1895 Winchester in 30 Remington?

[moodyholler]

Gander Mtn in Roanoke, Va has one in thier showroom. Neat looking gun. Is this a factory offering? Or a one offbarrel job? It is in a locked case and I could not examine it. They want 1999.99 for it. Does have a shotgun butt and short barrel. Also had a nice 53 for 1499.99 and an 1895 in 30-06 for 1499.99. Later, moodyholler

[Hobie]

Are you sure it is .30 "Remington"? .30 US, .30 Govt, .30 Army, but .30 Remington would be awful short for the action and compete with Winchester's own .30-30 M1894.

[Gun Smith]

Either a rebarrel or it's not 30 Remington. Never a M. 95 caliber from the factory.

[Alan Wood]

Given the price I wouldn't touch that with a 10 foot pole. Given a more reasonable price I would be getting a chamber casting before drawing any conclusions about it's chambering. I wonder if it was a pull the ruined barrel off and let's see we got this 30 remington barrel from who knows what over here well cut and thread for the 95 and ream the chamber to ??? job.

Hm Oh well not my problem.

[shawn_c992001]

Moody, my 95 is marked .30 Army this rifle being marked as a .30 Rem could be something as simple as a large gun store reject screwing up the tag, has happened alot believe me!

[O.S.O.K.]

Yep, probably a 30-40 Krag (30US).

That was the most common chambering. And I agree that the price is too high - unless its all original and in good shape...

[edavis]

Hi! I wanted to jump in here and ask a question that may or may not apply to what you guys are talking about. Please bear with me. I recently acquired a model 1895 Winchester. The barrel is marked .30 GOVT.1903. the top of the box directly behind the barrel is marked .30 GOV. '03. The newest patent date on the side of the reciever is Aug. 6. 1907. The serial number underneath the lever is 84488. I looked that up as best I could and learned that the rifle was a 1915. My question is what round does this rifle shoot?

[moodyholler]

30-03 govt AND IS LONGER THAN A 30-06 govt. Later, moodyholler

[edavis]

Thanks for the info. Can you tell me if that round is available? I read that the 30-03 was unpopular and production was stopped and that the round itself was obsolete.

[Pete44ru]

[Can you tell me if that round is available?]

Only as a rare collectible, since it was long discontinued a few years after it's introduction.

You might have a valued collector's item there - I would check it out.

The .30-03 was introduced as a rimless replacement for the .30-40 Krag in the then-new 1903 US Springfield rifle, with a 220gr RN bullet; only to be discontinued when the US Gov't adopted the shorter .30-06 with spitzer bullet.

The .30-06 will fire safely in a .30-03 chamber/rifle, but poor accuracy usually results.

The case was the basis for the design of the .270 Winchester, IIRC.

.

[Kansas Ed]

Hi! I wanted to jump in here and ask a question that may or may not apply to what you guys are talking about. Please bear with me. I recently acquired a model 1895 Winchester. The barrel is marked .30 GOVT.1903. the top of the box directly behind the barrel is marked .30 GOV. '03. The newest patent date on the side of the reciever is Aug. 6. 1907. The serial number underneath the lever is 84488. I looked that up as best I could and learned that the rifle was a 1915. My question is what round does this rifle shoot?

It's a 30-03...you can't rechamber to -06 without setting the bbl back. The only difference in the -03 and -06 is the neck length, and the -03 is slightly longer. Since the cartridge headspaces on the shoulder and not the case mouth, 30-06 ammo is perfectly fine in your rifle. Enjoy having a relatively rare caliber...BTW...I'm not sure what the case length is on the '03 but since it's a neck length difference, you shouldn't have to trim your '06 brass in this respect.

Ed

[airedaleman]

.30-03 had a longer neck to accomodate a 220gr RN bullet. The Germans woke us up with with the Spitzgeschoss (spitzer) bullet in the 8X57mm, and the 30-03 became the 30-06, also with a spitzer bullet.

[Buffboy]

Just supposition on my part, but I would think you could neck up 270Win with it's longer neck to 30-03 dimensions.

[buckeyeshooter]

The 270 case will still be short. I would just load 30-06 cases to a longer overall length by not seating the bullet as deep. That will decrease the jump and give you good accuracy. The 30-03 is a piece of history, enjoy your rifle.

[Gun Smith]

The difference between the 30/03 and 30/06 is approximately 1/8" longer (30/03). As airedaleman stated, the neck length was needed to support the original design 220 grain military round. The big round nose bullet was a holdover from the original Krag military round. Further testing between 1903 and 1906 showed that the faster 180 gr. bullet had better ballistics, so the heavier 220 grain military round nose bullet was dropped. The 180 grain change made the longer case unnecessary, and the shorter round fed a little better in the Springfield action so the 30/06 180 grain bullet was adopted.

[edavis]

Man, what great information. Thank you guys very much. The rifle belonged to a legendary Guadalupe Mt. man and rancher. I had tried to buy the rifle from him many years ago, but he had decided not to sell it. He had told me that the rifle had killed more Guadalupe Mountain elk than any other rifle. This was many years before the mountains became part of thr National Parks system. I told his son the story and in a few days he surprised me by giving me the rifle. Once again, thank you all for the valuable information. Ed