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The extra length barrel has a silver band and scroll engraving at the muzzle, a nickel-silver Rocky Mountain blade front sight, “PETER FLOECK. HOUSTON.” in flush gold inlay near the center, the “1873” marked notch and folding ladder rear sight, and the “One of One Thousand” script inscription at the breech surrounded by a decorative border and flanked by scroll engraving with punched backgrounds followed by a silver band, and a full-length magazine tube underneath. The forend cap, frame, First Model dust cover, cartridge elevator, and buttplate are all finished with nickel plating. The serial number
is in script numerals on the lower tang behind the lever catch. The loading gate, adjustable single set trigger, and tang mounted peep sight (graduated 0-250) are all finished in blue, and the XXX fancy walnut stock and forearm have single point checkering on the former and multi-point checkering on the latter.
An article in “Forest & Stream” on February 8, 1877, titled “A Day of Sport
in Texas” is particularly relevant to this rifle and was uncovered as part of
our research. It notes Peter Floeck as a banker and the vice-president of
the Houston & Texas Western Railway as part of a discussion of hunting
trip organized by the officers of the company while the railroad was under construction. When discussing the return of the hunting parties to Wimberly (the terminus of the railroad at that time, located between Austin and San Antonio) the author states, “The last that came up, but one, was Floeck, who came staggering under the weight of an enormous buck, which he bore on
his shoulder. He had disemboweled the animal where he had fallen; and so saturated with the buck’s blood was his clothing, that he might have been easily mistaken for a butcher just out of the slaughter pen. As he threw the buck down he remarked: ‘I might have got another the easiest in the world, but I had in this fellow about as much as I could well stand under, and my compadre would not consent to shoulder the responsibility.’ He had shot the buck with a splendid Winchester rifle, which he had had manufactured to order at a cost of $150.” Winchester advertised the price of the One of One Thousands at $80 to $100, so Floeck’s gold inlaid barrel, nickel plating, and other special order features appear to have set him back nearly double the cost of a basic One of One Thousand and three times the cost of standard Model 1873.
In “The Story of the Winchester 1 of 1000 and 1 of 100 Rifles,” Lewis notes
that “Peter Floeck of Houston was commissioned as a Captain to be the Commander of Company A, 15th Regiment of the Texas Militia for Harris County” and that the rifle arrived not long before Custer and much of the 7th Cavalry was wiped out at the historic Battle of Little Bighorn. In a letter to Winchester, Montana’s Granville Stuart extolled the virtues of the One of One Thousands and stated, “If poor Custer’s heroic band had been armed with these rifles they would have covered the earth with dead Indians for 500 yards around and it is probable a portion of them [meaning Custer’s men] would have been alive when Gibbon and Terry’s forces reached the bloody field.”
Important Historic Note
This remarkable special order Winchester 1873 One of One Thousand Rifle is documented with a 32 inch barrel, which is longer than any of the recorded One of One Thousand rifles listed by authors Edmund Lewis or James Gordon.
AS PICTURED AND DESCRIBED IN THE BOOK THE STORY OF THE WINCHESTER 1 OF 1000 AND 1 OF 100 RIFLES BY LEWIS
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