1876 Winchester

[Woody]

Saw several nice ones offered at the Louisville show yesterday. Asking prices started at $4K and went up from there. Several were five digits.
Woody

[BFD]

Ouch!

[Del]

I have an original in 45-60 that I shoot rifle silhouette with and I use a 300 gr bullet with a gas check ahead of 25 grains of 5744. I tried a 300 gr cast bullet with black powder but it didn't shoot anywhere near as good as it does with the smokeless and gas check. Possibly due to slight pitting in the barrel. I should try it again with the gas check but black powder...

Mine has an original single set trigger that really makes for nice trigger pull. The barrel is 28 inch octagon. Almost identical to my 1873 original (but rebuilt) 38-40 that has a 30 inch barrel. I bought Winchester rear sight mounts from MVA and use my normal MVA soule sights for the rear and their #111 plain globe sights on the front with Large aperture inserts. The target size is quite a bit larger than normal BPCR silhouette due to full size targets only out to 200 meters so I need a large front aperture to make it work for me. Really fun to shoot but after a full day of shooting your hands and fingers can get a little sore from shooting it. I've never rung a ram with it. Knocks the silhouettes down with authority!!

When I reload, I re-weigh all my loaded rounds to insure that I didn't get a double charge in it. I did find, one time, where an extra 6 grains of the 5744 powder (kind of long cylindrical granules) had bridged the hole in my funnel and one shell had 19 grains and the next had 31 grains. The 31 grains may have caused a failure. From then on, I have re-weighed all my finished loads and I also drilled out the neck in my funnel so it can't bridge the gap. With the variations in brass weight and small differences in each bullet, the shells will be +/- a couple of grains but I will see if I somehow got two charges in the case for sure. The wife comes out and talks to me or something like that I have always been afraid of double charging those old original Winchesters. Of course, black powder wouldn't have that issue as well as there would be no issue of having to hard crimp the brass to keep the recoil and magazine spring from pushing the bullet back in the case. I have shot my 38-40 with black powder and it gets smoking hot compared to shooting smokeless...

[BFD]

For those of you that have original 76s (Woody, Del, MLV), can you tell us anything about the chamber? If your gun has an original chamber that was cut before the advent of smokeless, I would love to know what the throat looks like in it. I'm betting that it has the funnel type of throat that is often called a "paper patch" chamber. But only those of you with such originals that predate manufacture of smokeless in 1895 can say for sure.

[Kirk Stovall]

For those of you that have original 76s (Woody, Del, MLV), can you tell us anything about the chamber? If your gun has an original chamber that was cut before the advent of smokeless, I would love to know what the throat looks like in it. I'm betting that it has the funnel type of throat that is often called a "paper patch" chamber. But only those of you with such originals that predate manufacture of smokeless in 1895 can say for sure.

Don’t you care about mine?

[Woody]

My 76 has been re-lined Brent, but I can cast my 1888 vintage 45-90 if you want. It would probably be very similar. Let me know.

Woody

[BFD]

My 76 has been re-lined Brent, but I can cast my 1888 vintage 45-90 if you want. It would probably be very similar. Let me know.

Woody

I'd love that Woody. That would be great. Just heard from a friend with a 71 Mauser that was designed to shoot paper patch w/o wiping and it has the funnel throat, just as I suspected. I think it was probably the norm in all bp rifles back in the day. Unfortunately, all my old ones have been relined or rebored, except the Pacific. And it has that same funnel throat as well. But the levers will be the acid test. I'm interested to hear.

[Woody]

I'll cast it in the morning and post some pics.

Woody

[BFD]

Awesome. Thanks!

[Woody]

Sorry for the delay. I got busy and forgot. Attached is a close-up of the throat of my original 1888 vintage 1886 Winchester in caliber 45-90 WCF.

Woody

45-90 chamber cast.JPG

[BFD]

Hmmm, that is a pretty abrupt throat. That is the first one like that.

Can you guestimate the date of manufacture?

Thanks for doing this. I really appreciate it.

[Woody]

It was manufactured in 1888. Here is the rifle.

86 Win 1.JPG

86 win 2.JPG

Found this one in a Furniture store in Steamboat Springs, CO, when I was living there.

Woody

[mdeland]

Is it throated for express loads I wonder? Looks pretty modern although not 45 degrees I think.

[Woody]

Like the 45-60, the 45-90 WCF fired a light bullet. Both were normally loaded with a 300 grain lead bullet over the powder. I don't remember what the twist rate is, but it is slow for caliber.

Woody

[Woody]

Like the 45-60, the 45-90 WCF fired a light bullet. Both were normally loaded with a 300 grain lead bullet over the powder. I don't remember what the twist rate is, but it is slow for caliber.

Woody