Frontier conversion 1866 winchester

[nativeshootist]

I recently bought a book and was reading it and loved the chapter on native american firearms. (Really could been the whole book), anyway I saw this interesting winchester 66 conversion. Apparently t was converted into a single shot. In another chapter of the book theres a diary entry by a frontiersman saying " I'm being liberal with my winchester ammo as it is 5 cents a round.", not the exact quote but thats the jist.  So you know really interesting how even then as now. Ammo for our rifles aint really cheap. But what you think of the conversion? http://imgur.com/a/N54k6Cf

[Johnson Barr]

As a personal thought, I believe that more than a few repeating rifles were purposely converted to single shot operation specifically for use/sale in the western reservations. Do a simple web search for: 'Great Basin National Park 1873 Rifle'. There are numerous links well worth wading through. This 'lost then found' again lever gun had so been converted to single shot operation. Inspection and even x-ray's revealed that parts needed for the rifle to function as a magazine repeater had been removed. Magazine spring and follower, cartridge carrier and lifter arm are missing. That left only the trigger, hammer, bolt, bolt toggles, lever link pin and lever in place. In the case of this particular 1873, the butt stock cleaning rod chamber contained an un-fired cartridge stored inside. Such a single shot conversion is still possible. I've tried it just for grins with my 1860, 1866 and 1873 carbines and it does work assuming you don't fumble a cartridge and it drops out the wide open carrier cut and falls to the ground.

[Buck Stinson]

Back in the late 90's,  I  stayed  with Jim Gordon and his wife, when they lived in Grant, Colorado. We spent hours looking over his collection.  The converted '66 in the photo was one of those guns.  It was an ingenious way to convert a repeating rifle to a single shot muzzle loader.  Glad  I  had a  chance to see it  up close.

[nativeshootist]

It would awesome to see this rifle in person. Do you remember how it was set up? Like did they use a empty casing too fill the chamber?

[Buck Stinson]

It was a long time ago, so I  don't  remember exactly how the conversion was done.  May have pictures if I  can  find  them.  I might be able to find it in the catalogs, when Jim's collection was auctioned off.  If  I  find anything,  I'll post  it  here.

[nativeshootist]

Awesome thanks