I ran 16 rounds of 44-40 BP loads through my 138 year old Winchester 1873 today. Been working on a bullet and load combo. Using Desperado 200gr. .430” RNFB backed up by GOEX FFFg BP at 2.2cc Lee Dipper for now. Next I’m going to buy myself the Lyman No.55 Classic BP Measure. At 40yds. they were all over the place. Up, Left and Right. Moved the sight up and down till I think I got it set ok for now, but I think a lot of my issue was fouling from the GOEX. After only 16 rounds, it was so bad, I thought I was going to break the string on my Bore Snake. I’m going to load up more in the next few weeks and try FFg and see how it does, and then I may move over to the Swiss BP as I hear it burns cleaner. But after I got my bore all cleaned back up nice and Purdy, I went ahead and removed my side plates and removed her guts and cleaned out 138 years worth of grime. I’ve only had her for about 10 months, and this is the first time I’ve took her down this far. I didn’t bother removing the stock or the leaver from the housing, but it was loose so I could clean around it Good. Used Acetone to cut the old crude and a stiff bristle brush and a soft brush. Oiled up all the parts good and put her back together. Next, I plan on removing the stock, lever, trigger and hammer and get into the nooks even better. Hopefully I can get her to hitting better as well. The reason for the .430” bullets is due to having an oversized bore of .433”, so by using the softer lead bullets and BP, I’m hoping to get a better deal into the groves than what I was getting with .428” bullets which you could hear the gasses leave the barrel before the bullet left. If anyone has any pointers, I’m willing to listen.
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