I stop by a friend's place upon occasion.  The old packrat trader finds me some interesting firearms related stuff from time to time.  Today he had a real good one!  A Niedner barreled 1885 Winchester Low Wall Take Down! It was equipped with a 24.25" long J. Stevens #141 scope and mounts.  He got it for a song from some old gal who referred to it as grandpa's shotgun.  It appears to be a 22 Hornet, but could be Niedner's improved version.  I measured a .298" base and a .358" rim recess.  There were no markings for the chambering to be found on the rifle.  28" heavy barrel, .797" in diameter at the muzzle, with a .219" bore.  I thought some of you Michigunners might be interesting in seeing it.  Sorry, I missed getting the whole of the barrel rollmark. I'll be visiting it again soon.  I can tell the rifle has been sitting in a corner a long time, the objective end of the scope is full of dust, as is the muzzle end of the bore.  It's clean most of the way up however.  Oh, the trigger appears to be adjustable, and it's adjusted real good!

Pure Michigan! Thanks for sharing.

Bob, you dog...  You're ALWAYS coming up with interesting stuff!!!  Well done!

By the way...  I think we should start talking about Perry early this new year, as I'd like to see you make the whole weekend with us this year!

That is a coil spring Low Wall with a single set trigger.  And a Niedner barrel.  Be still my heart!  And the takedown feature (only works with the coil spring action) is rather rare.

The single set trigger works by pushing forward on the trigger (from the back, of course) until you feel a click.  Then you have a very light trigger pull.  Using it as a standard trigger tends to wear the parts.  You can get replacement parts, for $$, but you need to find someone with a special set of skills to work on the SST.

The whole rig is worth some serious $$.  I'm curious about the caliber.  Maybe an ordinary Hornet, maybe not.  Lots of variants back when this was made.  A careful chamber cast would tell you a lot.

It may be a .223" groove-diameter barrel.  The bullets are still around, but probably special order. 

Early on, but about the time that takedown actions were first made, Niedner used base-band bullets.  That requires a different setup and special loading tools & techniques.  If it turns out to be intended for base-band bullets, the shooter-owner is about to enter another universe.

Michael Petrov has passed away, but I think someone on the ASSRA forum has Niedner's record books.  I think it is possible to learn a lot about this rifle.  I'm going to send the ASSRA guys over here to look at this one.

Please do keep us involved!

The J. Stevens Arms and Tool Company scope dates to around 1911, according to Stroebel. Certainly pre-1916 as the name was changed to J. Stevens Arms Co. at that time. It's a #141 of around 3.5X. Needs some TLC, but I think I can see good enough through it as is for a little testing. It is for sure a regular .22 Hornet. In the database Petrov kept of Niedner firearms he'd ran across, there was mention of only one regular Hornet, and Michael had a question mark behind that. Found that in some discussion about another cartridge on doublegunshop forum.