Is it stamped 1890 on the barrel or Model 90 ? If the serial # is a 1909 then it should be 1890.
How about a picture?

 

Yes you are correct as it was mfg. in March of 1909 and is referred to as a transitional model 1890 from the second model to the third model. You might have noticed that I made a correction in the Title as to an 1890 as well as an edit to my first post from 90 to 1890. Understand that I have dealt with several people over the years locally and it kinda comes out amongst us to just say "90". My bad on that. The Barrel is stamped correctly for that year and referred to the transitional model as it has the very early 3rd model rifle barrel stamp 1890 as you stated from the 1890 on the upper tang which has the correct stamp "Winchester with Trade Mark" underneath. This was only done for a short time involving about 100,000 rifles from August 1907-December of 1909 of an estimated 736,486 total produced ending in 1927 including all Three Models. As much as I like the Blued receivers my favorite are the early case hardened receivers,(1st & 2nd models),with the original case hardened colors intact. The Case colored receivers ended about serial number 110,000 about June 1901 as Winchester was doing experimentation with their so called machine bluing process,(also known as Charcoal or Carbonum bluing up until about 1938 on other Winchesters as was said earlier the 1890 mfg. ended in 1927. The Steel hardness on these first and second case colored receivers were as high as 65 on the steel hardness scale and the blued receivers hardness was at about 40-45 on the Rockwell hardness scale. There fore a little more resistant to scratches etc.....................It's a shame the case coloring look didn't seem to hold up as long, as the Marlin's case coloring by comparison, in the light or sunlight exposure over time and also different chemicals treating rifles at the time as such as oils etc..............The sights are the normal sights for that time frame as the rear sight,(#30B-introduced 1908), has the improved slot cut into it for elevation adjustment relief. The #30B was an improvement from the #44 with the addition of the horizontal relief slot. The front sight is a standard bead front sight that was first installed on the second model with a Pat. date stamp of "NOV.4, 1902". A plain and simple yet improved version of it's bead front sight with a silver/grey "TIN" tip at the front sight line for easy eye viewing pick up first glance down the barrel. Winchester mfg. many of their own sights but also contracted with several other contractors,(Lyman,Marbles, etc.........), around the turn of the century and offered many different sight varieties. The Slide handle is correct and I love the crescent butt as this is the same forged butt plate that was used on the "Famous Model 1873 Winchester". It made sense business wise financially to be able to interchange parts as they did often during production. If I get a chance I'll post pics. but I haven't yet on this Forum as I've got several projects in the works and photography isn't one of them. More importantly the Grand kids are coming over and I love that!
GS

 

Love mine. It was made a couple years ahead of yours in 1908. Mine is in .22 short.

 

Sounds like you have a very nice '90...ahem....1890 there. Being in the more scarce and desirable L.R. chambering makes it that much nicer in my opinion.

 

This one is in the .22Long caliber,(67,174 total mfg.), as less than 20,000 we're mfg. in the .22Long Rifle Caliber. I do own several of those that We enjoy shooting as they were mfg. after approximate serial number 610,000 at the end of production. I also have several in the .22 Short that are nice and a few with the Gallery Loading port, along with the counter fastener, as they we're used in shooting Galleries. One of my favorite Winchester Rifles.
GS

 

Well I got the model 1890 dismantled and cleaned up and re assembled as it had a lot of grease build up in hard to get and mainly hidden places like under the loading tube and on the internal mechanisms in the receiver area inside the chamber and years of what seamed like almost baked on dried crud. Grease/oil hardened over the years can get that way. These are fun to go over carefully and clean and lightly re lube anon assembly. I guess that's what I mainly mean when I say go over a gun or not. I know a lot of buyers and sellers that say it's good and are more focused on turning a few bucks than really the firearm itself. This way I examined everything inside and out and was even able to mage sure the tension screw for the main large hooked leaf spring that adds tension to the Hammer spring as it ages and is needed sometimes. Most of this grime hardens and is unnoticed by most and with the tolerances allowed at design aren't really affected but I noticed a few areas that needed to be cleaned and a little attention so that why I decided to do what I did and being careful to have enough room on a large padded work area so as to not scratch finished parts on other finished parts. All of my miscellaneous screws go into small magnetic parts treys as I have several and the some old used towels make great places to lay parts in waiting out of the way of tools and such. Plenty of light with magnifiers as needed are a must as I get older. So the main work I needed to do was to remove the receiver including butt stock from the front part of the receiver with the barrel attached and being that these are take down Rifles by design as was common back in the day during this era of gun building. The take down screw was hanging up and not working properly upon disassembly. So after I was able to take it apart I found out that the step bushing had some light damage to it from previous removal along with the decorative take down screw that has a pin set into it near the end to keep the screw intact to prevent from loosing it in the brush when out in the wild taking the gun apart for convenient packing as was designed. Without this the rifle will still function and most wouldn't notice it but it wouldn't be correct. My late gun smith father in law's collection of gun part small pin selection is still being very useful as after a removed the old distorted small pin from the decorative take down bolt I was able to re install a new one with a small drift pin securing the bolt into a specially made small vise,(my late machinist Father made), that won't damage the part being worked on. The project come full circle for me as I have been blessed with not only good teachers but great memories from some of my heroes before me. Working in the shop is truly rewarding for me and this project has been a blast.
GS