Original Winchester '73 at 200 yards (photos)

[KirkD]

Ever since I developed my 'ultimate' 44-40 load, I've been looking forward to trying it out at 200 yards. Although there was a bit of a breeze (20 km/hr or 12 mph), I couldn't stay away from the range any longer, so at lunch hour I slipped off for a quick shoot.

Rifle: An original Winchester Model 1873 chambered in 44 WCF (44-40) and received in the Warehouse August 1, 1889. It is in excellent, original condition, with a shiny, smooth bore with sharp rifling. I took a photo of this vintage '73 after the shoot, posted below ....

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v497/3855Win/Desktop%20Photos/Rifle.jpg

Load: 17.7 grains of 5744 with a pinch of cotton between the powder and the bullet to keep the powder against the primer.

Bullet: Accurate Molds 43-200B ordered to give a sized diameter of .431 ( http://www.accuratemolds.com/bullet_detail.php?bullet=43-200B-D.png ) see photo below ...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v497/3855Win/Moldandbullet1.jpg

and here's a photo of the bullet, pinch of cotton and case, to give you an idea of the amount of cotton I use. I don't weigh it. I just pinch off enough cotton to fill the space in the cartridge with the cotton lightly compressed between the bullet and the powder. ....

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8144/7469891886_457365f4d0_z.jpg

Shooting Setup: I set my shooting bag on a piece of 2 x 12 to give the right height. I rested my arm on the pillow. Here's a photo of the setup I used today ....

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v497/3855Win/shooting-setup.jpg

First Group (peep sticker on glasses):
For this first group, I stuck a small, round sticker about 1/4" in diameter with a 1/16" hole punched in the middle of it onto the front of the right lens of my glasses. This acts as a bit of a peep hole to sharpen up the rear sights for my 57 year-old eyes. This tended to make the front sight a bit more difficult to see. I raised the ramp under my rear sight two notches and fired a 'sighter'. I hit about an inch below the target, so raised the rear sight one more notch. I fired five shots and then headed down to check my target. Although I found the front sight difficult to see because the peep really reduced the contrast of the sight against the target, I got a five-shot group of 5 & 1/8" at 200 yards. I'm sure the rifle is capable of a group half that size, but it was the best I could do this particular day. Here's a photo of the target ....

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v497/3855Win/target-w-peep.jpg

Second Group (no peep sticker on glasses):
When I am hunting, I don't have a sticker on the lens of my glasses, so I figured I'd see how I could shoot without one. With no sticker, the front sight was easier to see but the rear sight notch was very, very blurry. I slowly fired off five rounds and went down to check my target. Very interesting! This time I got a five shot group of exactly 6" at 200 yards and the entire group was moved over about 3" to the right and about 4" down. I am sure this was due to a much blurrier rear sight notch, making the top and middle of the sight notch harder to figure out. I did find a consistent area within the blurry notch to put the front sight, since this second group is only 3/4" larger that the sticker-peep group, but obviously the sight picture has been altered due to the much blurrier rear sight notch. Here's a photo of the second no-peep sticker target .....

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v497/3855Win/target-no-peep.jpg

Concluding Thoughts: This fall, I'm planning to harvest a White Tail deer with this fine old classic. The load looks good enough out to 200 yards, but I will have to practice shooting without the sticker peep. Where I will be hunting, the shots are most likely to be less than 50 yards and no more than 100 yards. Nevertheless, I look forward to practicing at ranges between 50 and 200 yards this summer and fall. I think that with practice, I should be able to tighten up my 200 yard groups with no peep sticker on my glasses.

[Salmoneye]

Pretty impressive...Thanks for the look...

[hightime]

Lookin' good. I'll be trying to get there with ya.

Owen

[Marvin S]

Looks good Kirk, and it will get the job done. Just post some of your fine pictures with deer included.

[KirkD]

Looks good Kirk, and it will get the job done. Just post some of your fine pictures with deer included.
I sure hope I can, Marvin. Our deer season is not until the third week in November.

[atr]

nicely done !

[Hamish]

Very nicely done sir. Beautiful pic of the rifle.

[Jim]

Man, Kirk, that is one beautiful rifle! And a great photo, too!

[smokeywolf]

Kirk,

That's some mighty fine shootin and a really a beautiful '73, which obviously shoots like new.

I can't even make out the 10 ring at 200 yds. any more. I have no trouble passing the eye test at DMV, so I haven't bothered to replace my glasses lost some 2 years ago.

Do you know your approx. Brinell hardness and is there any indication of leading following your range sessions?

smokeywolf

[KirkD]

Smokeywolf, I cast the bullets out of wheel weights, mostly clip-on with the occasional stick on in the mix. For that reason, I'd guess they are around 10 BHN. There is no leading, but the gas check may be partly responsible for that. My groove diameter is .431 and so are my bullets. I can't really go with a larger diameter bullet because .431 is the largest diameter I can snugly chamber.

[TXGunNut]

Wonderful rifle, great pics. Well done sir! And to think I wasted my lunch hour washing my truck and taking a nap!

