I'm researching a Winchester Model 55 I am considering purchasing. It's a 30W.C.F. solid frame gun that is serial numbered in the M94 range, 10783XX which dates it to 1930.

The gun looks great, 99%. I can find no dished screw holes, all the screws look perfect, no carry wear on the receiver bottom. The barrel is beginning to get a slight plum cast to the blue but it's not thinning anywhere. The wood has a few dings but all the varnish is there and has aged beautifully.

The question arises from the polishing marks on the receiver sides not being perpendicular, looking as if done by hand and not machine. If it's a refinish, it well done but, still a refinish. what do you think?

The flash pictures show the color of the blue, I was having some issues with the old point & shoot so some were taken w/o flash.

thanks, Rob

Rob,

My vote is refinished. There are many give-aways as you mentioned with the polishing especially fore and aft of the loading port. Vertical and horizontal polishing marks on the same surface.

Luck,

Stephen

Ditto...no doubt a re finish...seen worse by a long shot

i looked at my 94 from 1932 that is excellent condition for comparison and without question it has been refinished. The polishing marks are a dead give away. But it looks to have been done very nicely. None of the screw holes are divoted, the edges are still crisp where they should be, and the text is sharp and and not thinned out at all. For the right price it would be a nice rifle to own.

refinished but looks very nice!

It looks refinished, but unless you are buying it as a collector piece or the seller is representing it as having original finish, it doesn't matter.

Goerge

Looks like a re-crown, too. Nice shooter but not a pristine collectable.

Ialso believe it is refinished. Not only are the polish marks in front of the cartridge plate longituidinal, while those for the first half of the receiver (to about the middle of the cartridge plate) are vertical, But the camera apears to show the rear half of the small hole for the pin just over the cartridge plate to be dished.

And finally, to my eyes something is just "not right" about the stock finish gloss. It does not look like the many other unrefinished Winchesters I have owned from that period and seen over about 60 years.