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Whitney Kennedy Lever Action

4K views 20 replies 11 participants last post by  sharpsdressedman 
#1 ·
Looking for parts for my old Whitney Kennedy Lever action. Anything you may have or know of. Let me know..Thanks
 
#5 · (Edited)
Mine may be a lost cause as it needs alot. It is a frame, barrel with pretty good rifling, front and rear sights, Complete magazine tube assembly with spring, hanger and follower. Nice forend and tip.

Like I say, probably a Pipe Dream to live long enough to find the parts. But sure would like to..

May never find everything to complete it. But I am going to try. I have a stock, and Dixie is sending me a shortlist of what they do have yet.

Here is a crappy pic. They are cool Rifles when all there. It is somewhat rough, but hey it has been around for close to 100 years now.

Sorry you had to see my beautiful feet. Never realized they were in there.LOL

Thanks
 

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#9 ·
I had one about 35 years ago. Barrel was marked 45. Guy I got it from gave it to me because after he found out it was not a 45-70 and no ammo available he didn't want it anymore. I figured it might be a 45-60 so trimmed back a few 45-70 cases, 10 gr. of Unique, one grain of Dacron filler and a Lyman #457191 IIRC the mold number. Shot just fine. Guy I got it from wsn't happy I'd figured a way to shoot it and wanted it and any ammo I had back. Small Nevada cowtown and him one of the old timers so needless to say the sheriff stops by and asks for the gun and ammo or else. I gave him the gun but not the ammo.I told him he had no ammo. I made some for the gun. He can have the full box for ten dollars a round or do without.
FWIW, it was the full rifle, 28" barrel as I recall and weighed about 11 pounds empty. A bit more with a full magazine. Definitely would need a horse to hunt with that one.
Paul B.
 
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#10 ·
Mine is a 28 inch barrel also.

Pig..It is chambered in 44WCF (44-40) Has a real nice Chamber, so would be a good shooter if I live long enough to find all the parts,LOL

Too bad you had you give that one up, I suppose Large frame calibers are even more rare.

The Dixie Smith is actually sending me a short list of what they have yet in the mail.. Sounds like not too much there anymore. Just a few small parts. Thanks
 
#13 ·
Good luck, they only made around 10k of them to start with and most suffered the ravages of use and BP residues. I would call Turnbull Restorations and ask them who they might know. Dennis is a good resource for obscure Smiths and dealers.
 
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#14 · (Edited)
A little update.

Thanks EDCknives.

I bought this Whitney this week.Got a really good deal on it I believe.. Should be here next week. Now I will have about 1 1/2 Whitney's. Will evaluate everything when it arrives and decide which one to complete. Likely my first Octagon Barrelled one. As from what I understand the complete one I bought has a really, really bad bore, and I like Octagons better than round barrels too.. And the Octagon Barrelled one is a 28 inch barrel and is fairly rare. Standard was 24 and anything else was special order. Was told maybe only 150 28 inch Whitneys made in then small caliber frame.

I will of course keep the round barrelled frame, mag tube assembly, and forearm tip from the other one either way.

The maple stock and forearm will not be used.

I will let you know what route I go and post more pics next week. Thanks
 

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#15 ·
Well I bought this screwed up 24 inch barrel Whitney for parts. All the parts swapped perfectly. Also a pic of progress on the original 28 inch octagon one I am finishing. Have the repro stock fitted and aged and color matched to the Forearm. Looks good I think.

Now I need a Buttplate. That is going to be a hard search though, I am afraid. Thanks
 

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#16 ·
Nice work! Had one in 44-40 a couple of years ago and sold it. Been doing a lot of selling lately, getting rid of the old stuff and buying the new. Something is telling me to upgrade.
 
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#19 ·
Update

All the parts swapped nice from the donor. 100% fitment with no Smithing required. Try that with a Winchester,LOL

I will of course keep the Donor one with it. As those numbers match the other frame.

Feeds, fires and ejects like new. Very, very smooth action. I think even better than a Marlin, surely better than a Winnie. Had to replace the missing ejector trip, and a new ejector spring from the Hardware store though.

Thanks
 

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#21 ·
Actually I did not find one,gave up. What I did was bought a repro trapdoor 1873 one. It was of on the curvature quite a bit. I was skeptical but was able to heat it, bend, file and such and got it pretty dang close after about 6 hours of that and final fitting. Made the trapdoor. I did not want to remove wood and change the original curvature of the Whitney stock at all.

So a lot of extra work involved. I made the trapdoor. Here is a pic of the plate from the rear. You would be hard pressed to tell it was not original..Thanks for the comments.
 

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