Reviving a bubba special Winchester 1895

[texassako]

I decided to start working on a Winchester 1895 I had laying around. It is interesting, to say the least. Once upon a time it was a Russian contract musket, somewhere along the line it ended up in Czech hands where they stamped numbers and lions in several places, then the interesting woodwork and barrel chopping was done. Oh, and they set the barrel back to far so it was loose. I did a quick brass screw crown since whoever cut it down failed to cut one, rolled the shoulder so the barrel would be tight and the sights on the top, and stripped the flaking finish and scraped off some oil damaged wood. It came along on my last range trip for a handful of test rounds, and yield pie plate accuracy at 25 yards with low vel. cast and key holing with factory Privi. It is now in pieces to pull the barrel so I can go mining(the shine I thought was clean was copper fouling), and if it will eventually shoot halfway decent I will do something about the sights, stock, and bug eaten horn butt plate. If not, I guess it will get a thorough rebarrel and restock. I put up a picture of the crown if anyone sees something terribly wrong with it, but it looks pretty even to me.

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[flounderman]

The barrel looks like it was cut with a hacksaw. Did you check it with a square to see if it was cut straight. It should shoot better than you said. one trick is to coat the end of the barrel with whiteout and see if the smudgeing is even after you shoot it

[No_1]

What caliber?

[texassako]

The barrel looks like it was cut with a hacksaw. Did you check it with a square to see if it was cut straight. It should shoot better than you said. one trick is to coat the end of the barrel with whiteout and see if the smudgeing is even after you shoot it

I checked side to side, but forgot to check up and down. It is at angle from the top to the bottom. Sight looks silly perched out on the end anyway; so I guess it is coming off to fix it. Doubled the depth of the rifling this afternoon with a good scrubbing.

[texassako]

What caliber?

7.62x54r

[No_1]

That's a keeper!

[texassako]

That's a keeper!

I thought so as well since I already shoot in that caliber, and I can do pretty much whatever is required to get it shoot. It could never be restored anyway as the receiver has been smoothed and the holes filled where the stripper clip feed tabs used to be attached. Also found out just now not to let the front sight fall on your thumb after melting the silver solder to get it loose. I took the massive 1+" thick horn butt plates off while I was at it. Might as well stabilize the cracks and fill the bug holes while it is unshootable. I could make 2 out of this one if it does not stay on the rifle because of later work, and kind of expensive stuff. It sure is pretty stuff.

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[Frank46]

I have a '95 in 30-40 krag. Bubba had already worked his magic on it before i got it. By the way, the flat muzzle face on the saddle ring carbines is origional to the carbine. Think they came with 22" bbls. Bubba took off the old front sight and used a silver dime as a new one. Rear sight looked like it came off a '94 winnie with a big honkin dovetail. And the buttstock has an ossified rubber ventilated rubber pad. Suprisingly the bore looks pretty good. Mine was made in 1915. Frank

[Artful]

Dang, I miss my old shooting range in Oregon - Burl would occasionally bring out his 405 WCF 1895 to check sights, and if he was feeling generous would let some of us take a turn behind it. There should be a tonne of old '95's in Mother Russia, wonder if they will let any of them back into our country?

[texassako]

Cut my first muzzle crown on a lathe today after unsoldering the front sight and a couple of bits that hold the woodwork on and interfered with the bore of the lathe. I think it looks pretty good for being done on a HF 7x10 minilathe. I think I am going to put a NECG banded ramp in the front and a Williams FP-71 receiver sight in the back.

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[texassako]

I am just about done turning it back into a shooter. Refit the front sight that came on it further back instead of perched on the very tip. It was fun trying out silver soldering for the first time. Cleaned out a bunch of fouling over the weekend, and there is some real shine on the lands with dark grooves. Blended in the odd dovetail in the wood where the rear sight dovetail is located. Sanded the woodwork enough to get the stain to take, but left some of the character marks. Stained the front wood several shades darker in order to get closer to a color match of what may be different species of walnut. It was 3 different colors to start ranging from very red for a walnut in the butt stock to light tan on the bottom fore stock and a muddy brown on the top fore stock. It is shiny in the picture because it has my finish working it's magic. 1/3 BLO, spar varnish, and mineral spirits applied liberally and then wiped out after about 15 minutes of sitting. I don't like the plastic shell look of most commercial gun finishes of today, and it is super easy to repair.

The refit sight
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Funky dovetail through the wood
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Blended dovetail
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Semi finished woodwork
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[Artful]

Looking good, let us see some Targets now.

[texassako]

Looking good, let us see some Targets now.

I plan to but can only get to the range every other week or so when it is so hot and need to go in the mornings. Reloading its' fired cases in the mean time, plus adding more finish as I think about it.

[texassako]

Oh well, quess it will need a barrel if I want some decent accuracy. Privi factory rounds keyholed while 11gr of Unique with the Lee TLC312-160-2r, some Accurate 31-215B courtesy tommeboy, and 311284s were 4" groups or larger sized to .314". All shot at 25 yards.

[nekshot]

super neat project! Sounds like you and JES need to talk reboring it, that gun is crying to go 35 caliber.

[texassako]

I could not let such a cool rifle sit in the safe because of a bad barrel. I even borrowed a Manson crown tool in case I did not cut the crown well, and it still keyholed everything at 25 yards. I don't know if I will ever know what was wrong, just plain worn out I guess. the shank had issues; so I decided to watch for a takeoff barrel while it sat on the back burner. A uncut takeoff barrel arrived today and it is much easier to clean the bore with it uninstalled. You know it was dirty when the first dose of foaming bore spray came out looking like this after sitting only 15 minutes, but it is starting to show some shine now:

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[Artful]

we'll cross our fingers for you.

[nekshot]

I sure envy you in the fact that you have one and it is yours! In all my looking I have never seen one of these for sale period.

[texassako]

Well, the barrel is on now after a lot of cleaning, and patches still come out a little dirty. Headspace was good, and the shank has a lot better, and tighter, fit. The bottom wood the rifle came with doesn't look half bad for a shooter, and I am just waiting for the proper forearm nut to arrive. It still needs sights, but for now I am just going to use the existing rear sight holes(2 6-48 holes for the missing ladder sight) to mount a piece of scope rail and a scope I already have scout style. I don't want to plunk down a good sized chunk of change on a #21 repro only to find out it still doesn't shoot. The scope will be handy for working up loads in the future anyway. How it sits now, and definitely more rifle like, better looking, and less buggered up compared to the takeoff barrel:

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[psychicrhino]

Looking good

[texassako]

Weird, my update disappeared. Oh well, it now is a fully functional rifle with the addition of a Providence Tool copy of the Lyman #21 in the rear and a penny for the front. The new penny was not a good choice since silver on a white target is hard to see. Shot several 150 gr jacketed loads from reduced to full power at 25 yards. A try with paper patched and the full power load sprayed, but the reduced loads showed enough promise to keep loading instead of reboring. The fifth shot of the best load was on the wrong target(but same spot), but would have fit in with the top 3. I think I can get minute of deer out of it at least, and hope to use it as a test bed for smokeless paper patching. In addition, the range had a copy of the Lyman Cast Handbook in their freebie box.

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