CIMARRON .32-20 Short Rifle & Carbine

In the heyday of Winchester Repeating Arms Company lever guns, it offered muskets, standard rifles, short rifles and saddle ring carbines.

- Mike Venturino

My 50-year-old dictionary defines carbine simply as a short rifle. Winchester didn't consider them so. It's definition of a Model 1873 short rifle was that its configuration was exactly the same as a standard '73 rifle, except its barrel length and magazine tube was 20 inches instead of 24 inches. Therefore, short rifles had crescent steel buttplates, steel forearm caps, buckhorn rear sights with blade fronts. Rear sight elevation was provided by a notched slider and both rear and front sights were dovetailed to either round or octagonal barrels. Therefore, they could be drifted laterally for windage zeroing.

On the other hand, Winchester '73 carbines (actually saddle ring carbines) had wider, slightly curved steel buttplates, 20-inch lightweight round barrels with bands securing magazine tubes of equal length to barrels. Rear sights were folding ladder-types with sliding leaves for changing elevation. Front sights were blades pinned to studs silver soldered atop barrels. Windage zeroing could only be accomplished by drifting rear sights in their dovetails. A '73 SRC cost about $1.50 less according to Winchester's 1899 catalog.

(Author's note: it should be pointed out here that we are speaking only of "standard" Model 1873s. Winchester accepted custom orders so buyers could have longer or shorter barrels than mentioned above, or half or three-quarters length magazine tubes and many other options. It was a buyer's market in those days.)

From here on the story is personal. Late in 2020, I found a great deal on a 3rd Generation Colt SAA .32-20 with 7½ inch barrel. Over the long Montana winter, shooting, casting bullets and handloading for it was so pleasurable that a seed was planted in my brain. As in - perhaps I also needed a .32-20 lever gun. A '73 was preferred because that was the introductory vehicle for .32 WCF, as Winchester termed the cartridge.