[smithywess]

Kirk,

That is indeed a wonderful rifle with lots of original finish. 5" to 6" grouping at 200 yards is indeed very good over open barrel sights. Without question. I used to shoot my Lee Enfield, in .303, at Bisley where at two hundred yards, through a Parker Hale aperture sight, the aiming mark (inner,4 points) was 12'' across and the bull, 5 points, inside it was 5'' across. To obtain a 'possible' of ten bulls, 50 points, with two preceding sighters was judged to be extremely good.

I have greatly enjoyed your journey to obtain your optimum load for your Winchester Model '73 in .44-40 particularly with reference to the use of filler where in reading Dave Scoville's ideas in the 'Handloader' as well as yours here together with those of Larry Gibson and John Korn I have learned a great deal.

Thanks.

[KirkD]

Smithywess, thanks for posting that info about the 200 yard target at Bisley for shooting the .303. That is encouraging. Although I'm happy enough with that first group, I must confess to a twinge of discouragement at the state of my vision. That Bisley target info was encouraging. When I was a teenager, these eyes worked a whole lot better than they do now. I'm going to practice more at 200 yards to see if I can train myself to get a more consistent sight picture with these eyes and hopefully smaller groups. If I could get them down to 4" I'd be happy. I know the rifle is capable of it.

Last time I was shooting this old rifle at the range at 200 yards, a friend of mine was also shooting his 7 mm Remington Magnum with a scope. We'd both go down to the 200 yard targets. He was getting a five shot group of about 2 & 1/2". Beside his target, my five shot group with the old '73 looked massive. Nevertheless, we both knew I was shooting a 124 year-old rifle with open iron sights.

[TXGunNut]

Agreed about open sights, Kirk. They're pretty tough for older eyes. Aperture sights are better but some days they're difficult as well. Too hot to shoot a rifle around here these days anyway. 108 on my car thermometer on the way home from the range, one stretch around 110.

[Mk42gunner]

Regardless of your vision, I am impressed with a 200 yard group of less than six inches with a .44-40. Just not real sure I would want to shoot anything that far away with one.

As to the sights, have you tried smoking them? Before my eyes matured, freshly blackened sights were easier to see and provided a better sight picture than ones that had the finish worn from the edges.

I haven't tried it since I got some glasses that I can actually see my sights with, but it may help.

Robert

[puddledog]

That rifle is a work of art, nice groups as well.

[KirkD]

As to the sights, have you tried smoking them? Before my eyes matured, freshly blackened sights were easier to see and provided a better sight picture than ones that had the finish worn from the edges.
I've not heard of that before, but it does make sense. A blacker rear sight would stand out more than the duller finish on a normal rear sight. I have a friend of mine helping me track down an original aperture sight, but I'm tempted to try a blackened rear sight face to see how that does. Unfortunately, I'm on the road for the next week and a half so no shooting for me until the first week in August.

[MtGun44]

Gorgeous rifle, obviously a great load, too.

Well done! Very interesting to see what is actually possible with these old guns. This is
actually one of the reason that I own many different milsurp rifles - much interest in how
good they were as tools in warfare; manual of arms, accuracy, useability of the sights,
- basically real world look at how well each country armed it's troops.

This is the same thing - "What could a cowboy in the old west with a new Win '73
really be able to do if he needed to at "long range" ?'

Thanks !

Bill

[ajjohns]

Well that looks like a real fun next round from the last session you showed us! Nice shooting!

[KirkD]

"What could a cowboy in the old west with a new Win '73 really be able to do if he needed to at "long range"?'
Bang on! Actual hunting where I go is probably at 50 yards or less. The thing in the back of my mind, and why I like to shoot this old '73 at 200 yards, is exactly for the reason MtGun44 suggested. I'm a Louis L'Amour fan, and this type of question is one I've wondered about.

[TCFAN]

I have alot of trouble seeing open sights. What I did was get a Merit Optical attachment that mounts on my glasses. It is adjustable for the size of peep hole that you look through and works very good.You can see it here....... http://www.midwayusa.com/product/978528/merit-optical-attachment-with-suction-cup

Since it will swing out of the way I think it would work OK for hunting.
By the way I really like that 73 Winchester you have....................Terry

[MtGun44]

I sure wouldn't want to stand out there with you potting away at me "out of range with that
carbine" - something that gets said occasionally on western movies.

Remember the scene in the Texas Ranger saga with Robert Duval, ambushed by a couple of
buffalo hunters alone and no place to hide. He stopped, laid down and killed his horse as a
bullet shield and then lay out a few quick shots at the buffalo hunters. They were laughing so
hard at his "carbine" and "what you going to do with that thing at this range?" that one jumped
up and pranced about like a chicken flapping his arms and laughing while the other set up
his big buffalo rifle to shoot at Duval. Duval flipped up the Henry's long range rear sight
sight, wiped the front sight with a wet finger and rested prone over the dead horse and
carefully squeezed off a shot. He hit the buff hunter in the belly with a "thwack", and then
said something about "you'll take a couple of days to die from that mister" - and he did.

Bill

[Omnivore]

An aperture sight can make a huge difference. I say it's definately worth a try, especially if you can find a period original, or a good repro of one.

[Rafe Covington]

Great looking rifle, just got a '73 in 44-40 WCF myself. Nice shooting also.

Rafe:drinks: