Winchester 1892 at the range...getting there.

Finally got my 1892 Winchester made in 1894 to the range. With Remington and Winchester factory ammo it keyholes wildly. I pulled a Remington factory .32-20 round and the bullet measured .308, I didn't measure the Winchester bullets, but the way it keyholed and missed the target completely, pretty sure they were the same. There was a clay target at 125 yards set up on a berm, so I took a couple of shots, one hit about 10 feet or more the left, another about the same to the right.
Then I got out my handloads, with are Lyman 115 grain cast bullets, .312", which is what I slugged the bore at, over a mild load, 4.5 grains of Unique. I loaded these for my 1885 Low Wall before I got the 1892 Winchester.
The group isn't great, these are actually a couple different groups at 25 yards. You can see it looks like the rounds are starting to keyhole a bit, but they are much better than the factory rounds, which at 25 yards wouldn't even be on paper or if they were, would have gone through the target sideways. I plan on getting some more bullets, the next ones will ne .313" so I can try to get some better accuracy out of the old gun.

https://i.imgur.com/N8aJQqv.jpg

So what do your fireformed cases tell you?

I always measure the fired case mouth to see what the diameter of soft lead boolit it wants to have. The chamber/throate will indicate exactly which size boolit will most accurately function in your rifle. As long as your alloy is 20 to 1 or softer , your chamber will dictate what diameter will do best.

Congrates on your adoption. Do keep us in the loop on your introduction and aquantance to the old sweetie. A picture would be nice also.

In 32-20 I like .314 diameter lead bullets, don't know why but that is what I would use.

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Originally Posted by shdwlkr

In 32-20 I like .314 diameter lead bullets, don't know why but that is what I would use.

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I agree, that’s what my 1892 likes.

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Originally Posted by bigted

So what do your fireformed cases tell you?

I always measure the fired case mouth to see what the diameter of soft lead boolit it wants to have. The chamber/throate will indicate exactly which size boolit will most accurately function in your rifle. As long as your alloy is 20 to 1 or softer , your chamber will dictate what diameter will do best.

Congrates on your adoption. Do keep us in the loop on your introduction and aquantance to the old sweetie. A picture would be nice also.

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Can you please elaborate on this theory and process?
Thank you.

Yes.

1... take a fired case and just slightly flair the mouth to completely remove any crimp.
2... now take a inside caliper and measure the inside of the fired case neck.
3... take this measurement and cast boolits measuring this measurement to load in your now fireformed cases. This requires no sizing so cuts that action out of your loading steps.
4... load in your case enough 3Fg black powder to allow 1/8th inch compression with the boolit.
5... now that your cases are loaded, send them into your size die just so the boolit will stay in the case while seated on the powder.

This system has never failed for me to get very aceptable accuracy provided your barrel is capable of accuracy. These loads and system are sure to please.

Now understanding the acceptable accuracy may need to be addressed. If you expect bolt gun with a bull barrel and high magnification scope then you are sure to be disappointed.

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Originally Posted by Michael J. Spangler

Can you please elaborate on this theory and process?
Thank you.

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Watching this myself.

The fattest boolit that will freely chamber usually gets me off to a good start. My 32-20 rifle is a newer Marlin CL, and uses .312", but yours may very well require larger. My 32-20 revolvers use .314" for example.

As an aside, how is the crown, and the rifling just below it? I have a poor bore condition Trapdoor that I firelapped extensively, which helped it a lot, but cutting the crown produced the biggest results. On a good day I can get it down around an inch at 50 yards, which is very good considering the bore. Unless your barrel is hopelessly worn, you should be able to get yours shooting quite well. Good luck :)

Just slug the bore. After a chamber cast that's the 2nd thing a fella should do when working with old firearms. Then you know the chamber and bore dimensions and can probably come up with a pretty good load out of the gate, just as bigted mentions.