So I was shopping in the LGS today, looking at a used Winchester 92 in 45 colt they had... when the salesman mentioned that they got in a new 1873 (model 73) in 45 colt. It was a few hundred more, but had gorgeous wood.. almost too pretty to shoot. I was about to hand it back to the salesman as I was really looking for a shooter that I am not afraid to get a little wear on. On a whim I flip it over to read the serial number (I had recently gotten a 92 large loop in .44 mag with serial # 0052).. and saw the serial number was 00001.

Needless to say, I bought it.. brought her home, wiped all the handling fingerprints down and set her, box and all in the safe. I dont think I will be shooting this one...

Nice looking rifle

Yeah....I'd shoot that one.

Nice buy.

But Winchester made in Japan?

Txl

Nice score!! I love my Winchester 73 and it's in 45 Colt also to match my revolvers

Sadly, closed their USA factory about 10 years ago, can't specifically recall.

Yup.. Its a Miroku Winchester... which I dont consider a flaw. Miroku makes fine rifles. Its arguable that the miroku guns are better made that the guns post 64.

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It's a fact. Prove my wrong.

So, is that actually serial 00001, or is it 00001gxchbh with the gibberish being numbers too, so it's not the first one?

Way to have a misleading title.

I'd shoot it. I haven't been up to Williams in a long time.

not serial # 1.  Do you really believe the following characters after 1 have no significance?

Whats misleading... ?

Certainly is serial number 00001... the series number and model number dont change from rifle to rifle. Obviously I am not claiming it is the original 1873 miroku ever made.. but it is 00001 of that prefix. 73x is the model.. ZN is the year, 19.

Sour grapes.. or just cant stand to see someone else find something cool?

Yup... 00001... ZN (year 19) 73X model...

Yes.... the later information doesn't change from rifle to rifle... serial number includes the model and date code... ZN is 19 for miroku and 73x is the model.

Teaching moment I guess...

Here is another one from the collection... 00052, year is ZV (2015), specific model is 92E

So every rifle in that model (92E).. that year (ZV)... will number from 00001 to ? with the "ZV92E" at the end. The next year, it would be "ZT92E" at the end of the numbers.

The year and model on the end of a serial do not change the fact that this is #1 for that series.

Cool gun for sure but I would shoot the shit out of that thing.

What you have is not a 1st of series but simply the first unit manufactured that year.  Nothing special about a specific year of manufacture unless it's the start or end of a model number.  So, neither rifle is anything special from a collector's point of view.

I want to get one of those modern 1873 models soon.  That one looks great.

Its still pretty cool to have the first of an annual production run.  what if 2019 turns out to be a good year... like wine.

Very cool.

I happen to have three 007 firearms.  I just wish one was a walther ppk

Winchester name is owned by Browning and they closed US lever gun plants years ago. If it’s Browning or Winchester and isn’t FN built (USA or Belgium) it’s Miroku built or China.

It's a nice gun.  I'd shoot it.  Unless the first Miroku '73 made in 2019 is somehow significant.

I’d shoot it but that’s just me. I do not own any guns I don’t shoot.

That’s awesome!

I know where there is a Winchester deluxe takedown octagon tapper with serial number 52

Miroku Winchesters are one of the only levers I would buy without seeing them in person. They make a great rifle

Nice rifle ,and you can't beat the fit finish, and quality of Miroku firearms for the money. I would shoot it and enjoy it .

Still misleading title. It’s not a serial #1 rifle, it’s the first 73x made in 2019..... way different than if it were 00000001

+1

Winchester trademark is still owned by Olin, they license it to FN.
The plant was sold to the union after a long and bitter strike, the union formed the USRAC company and licensed the trademark from Olin until USRAC went bankrupt in 2007.
USRAC contracted with Miroku to produce the 1885, 1886, 1892 and 1895 models as "limited editions", typically 500 or 1000 at a time and would do one model, then another model the next year. Odd that a union owned company would outsource production to another company but it did. NONE of these guns had been made in the U.S. since before WWII, Olin had stopped production of them in the 30's, brought back the 1892 as the model 65 & the 1886 as the model 71 but them stopped making them again in the 1960's. So there is no comparison as to the quality of the guns made by Miroku in 1990's and later and the earlier guns made before WWII. Only the model 1894 stayed in production the entire time, and it was always made in the U.S. And the Wikipedia page on Winchester is wrong when it says Browning started importing guns from Miroku in 2007, the contract for Miroku to produce them simply was transferred in 2007 when FN bought what was left of USRAC out of bankruptcy and licensed the Winchester trademark. USRAC had done the original contracting with Miroku back in the 1990's, I have a Miroku 1886 takedown model in 45-70 I bought in 1998. Good gun but had to adjust the rebounding hammer mechanism to reliably set off primers as it was set much too high from the factory resulting in a weak hit on the primer. The original Winchester made guns had a half-cock notch instead of a rebounding hammer so never had this problem.

Yeah well, he got y'all to look, didn't he?