'73' came to my house

[bigted]

Have been gathering parts and "building" a Winchester 1873 carbine in 38 WCF cal. Have most of the parts , however, i get impatient and this is the case here. I do not desire to further "bubba" my project and seems some parts are going to take awhile to locate.

SOOO,

I located a '73' complete shooter that left the factory as a 28 inch custom barreled rifle which for some reason has "LOST" 3 inch of its original length and some body has gotten handy with a "cleaning" job on all external metal but for some reason left the wood as is.

She is a great and solid shooter with a better then average bore ... definitely a shooter which is what i desired.

Buying some 38 WCF brass and a Lee die set i set about loading some ammo with lee's 175 grain boolits and some old Cartridge goex powder i am just about done with. I just desired to make this 130+ year old rifle come back to life.

First i took it , carefully , down to parade rest being very careful to fit my screw driver set to the screw heads. Picking out 100 years of dirt out of the screw slots with a plastic pick , some screws were kinda stuck and required some finesse to persuade the reluctant buggers to release.

Inside i find that the hammer/trigger plate being very filthy with thankfully no rust to mention and after cleaning and oiling the parts i shimmed the trigger return spring to get a bit lighter trigger pull. The bolt was crudded up but the firing pin came, with reluctance, out and also was packed with old oily crud but again no rust.

All in all i found a working safe rifle that screamed SHOOT ME PLEASE!!! Sooo ... i did.

Kinda anti climactic at the first trigger pull. Such a heavy rifle and some 35 grains cartridge powder and some 45 years expectation culminated in a nice loud boom with the resultant cloud of great smellin powder smoke and NO RECOIL!!! I mean none. I have shot 22 magnum rifles with more recoil then this old sweetie.

Accuracy? Well i will just say i could prolly kill a buck at 50 or maybe 75 yards but it will take some messin to get it to shoot some tighter groups BUT all in all i feel privileged to have this old sweet heart adopted for a spell. Who knows where it will go from me but it is being enjoyed by this ol man. Do not know her history nor the stories it could tell but it sure talk's to me.

[bigted]

[Grmps]

Great find. Sometimes they just insist on you taking them home.

Have fun working up loads for it.

Plenty of places to go shooting around Sweet Home

[nagantguy]

I love your write up; a simple clean polish shim and shine turned an old neglected rifle back into fighting form and I just knowna smile was plastered
To your face the entire time you loaded aimed and shot the old girl. When you do take a deer or pig with that rifle it’ll be extra special and a real trophy even if they are just meat animals. I can assure you of this because I detailed here my quest 3 years ago to get a 1928 vintage 94 30wfc back into working and fighting trim, after untold years in a gun sock on someone’s basement floor. The sock was rotted into the wood and now looks pretty cool, like worm tracks; and aside from the bluing being gone and the Lyman tang sight base screw buggered the action and barrel were packed with grease and she cleaned up well and after a entire summer of cleaning and refinishing and powder coating and load work up i took a very nice 6 point on public land in an epic spot and stalk hunt that two different timesnalmost went south on me and one time had me running over a mile on a sandy two track to re-intercept the buck! It’s at the top
Of my fond memories, as a matter of fact I’m waiting now for some friends to go to the range and that 94 is already in the truck for a zero check before the November firearms deer season.

[Hootmix]

Proud for y'a " BIG " from your write-up I can tell " she's " in good hands , i'v been want'n a 73 ,, but it has to be a Chaparral ,,, in 44/40 ,, I know ,, I know ,, but one will turn up.

coffee's ready ,, Hootmix.

[bigted]

Thanks for the replies. I loaded two different loads behind the same .401 lee flat point boolit. Lubed the large groove with SPG in a .409 die in the Lyman lubsizer.

The first load was 35 grains Ol E 2F powder compressed with the boolit. Fed primer. This load blows my mind with its 35 yard accuracy. 25 shots into a 2.5 inch bunch. Very fun to shoot and lotza smoke n sparks. THIS load has to be the finest shooter on earth.

Second load consists of 3 grains imr 4227 folloewed with 25 grains cartridge powder. Very clean and surprisingly shoots and feels the same as the pure BP load, however after shooting 5 of them i feel wary about such an un tested load in this old girl. Very clean and all 5 went into a 1.5 inch group at the 35 yard mark.

For ease of loading and peace of mind in the old 1884 built rifle, i will stay with the pure Ol E loads.

I also loaded 15 cartridges with 35 grains of the Ol E 3F powder and they shot well too but they began sooting the necks up so think i will stay with the straight 2F charges..

All in all i really like this old rifle. She has a ton of charisma and history dripping outta the poors of the old wood and old metal. I can only imagine where it has gone and things she has seen. I will surely cherish it for my duration of adoption.