences. Depends on what you want to do and how you want to go about it.
How much are you willing to spend?
List prices start around $1000 for the Uberti repro from Italy. Cimarron and Navy Arms are only importers of Ubert, not separate brands.
Pedersoli uses Uberti actions but installs their own barrels, stocks, and single set triggers. They are proud of that stuff, $1700.
C. Sharps gets you an American made rifle, starting at $1700 but with a lot of options available. Rifles in stock start around $2000 and go up fast.
Ballard Rifle Co. makes 1885s as well as 1875 Ballards, starting at $3300
Meacham Tool & Die makes only 1885s and their silhouette model is $5000. A sporting rifle would likely be less but not much less.
Sound like a lot? There is a new kid on the block. American Gun, LLC is starting up on receiver castings from Shiloh and barrels from their parent company, McGowen. A plain complete rifle is $1550. Prices will surely go up as they find out how much trouble it is to make a Winchester.
The above are all fairly faithful copies of real Winchester 1885s. Ballard will even sell parts for use on original.
In 1973 Browning had Miroku in Japan tool up for a single shot rifle they called the Model B-78 from the original John Browning patent of 1878. It LOOKS like a Winchester, it OPERATES like a Winchester (except for the spring ejector and cute little deflector to keep it from throwing empties in your face), but it is NOT MADE like a Winchester. Internals are all different and non-interchangeable. In 1985 they redesigned it a bit and called it the Model 1885 after the year Winchester got the rifle in production after buying the patent rights from Mr Browning.
These were all modern rifles even though falling block single shots. They had ejectors, scope mounts, and enough strength for magnum rifle rounds. Want to plink at 300 yards with a .30-06 or 7mm Magnum, these are your rifles. Out of production but available on the second hand market.
In 1996 they saw how period styled Sharps, etc. were selling and "de-modernized" the Browning 1885 for BPCR (Black Powder Cartridge Rifle) shooting. Left off the ejector, added a long enough tang for vernier peep sights, and installed an American made Badger barrel in .40-65, .45-70, and .45-90.
Shortly after, they introduced the Traditional Hunter with a tapered Miroku barrel and Marble's sporting tang sight in calibers .38-55 and .45-70.
The BPCR market is kind of small for a big company like FN/Browning and the single shots phased out of production. I just last month got a chance to buy a .40-65 and snapped it up because I wanted more punch on the metallic silhouette rams (46 lbs, 500 metres) than my old Winchester 38-55.
Recently they decided they might want to keep a little in the single shot and BPCR market and brought back some of the models with Winchester trademarks. The same FN conglomerate owns it all, so the guns are the same, just a different name on the barrel and box. The main distributor is Davidsons with list prices from $1500 to $2600.
There is a second hand trade in these guns and you might get lucky like a guy on the SASS Wire who got a nice .45-90 Browning Creedmoor, 312 made, for $1480 from an estate sale. About a $2500 rifle at auction, more if you saw one in a store where they knew what they had.
Which of the many variations you go for depends on what you want to do with it and how you want to go about it.
Shoot at 300 yards, great. Slay critters like Cottonmouth, sure, the design has worked fine for 130 years and it isn't going to quit working as it gets older.
Do you want a period caliber or modern?
As said, you can find Brownings in several different high velocity calibers, hard to beat a .30-06 and a friend of mine has a B78 in 6mm Remington. Even the Ubertis are available in .30-40 Krag which will do very well with a strong action and a long barrel.
If you want to go with big slow lead bullets and black or light smokeless, everybody makes .45-70s. If you want less kick, there is a good selection of .38-55s and the current crop of Winchesters includes .32-40. I found a second hand .40-65.
If you want more range, there are some .45-90s, especially in the Winchester Creedmoor model. While Teddy Roosevelt liked a .405 Winchester 1895 as "Lion Medicine" if you load it with lead it is pretty much a .40-72 Winchester and not far off a .40-70 Sharps Straight.
I see no sense in the .45 x 3 1/4" (.45-120) and cannot see why Winchester is wasting actions on .50-90s. But those may appeal to manly men.
Yes, Winchester is still making them and they are beautiful guns. The Browning BPCR with the Badger Barrel is also beautiful and seems to be the Gold Standard when it comes to BPCR shooting in caliber like 40-65 etc. I have wanted one for a long time. I don't particularly care for them in the new calibers like you have mentioned (Cowboy at heart and on the weekends
