Picked up a Levergun

[RKrodle]

Well, I finally found a Winchester 94 Trapper in 45 Colt. I've wanted one for a long time and found one last week. Great little gun. I took it out and promptly broke the rear sight off of it when it fell over on my UTV. I planned to put a peep on it anyway so I went ahead and ordered one. I installed XS sights and sighted it in Friday. It didn't shoot my 300gr Cast Performance load very well at all but my 300 Swift JHP's shot real good, about 3 inches at 100 yards . The cast bullets were all over the place, I'm thinking my bore my be a little large.





Sight blank ala Pete44ru

[cshold]

Sweet look'in little bugger

[TedH]

I like it!

[kimwcook]

Looks like it'll be real handy.

[mod71alaska]

Very nice Trapper, Ricky! Good find.

[Griff]

That's nice... Although I'm not a fan of receiver peeps, that XS mount looks excellent, lacking the hunk of aluminum hangin' off the left-hand side.

Regarding the cast boolits... could it be they're just a tad undersized? With the slightly elevated velocity from the Trapper's longer barrel, you may be sufferin' from some slight lube breakdown. Also, I find that none of my rifles in .45 Colt like bevel base bullets, whereas they're just fine in my 1911s.

[RKrodle]

That's nice... Although I'm not a fan of receiver peeps, that XS mount looks excellent, lacking the hunk of aluminum hangin' off the left-hand side.

Regarding the cast boolits... could it be they're just a tad undersized? With the slightly elevated velocity from the Trapper's longer barrel, you may be sufferin' from some slight lube breakdown. Also, I find that none of my rifles in .45 Colt like bevel base bullets, whereas they're just fine in my 1911s.

Griff,
Maybe, but the same bullet and load shoots good out of 86er's 20 inch barrel Winchester, and it shot good out of my EMF 92 that I sold to buy this rifle. I have some 250 grain cast RNFPs that I'm going to try and see what they do, and also some 250 gr. XTPs.

[DBW]

Nice

[salvo]

That is a good looker! Nice sights too.

[J Miller]

Ricky,

Nice little Trapper. Mine is a bit earlier than yours and although it prefers .454" bullets it does OK with heavier .452" bullets. Slugging your bore will tell you a lot.

I've never seen a rear sight broken like that. Almost looks like you cut it.

Joe

[RKrodle]

Ricky,

I've never seen a rear sight broken like that. Almost looks like you cut it.

Joe

Joe, I did cut it after I broke it. I was inspired by the post by Pete44ru.

[rjohns94]

Congrats Ricky. I like that set up alot. I wish you well with it. that will prove to be a very handy addition to your arsenal.

[Pete44ru]

It looks like a real nice keeper, to me.

There's almost nothing as satisfying as finally finding a long-sought-after gun !

How's the zeroing going, with the XS peep - since it looks like it's sitting a bit higher than most peeps ?

.

[Griff]

That's nice... Although I'm not a fan of receiver peeps, that XS mount looks excellent, lacking the hunk of aluminum hangin' off the left-hand side.
Regarding the cast boolits... could it be they're just a tad undersized? With the slightly elevated velocity from the Trapper's longer barrel, you may be sufferin' from some slight lube breakdown. Also, I find that none of my rifles in .45 Colt like bevel base bullets, whereas they're just fine in my 1911s.

Griff,
Maybe, but the same bullet and load shoots good out of 86er's 20 inch barrel Winchester, and it shot good out of my EMF 92 that I sold to buy this rifle. I have some 250 grain cast RNFPs that I'm going to try and see what they do, and also some 250 gr. XTPs.

Ricky, that was a weak comment by me... since I really didn't have a "good" idea, besides, as you say, sluggin' the bore. I am wondering what the twist rate is in your Winnie... although it should be the same as Joe's, (though it could be different. I just measured my three .45 Colt rifles... and was surprised... greatly!

1986 production Uberti 1873 = 16-½
2003 production Rossi '92 = 25 (didn't get a full revolution in the 20" barrel... very close to ¾ of a revolution.
2007 production Uberti Henry= 17

In all three cases, they are greater than the standard Colt twist of 1:16.

