As many of y'all know, I love old .22 rifles. Actually any caliber older rifle, although .22 is my favorite. I've run across a lot of older rifles, mainly Winchesters, that are described as either "low wall" or "high wall". I've googled it and checked my books, but haven't found anything that explains what the difference is. Can one of our resident experts explain it to me please?

__________________
Misty

That sounds like a description of the old Winchester 1885 single-shots.

Some of these are 'high walls', and some 'low-walls'. The difference being the low wall is a lighter action generaly used for the lower powered cartridges.

The actions are visably different. The high wall action being taller behind the breech. The low wall action sides being about even with the bottom of the chamber, the high wall action sides extending up higher at the breech.

I have seen both high and low wall Winchester actions chambered for small cartridges.

Here is a quote from the Answers.Com site about single shot rifles. The site is Single-shot: Definition from Answers.com


"In 1878, John Moses Browning patented arguably the greatest single-shot rifle ever produced: after Browning sold his design to Winchester it was brought out as the Model 1885 Winchester Single Shot Rifle. It was chambered for more caliber cartridges than any other Winchester rifle; the falling block action was so strong, that the Winchester Company used it to test fire newly created rifle cartridges. Although fewer than 200,000 Model 1885 Single Shots were built, it remained in production from 1885 to 1920. Two popular models were made, the so called Low Wall which showed an exposed hammer, firing less powerful cartridges, and the so called, High Wall which used stronger cartridges and the steel frame covered most of the firing hammer, when viewed from the sides."

I hope that helps,

Frank

__________________
sona si latine loqueris .

From The Winchester Collector website:

"The Model 1885 Single Shot was the first John M. Browning design (and the first single shot) to be built by Winchester. With nearly 140,000 being manufactured from 1885 to 1920, the Single Shot was offered in just about any barrel length and chambering available.

Offered in both “High Wall” and “Low Wall” frames, these terms refer to the sides of the receiver and their position in relation to the hammer. With the High Wall version, built for the more powerful cartridges, just the tip of the hammer is visible when viewed from the side; the Low Wall, chambered for such pleasant shooting rounds such as the .22 Rimfire and 25 WCF, exposes the entire side of the hammer."

The Winchester Collector Official Web Site

i thought it was the 1878 that john browning first came out with

Attached Images

10pt.jpg (126.9 KB, 31 views)

__________________
WILL WORK FOR AMMO!

Look at the hammers.

Low wall:



High wall:

__________________
"I also cook."

Great, helpful post, Chad. As usual.

__________________
All Rights Reserved

A Winchester rep. went to John Brownings shop in Utah in 1883 and bought the rights to the 1878 Single-shot rifle. there were only about 600 made. The design became the model 1885. One of the most legendary rifles ever made and still highly collected.
The book "The Winchester Single-Shot" by John Campbell is one of the most informative on the matter. Where would we be without old John Browning?

Did you get that deer with a 22?

its a 45/70 browning 1878

__________________
WILL WORK FOR AMMO!

Ok, now I got it! Thanks for the pics Chad. As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words!

__________________
Misty