welcome to today photo of the Day! Here we have one of the true holy grails of American gun collecting. This is a Winchester Model 1876 “One of a Thousand” a rifle that sits in the same rarefied air as the Colt Walker.
Here grade means. Winchester tested the rifles in batches and set aside the most accurate barrels, selling the best as “one in a thousand” at a heavy premium, ranging from $80 to $100, when a working man earned a few bucks a day. It wasn’t just fancy engraving. It was a factory-certified tach-driver, and serious hunters paid for the edge.
The Model 1876 was the “Centennial”, named for America’s 100th birthday and Winchester’s first big-bore lever gun, chambered in .45-75 for big game in the West. The 1 in 1000 edition is surprisingly rare: only 55 were made, and less than half are believed to survive. It is the fourth listed in the factory ledgers, with only one known former survivor, the oldest wearing an “open top” receiver and a rare set of inlaid silver barrel bands.
If the name rings a bell, thank Hollywood. The 1950 Jimmy Stewart film “Winchester ’73” had its entire plot built around one-in-a-thousand copies, and the studio’s promotional contest flushed out forgotten examples and set the collector market on fire.
The best part: The factory was named for Albany’s HC Gove, a milkman who ran one of the city’s grandest thoroughfares before heading west to follow the mines. You don’t have to be a Rockefeller to carry a king’s rifle.
Most of our POTDs use images of our friends Rock Island Auction CompanyMajor firearms auctions in the United States. Take some time to browse them current auction – Who knows, maybe you’ll find a piece of history to take home!
“Winchester ‘One in a Thousand’ Model 1876 Rifle Marked.” Rock Island Auction, www.rockislandauction.com/detail/4097/11/inscribed-winchester-one-of-one-thousand-model-1876-rifle. Accessed 3 July 2026.
