gun price

Question
i have a 1985 winchester 30 30 chevy outdoorsman i understand they were only avalible to dealers is this correct and could you tell me the value came with a scope unfired in a hard case.

Answer
Hi Lee,

Winchester manufactured hundreds of commemorative rifles over the years. Many were manufactured exclusively by them and for them and are relatively easy to "book value". However many others were made specifically for other companies/organizations and are not cataloged.

Beginning in the early 1960s Winchester has produced these rifles that commemorate certain historic events, places or individuals. In general, the liquidity of these has not been as good as one would expect. Often they were produced in excessive numbers making them basically non-commeratives.

To have any collector potential/value they must be NIB with all supplied materials including all paper work, original carton/carton wrapping, instructions, hardcase etc. If the rifle has even been so much as cocked, it can effectively lower the value.

As mentioned above, a number of commemoratives have been ordered by outside concerns and are therefor not consider to be "factory issues". Such seems to be the case with the Chevy Outdoorsman/s.

Due to the above it is a bit difficult for me to give you a fair and 100% accurate market value on this type of rifle. I can tell you that some of the factory issued commemorative rifles sell for as little as a few hundred dollars and several for thousands of dollars.

If you were to be able to locate a collector and/or dealer who specialized in these rifles and your particular model the "value" would be more. Otherwise your 30-30 would only have a retail value of what any comparative year, make, model would have without the commemorative stampings on it.

Based upon this, I would make an educated guess that in "good" condition said rifle probably has a retail value of between $300 - $500 depending upon all of the issues outlined above.

For an exact value I would recommend having the gun appraised by someone who can visually inspect and research you particular firearm.

Thanks for the question Lee.
Sid Lark