If there is one rifle in the world that I consider as timeless as the pre64 model 70, it’s the Winchester 1885. The look, the lines, the use of it as a target and varmint rifle during the golden age. Man, that is class. Here is a nice piece about it from Rock Island Auction Blog

By Seth Isaacson

The Winchester Model 1885 remains among the most iconic single shot rifles. Designed by the legendary firearms innovator John Moses Browning, these classic rifles mark the beginning of his rise to become one of the most influential firearms designers in history. Manufactured by Winchester from September 1885 to June of 1920, nearly 140,000 of the versatile single shot Model 1885 were produced, offered in a wide variety of calibers and configurations making the model a rich field for dedicated collectors, competitive marksmen, and hunters alike. Browning’s classic single shot is still popular to this day.

This exceptional Winchester 1885 High Wall with Schuetzen stock has a factory engraved receiver that is gold plated with casehardened breechblock and hammer. The receiver is fitted with Pope wind gauge and elevation rear sights, double set-trigger and a Pope style, three finger lever stamped “JOS. SINGER/PAT. APL’D.” on both sides. The single shot rifle stock and forearm are deluxe, highly figured, fancy grade walnut with a high polish piano finish with Winchester “Style D” checkering and relief carved accents. The engraving, probably executed by John Ulrich, features a highly detailed game scene on either side of the receiver surrounded by arabesque scrolls and fancy border and line work.

Though known as the Winchester 1885, the design for Winchester’s single shot rifle originated in the late 1870s over 2,000 miles from the Winchester factory in New Haven, Conn., in a small frontier gun shop in the Utah Territory. A young John Moses Browning submitted his “improvement in breech-loading fire-arms” on May 12, 1879, and was granted U.S. Patent No. 220,271 on October 7, 1879. Browning’s design used a breechblock sliding vertically within a metal frame operated by a lever similar to the Sharps rifles.

Outwardly, Browning’s rifle is fairly similar to Charles H. Ballard’s rifle design patented in November 1861 and used during the American Civil War alongside the Sharps. The Browning design features a centrally mounted hammer like Ballard’s, but differed in other aspects, particularly that the trigger group is stationary in the lower tang.

Browning’s single shot rifle design at first glance resembles this Ballard carbines and rifles, such as this extraordinary Ball & Williams Ballard carbine from the Civil War. Both designs feature a sliding breechblock with a centrally mounted hammer riding in a frame and raised and lowered by a lever. This Ballard carbine will be available in the Dec. 6-8 Premier Auction.

The Model 1885 and its single shot predecessor drew Winchester’s interest and launched John Moses Browning onto a legendary career as a gun designer. Three Browning Brothers 1879 single shot rifles and a spectacularly engraved Winchester 1885 High Wall Scheutzen rifle  will be available in Rock Island Auction Company’s Dec. 6-8 Premier Auction.

A trio of John Moses Browning patent 1879 single shot rifles all chambered in .45-70 Government. The Browning brothers made about 600 of these in their Ogden, Utah shop and drew Winchester’s interest. The company purchased Browning’s patent for its Model 1885 single shot rifle.

John Moses Browning’s Single Shot Rifle Design

This is the tale of the gun’s design and Winchester Repeating Arms Company purchase of the rights to the gun’s design. In June of 1879, while he was waiting for his patent to be approved, Browning’s father, Jonathan Browning, died. His father had been an innovative gunsmith in his own right and is particularly known for his harmonica rifle designed in his early shop in Quincy, Illinois.

This harmonica rifle, documented as built by Jonathan Browning and carried with him during the Mormon Exodus, sold for $49,938 at RIAC in December 2023, demonstrating the desirability of early Browning firearms.

John M. Browning’s father had been one of the Mormon pioneers who made the perilous trek across the West to settle in Utah to escape persecution. The Browning family patriarch established his gun shop in Ogden in 1852. John Moses Browning learned the art of gunsmithing in that shop and began working on the designs that became the Winchester Model 1885.

Browning and his brother Matthew established the partnership John Moses and Matthew Sandefur Browning Company. Mainly known as J.M. Browning & Bro., it evolved into Browning Brothers by the early 1880s, and also employed many of their half-siblings. On December 30, 1882, The Ogden Standard Examiner featured an article about the Browning Brothers noting John and Matthew Browning had a “knack” for gunmaking and “have for their life-time been devoting all intellectual ingenuity and muscular strength to the production of a breech-loading rifle which will answer all the purposes which can be expected of such an arm: ease, durability, etc.”

Their brick shop on Ogden’s Main Street was 20 by 50 feet with the front half constituting the retail shop and the rear the gunsmithing shop for making and repairing firearms. Their total monthly revenue was listed at $5,000 at the time.

Together, they produced Browning’s distinctive single shot rifles from 1878 prior to applying for the patent until selling the rights in 1883. Only around 600 of these handmade single shot rifles were made. As handmade rifles, there were variations in design and caliber from the very beginning, including what formed the basis for the later “high wall” and “low wall” frames. A hundred or less of these Browning Brothers produced single shot rifles are believed to still exist and Rock Island Auction Company’s Dec. 6-8 Premier Auction in Bedford, Texas will have three examples available.

Follow the link below to read the rest and see the other amazing pictures

https://www.rockislandauction.com/riac-blog/winchester-1885-brownings-single-shot-rifle