Recommendations for 1873 lever (sight & bullet)

[HDS]

Should be getting my 1873 lever in .357 soon (Uberti 20" short rifle). I have some areas that I would like some input on. I plan for this rifle to be my dedicated black powder platform.

Sights

I want to do everything from fast close range shooting to long range (300y max range I got) steel shooting. For that kind of varied shooting what's the best sighting option?

A tang sight looks like the obvious solution. I have a Marbles improved sight on a Win 9422 lever and I find the stem is too floppy for my tastes, but accuracy is there. I wonder if the standard version perhaps is less floppy? And while it is click adjustable there's no scale so I can't really repeat settings except by counting so I have it set for 50 yards and leave it there.

Lyman #2 is another popular choice but lacks windage adjustment, I might be able to live without windage adjustment once it's zeroed, I read somewhere it's just a screw indexed adjustment, but it has some kind of scale on it so you can write down and repeat your settings? Is this true? And could I use the aperture disk from my marble on the lyman?

I've seen other models I know even less about like the Ideal C-Sharps sight, anyone have any experience with that?

Then there are the Vernier sights, which looks like they can do exactly what I want for the long range shooting part, however they are pricy and lacking in close range usability since you can't swap out the aperture for a larger holed disk (unless someone can prove me wrong).

Bullets

I'm leaning towards the 160gr Snakebite Grease Wagon by Biglube bullets at the moment, optimized for use in .38spl cases so you get 357 OAL for use in the modern replicas. But I am open to all suggestions and sage advice that might be offered. Anyone used these bullets themselves?

I guess I will need another sizer now too, since my star sizer is used with conventional lube only...

[w30wcf]

HDS,

Regarding the sights, I have both the Lyman and Marbles tang sights. The eyepieces are not interchangeable since the thread size is smaller on the Marbles. The Lymans I have also have some slop in them but the newer ones appear to have a stem lock that would tighten the sight up. The current Marbles also appear to have a stem lock.

My Lyman tang sights do not have a scale on them but the newer ones might.

For longer distant shooting the Lyman does give more elevation than the Marbles which would be a plus.

What brand of b.p. will you be using?

w30wcf

[HDS]

There's only really swiss BP available here, they had swiss 3FG extra cheap over in Sweden so when the store got it back in stock I was gonna make a run down there and buy like 10lbs in a go.

[w30wcf]

With 3F Swiss, I use Accurate bullet #36-165B. It follows the design of the 358250, the original .38 Special b.p. cast bullet except that it has a flat nose.

21.5 grs (original 38 Special b.p. load) Swiss 3F in .357 Magnum brass, pushes the 36-165B to 1,220 f.p.s. and gives very good accuracy for 50+ shots with no cleaning / blow tubing.

I have used that recipe out to 300 meters with good success.[smilie=w:

w30wcf

http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o25/w30wcf/Collector%20Cartridges/38Specialbpbullets1.jpg

[runfiverun]

instead of a new sizer you can pan lube and push through size.
or use just the sizer portion of your sizer without applying lube.
I do this with my stars without adding any lube to the boolit.

[HDS]

I'll definitely be pan lubing to start with, get some use out of that waxmeister I got and hardly got to use before I replaced it with the Star.

The accurate bullet design looks interesting, two grooves instead of one giant groove. Too bad about their prices however, given the news I was given last night (twins!) I need to start saving money... I would have liked an iron mould (don't have one, only brass, and one aluminum).

[BCRider]

If you're serious about 200 and 300 yard performance I'd suggest that you consider getting the chamber reamed out a little to accept .357Max brass and loads. The .357Mag case only holds a fairly light charge of around 22 to 23 gns of powder even with compression. And it would be even less if you opt for longer and heavier bullets in the 160 to 180gn range for the longer shots. The .357Max won't hold a whole lot more but it should bump the powder up to 25 gns with a 158gn boolit.

The other thought would be to switch over to smokeless for the truly long distance work at 300 and use BP out to 200 if it works out decently. That would let you stay with BP for the most part.

I guess a lot of the issues will be related to the sort of muzzle velocity you can achieve with the loads in the .357Mag cases. At worst you may need to look into one of the short Pedersoli vernier sights for the rear to give you the rise needed for 300.

It's a pity that Uberti doesn't offer this rifle chambered in .38-40. Now THAT would be a great dedicated BP shooter!

[HDS]

I want to be able to reach out there but it won't be the only shooting done, or even the majority of shooting done there, the main ranges I goto are 100-150 yards, sometimes I have access to 300.

Ideally I'd have liked .44-40 for a myriad of reasons such as authenticity and a love of big calibers, but practical reloading reasons (cost of components) made the 357 the choice. Besides I have not had any guns in 357 before. I've actually been planning to use .38spl cases for their cheapness and availability, probably with the snakebite bullet for OAL.