Originally Posted by
trevj1
It's not a book. Its a rolled handful of large format blueprint style drawings.
FWIW, they are meant to be used with a casting kit that was available at one time. There are other companies supplying casting kits, but the one these were drawn for, has faded away, from what I have picked up over the years I have been interested in 1885's.
I'm reasonably certain that the same drawings, in a much smaller print size format, can be got from the Archivist for the ASSRA, for about $10. You may need to be a member, but that is still a whole lot cheaper than the Buffalo Arms Drawings set.
Winchester pretty much quit on the Model 1885 in the 1920's or thereabouts. Public domain now. The outfits making original style actions are mostly using reverse engineering (copying parts, averaging out tolerances, making best guesses at missing details, etc).
There is nothing special about the holes being in the exact location, really. Most, if not all of it, can be determined with some drawing and a few cardboard cutout models, if the drawing alone does not work for you. Think through it, and work out the order you need to fit and test the parts and it will come together.
If you want to make parts that are interchangeable, though, with originals, without having the action on hand, that's not gonna work.
See if you can grab a copy of Campbell's two books on the Winchester Single Shot. Some detailed drawings therein, but not all the details.
Cheers
Trev