Winchester 1876 Range Report (photos)

Win 38-55

Win 38-55

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I've been working on a new pet load for my original Winchester Model 1876. I figured 25 grains of 5744 under the 322 grain cast GC bullet I've been using should give me somewhere in the neighbourhood of 1,325 fps. I loaded up seven rounds, five to see how they shoot over the chronograph and two to shoot offhand at 100 yards. Here's a photo of the five for the chronograph ....

45-60Cartridges.jpg


I got the brass from Rocky Mountain Cartridge in Cody, WY. Folks can also get nice 45-60 brass from http://www.marstar.ca/ammo-etc/new-brass.shtm

Here's a photo of my old '76 ....

76-next-600.jpg


The first thing I did at the range was to take my two offhand shots at 100 yards. I have the rest of the summer to practice for hunting season, but here's the target anyway ....

45-60PetOffhand.jpg


I then set up another target at 100 yards, aligned my chronograph, and took five shots. The 25 grains of 5744 gave an average velocity of 1,332 fps with an extreme spread of only 17 fps. That is nice burning consistency. I'm a little rusty, so the group was a bit looser than the gun is capable of, but here's the target anyway ....

45-60PetLoad.jpg


This is going to be my pet load for my '76. The Rocky Mountain Cartridges have a little less case volume than Chaparrel brass, so the same load may give a lower velocity in the latter. I'm taking this deer hunting this fall. Now to practice all summer and early fall with this so I can get real good with it. I'll be practicing out to 200 yards.
 
Nice shootin Winchester. Don't see any peep sight in the pic so assume you are using the open v notch. Looks to me like yer pretty decent with a calculator as well to get the estimated velocity that close. Good luck when the leaves are on the ground again.
 
Yeah, it has the ladder sight, so that 'V' is pretty wide. Fortunately, my front blade sight is pretty wide, so it's not hard to center.
 
Fellows, with regard to accurate shooting offhand with the Winchester 1876, I personally think it is easier than many might suspect, primarily due to two things. First, is the rifle's mass, which is close to 10 pounds. A heavy rifle like that doesn't shake much. Second, the long 28" barrel, coupled with the long receiver, gives you a huge sight radius. There are a couple drawbacks, however. First, is the heavy pull for the trigger and the other is the open iron sights, although this is less of a factor than the trigger.
 
Very nice, I had her sister until a yr ago.
It shot very well too with a real nice bore, can't remember the load but it was 4198 with Kleanex tissue as a filler.
 
Heavy trigger?

Win 38-55 said:
Fellows, with regard to accurate shooting offhand with the Winchester 1876, I personally think it is easier than many might suspect, primarily due to two things. First, is the rifle's mass, which is close to 10 pounds. A heavy rifle like that doesn't shake much. Second, the long 28" barrel, coupled with the long receiver, gives you a huge sight radius. There are a couple drawbacks, however. First, is the heavy pull for the trigger and the other is the open iron sights, although this is less of a factor than the trigger.
Click to expand...

Most of my levers and experience with such has been Marlin. I can't say I remember shooting one with a heavy trigger. Is this something specific to the age of your rifle (harder primers in that day?) or model? Would this be something that would be easily fixable? Nice shooting, and good looking pictures, by the way.
 
I can't say if it is unique to my rifle or to '76's in general. I do plan to carefully dissassemble the action to clean out the 124 years worth of crud and will be looking at it at that time. If I recall correctly, another 76 I used to have had the same trigger pull.
 
Win 38-55, you're right about the weight and longer barrel. I just got a 94 rifle, 26 in. round , full mag. and it holds really steady offhand. It's a pain in the ass to carry but when it comes time to shoot, it's great.
 
Nice shooting Kirk. Glad to see you're getting some shooting time in your busy schedule.
Senior may be able to share some loading info with you as it is the same gun, I can vouch for that. I only had it 2 months - as I had to part with a few to save money for my house down payment - but at least I'm getting to see it doing some great shooting now. Wish I had more time myself to put some lead down the pipe.
BTW, I picked up a nice 32-40 SRC to bring to your place for the yearly shoot!
Matt
 
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