My father recently gave me an 1896 40-65 Winchester lever action. This rifle has sentimental value, and I would like to reline the barrel. Does anyone have experience in relining a rifle like this? Any advice or recommendations on who to contact in the Utah area would be greatly appreciated. thnx

Would that be an 1886 model?

Or alternately an '86 Winchester? Why do you want to reline the barrel? Unless the bore is gone, or the gun has already been altered in other ways, you would be better off leaving it as is, as .40-65 is popular with the BPCR crowd, and thus available. An alternate to lining would be to look at reboring the gun to .45-70, as I believe that they both use the same basic case.

I would reline it in a second. An unshootable rifle is simply useless. I happen to love old guns and have had a couple relined so far. Another one is in the works right now.

Lee Shaver in Missouri, John King in Idaho, Dave Casey in Cody WY and many others out there are capable of this.

Brent