What is the value of and history of an 1895 30 40 KRAG?

Answer 1

I'm going to assume that this firearm was made by Winchester and not one of the limited editions replicas made by Browning in the mid 1980's. These replicas and the late 90's Winchester remakes are very fine firearms they just do not have the collector value of the early Winchesters.

This rifle was a John Browning design and incorporated a box magazine as opposed to the standard tubular mag. seen on most lever action rifles. The rifle was designed with an eye on military contracts, which in the U. S. meant it had to use the then current 30 cal. army round (which we now refer to as the 30-40 Krag) which had a pointed bullet, hence the need for a box mag. With the exception of a very large Russian military order for their 7.62mm round the 30-40 was the was the most common caliber for this firearm. Production ended for this rifle (except for the above mentioned remakes) during the early 1930"s.

As with all firearms (especially collectable ones) condition and grade have a can have a major impact on value. Extras like extra finish, checkering, octagon barrel, and takedown capabilities can also have a major impact on value. A really top grade rifle with all the extras in 95% or better condition could probably bring close to $10,000 if you were to get serious collectors in a bidding war. A std. grade gun with no extras in 70% condition would probably net you $2000 to $3000 assuming you sell it yourself and not to a gun shop.