My freind just came over last night and he brought an old Winchester Lever rifle that had just been inherited from his grandfather. They have no knowledge of it, so they brought it to me so I can find somethign out about it. Its a Model 1873 in 38 W.C.F. Is it a 38-40? Has a octagonal barrel. The reciever is that weird coloring, i beleive its called case-hardened. Like what some of the new Ruger Vaqueros look like. The rilfes over all condition I would say is about 80-90% Its in really good condition considering the dates on the barrel say 1860.

Does anyone know anythign about these rifles or where I can find something on the web? Im getting some pics, so ill post em here later.

It is a 38-40.  38 W.C.F, stands for Winchester Central Fire. A Winchester 1873 in that condition, still showing the color casehardening, is going to be worth quite a bit of money.
The barrel date is a patent date, for one of Winchester's patents, not the year the rifle was made.  '73's were made from 1873 to 1919.  Somebody here can probably check the serial number and tell you what year it was made.

This is a real find. Being conservative, my 1998 Standard Catalog of Guns, shows a Winchester 1873 rifle in excellent condition at $9500.00.  Repeat, JACKPOT.

Well they have been considering getting a safe. I guess now would be the time to do it.
Dman thats alot of money.

Winchester 73's can vary in price from several hundred to several thousand dollars, depending on Serial number and rarity. I would suggest you put your question out on the SASSNET.COM (Cowboy action single action shooters society website ). If any body could tell you one of those guys could.  

Bob:
To find out what year this gun was mfg. go to
 www.oldguns.net

On the left side of the page  down near the bottom you will see, " Winchester dates of Mfg."
as well as Remington and Military guns.

This is a real good site for those that want to know.
Simper Fi
Bill

Presumably this is a rifle since the carbine and musket versions only had round barrels.  I find the following in Flaydermans’, 7th edition (1998):

                                  Serial Number Range:            Good:              Fine:

Early first model:       1 – 1600                                  $1500              $5500

Late first model:        1600 – 31000                          $1100              $4500

Second model:           31000 – 90000                         $650               $2250

Third model:              90000+                                     $600               $1800

These values might be a little low due to the age of the book.

There are some rarer models mixed in here, which are worth much more (up to $125,000!!).

Incidentally, a total of 720,610 of these rifles, carbines and muskets were made between 1873 and 1919.