I acquired three old Winchester lever guns a couple of years ago, but they've been sitting in a safe until just this week. One is an 1873 in 38-40 and the other two a '92s in 44-40 and 25-20. All were manufactured c.1890's. Bore rifling is decent on all three and they seem to be mechanically sound.
I embarked upon a hand loading project with these rifles and decided I'd tackle the '73 first. So, I ordered the RCBS Cowboy die set and the 40-180 mould. I also ordered some Starline brass. The order arrived & I'm ready to start casting. I've also decided to avoid black powder due to clean up of the brass, and just stay with smokeless loads. As such, I thought the revival of this thread was quiet timely.
I do have a few of questions, however. First, due to the age of the guns, I thought it wise to stay in the realm of black powder velocity and pressure. With that consideration, I was thinking that my 50/50 COWW/SOWW with a small amount of tin and lubed with NRA formula would be about right. I have quiet a bit of this alloy as it is my goto for cast bullseye pistol loads. These test approx. 9-10 BNH on my Lee tester. Or, should I go with just go with lead or a lead tin mix? Second, the above referenced powders are pretty slow burning compared to typical pistol powders. I have Blue Dot, 2400, & 4227. Should I be using magnum pistol primers to ensure adequate ignition? Finally, has anyone experienced any position sensitivity with these powders?
Ultimately, I'd like to use this old '73 as my 100 yrd. hog rifle if I can develop an accurate load for it. I'm on a deer lease in East Texas where there's a couple of sounders of hog tearing up our deer feeders. I believe that is a capitol offense in Texas and I'd sure like to be judge, jury, and executioner.