But... in that, I seldom get the same reading twice... I wouldn't take the above as gospel...

[salvo]

It looks like a real nice keeper, to me.

There's almost nothing as satisfying as finally finding a long-sought-after gun !

How's the zeroing going, with the XS peep - since it looks like it's sitting a bit higher than most peeps ?

.

Pett44ru, I have a set on my .44 Trapper, They come with a tall front sight with a white line down the center, makes for a great combination.

[Modoc ED]

Nice gun.

[RKrodle]

That's nice... Although I'm not a fan of receiver peeps, that XS mount looks excellent, lacking the hunk of aluminum hangin' off the left-hand side.
Regarding the cast boolits... could it be they're just a tad undersized? With the slightly elevated velocity from the Trapper's longer barrel, you may be sufferin' from some slight lube breakdown. Also, I find that none of my rifles in .45 Colt like bevel base bullets, whereas they're just fine in my 1911s.

Griff,
Maybe, but the same bullet and load shoots good out of 86er's 20 inch barrel Winchester, and it shot good out of my EMF 92 that I sold to buy this rifle. I have some 250 grain cast RNFPs that I'm going to try and see what they do, and also some 250 gr. XTPs.

Ricky, that was a weak comment by me... since I really didn't have a "good" idea, besides, as you say, sluggin' the bore. I am wondering what the twist rate is in your Winnie... although it should be the same as Joe's, (though it could be different. I just measured my three .45 Colt rifles... and was surprised... greatly!

1986 production Uberti 1873 = 16-½
2003 production Rossi '92 = 25 (didn't get a full revolution in the 20" barrel... very close to ¾ of a revolution.
2007 production Uberti Henry= 17

In all three cases, they are greater than the standard Colt twist of 1:16.

But... in that, I seldom get the same reading twice... I wouldn't take the above as gospel...

Thanks for the info Griff. I found some load data (rifle #151) that says the trapper they used has 1 in 38 twist, so they must vary alot. I may try to check it later today, it may explain alot. That issue of rifle, I just have the data not the article, they whent up to 320 grain bullets but I don't know how sable they were. I would think not very.

[Old Savage]

That is about the same accuracy I got with mine with 225 Silvertips at 100 yds. with the open sights sitting.

[J Miller]

My 85 vintage trapper has the 1-38 twist. It did really well with my Keith 265gr SWC over 9.0grs Unique about 15 years ago when I had it at the range.

I don't know when they changed the twist. Might have been about the same time they switched from the light to heavy barrel.

Joe

[RKrodle]

Griff and Joe,
I checked my twist. It looks like 1 in 28. I used a cleaning rod... a half rev of the rod showed 12 inches. Now, me trying to eyeball an exact half turn is iffy but close, then I did a little internet searching and found reference to 1 in 28. I also found that Marlin uses 1 in 16 in their rifles for 45 colt.

[Ysabel Kid]

Congrats Ricky!!!

[Griff]

Ricky, that ½ revolution in 12" would be a 1:24 twist. Possibly a little slow to stabilize that heavy a slug. It's always astounded me how the .44Mag did so well with it's standard 1:38 twist. Probably has something to do with the velocity. Maybe one of those gurus that lurk around here can shed some light!

[brucew44guns]

That's the kind of gun that a man will starve for awhile, in order to finally get one. Looks like it might have a few shots left in it, pretty!!

[RKrodle]

I figured that I didn't eyeball the mark to the apex of the barrel exact enough and went with the 1 in 28 as more established.
I'm with you Griff, I wonder if that is enough twist to make a 300gr. bullet straighten up and fly right.

[Griff]

I know that twist and velocity impact a barrel's ability to stabilize a projectile... but I just don't remember the correlation at the time. My Rossi hasn't had that heavy a bullet thru it. I've only shot 200 grainers for any type of target use; and that was on steel, not for a group. The heaviest I've used is my 225 grain truncated cone bullet for functioning tests when I first got that Rossi. Except for some 250 grain JHP loads in the Rossi, everything of mine is below the SASS requirement of 1400fps. (I know they're much lower, but don't have my book in front of me).