How were rifles shipped in 1875?

[Chris Smith]

Not really about shooting one but I have always been a bit curious about how a Winchester was shipped from the factory back in the 1870"s. In a conversation with a good friend who is an avid Winchester collector about this subject he said that he had never really thought about it but guessed that if the general store owner ordered a couple of the new '73's they would be in a wooden crate with some sort of padding and of course a bit of grease on the metal parts. Brought by a freight wagon from the distributor who got the order three months ago. I've read of original boxes for various guns for sale but have never seen one advertised older than the early 1900's. Has anyone ever seen an original shipping container from that era?

[August]

Wooden box. Made good kindling.

[45nut]

Saw a crate full of Trapdoors in a display in Montana years back. Packed with bracing and accouterments. Made me drool!

[Doc Highwall]

When I was a kid in the late 50's early 60's I use to buy gun crates from the Springfield Armory for 10 cents each. I use to wipe the grease off where it got on the crate in some places and make all kind of things a kid could imagine.

A coke was 8 cents and 2 cents for the bottle.

[fecmech]

When I was a kid in the late 50's early 60's I use to buy gun crates from the Springfield Armory for 10 cents each. I use to wipe the grease off where it got on the crate in some places and make all kind of things a kid could imagine.

A coke was 8 cents and 2 cents for the bottle.

Sounds like us in the 50's with wooden orange crates. Nail the crate vertically to a 2X4,nail half a roller skate to the front and back end of the 2X4 and voila a scooter was born! Oh and those big pretzel sticks about a foot long and 1/2" in diameter were a penny a piece.

Sorry for the hijack!

[Doc Highwall]

I lived in Springfield MA. back then. Years before that my father, mother, and aunt worked there for a time.

[Char-Gar]

Many years ago, I owned a factory case of unfired 52 caliber linen cartridge Sharps carbines. There were six rifle in that wooden crate. The crate had notched cross pieces to hold the rifles. They were a little on the large size, so there was some padding or some kind that went missing. I sold the rifle one by one and then the crate. This was way back about 1961. I made a nice profit, but nothing like what they would be worth today.

[Baron von Trollwhack]

Likely similar to the Mosin and Yugo SKS crates at gunshows, eh?

BvT

[put]

Like these.

[put]

Those pictures of the full case of Winchesters came from the web site of Kurt House http://www.kurthouse.com/guns.htm

His site says :

"Full case of 10 Winchester rifles, circa 1903 vintage
Contains 10 half octagon, half magazine, .30 WCF Model 1894 Winchesters! Rarely seen, only a few original Winchester cases full of rifles are known, two 1895 carbine cases, a couple of 1894 carbines and this unique one. One end of the dovetailed box specifies the above configuration rifles and the other end of the box has a faded red “W”. I found this original case in the 1970’s and it took 20 years to get the rifles back in it which are no doubt not as close serially as was originally shipped. The serial numbers of these scarce rifles go from 157,293 to 646,704 (14 year span) as they are the best condition ones I could find. The condition varies from about 40% to about 95%, all are crescent butt as box would contain, there are no serial numbers listed on the box (I have another later 1943 vintage carbine box that has paper label listing original serial numbers shipped in box.) Glass top and coffee table bottom custom made for this ultimate of all gun room coffee tables, Price $65,000"

[FromTheWoods]

That's one expensive coffee table!

(I wonder how much the rifles sell for?)

Thank you, PUT.

[6.5 mike]

Now that's really a nice piece of work !!!!!!!.

[NickSS]

They shipped them in wood boxes for both rifles and ammo back in the day. I did buy many years ago a Volcanic Repeating pistol made by Smith and Wesson in the 1850s in the original box with a box of the original ammo. The box was stiff cardboard. I picked it up at an estate sale for $100 and sold it half hour later for $2200. I figured it was a nice profit for the day.