ATCDoktor
12-05-2016, 10:39 PM
Was at the Crossroads of the West Gun Show (SAR West Show)
this past weekend and ran across an extremely clean Winchester/Browning Model 95 in 30-06.
I eyeballed it extremely hard for about 20 minutes going over it with a flashlight and a small handheld magnifying glass and could find no obvious signs of wear or abuse as it had been taken care of extremely well.
The only thing that gave me pause was that the hammer spring was extremely light and when working the lever, it's movement was almost effortless.
That screamed to me that somebody had monkeyed with it and I almost never buy a gun when someone's dug around in it as I don't want to end up spending a fortune sorting out somebody else's gun smithing mistakes.
The guy selling the gun knew very little about the gun and had recieved in in trade on another deal he had worked at the beginning of the week.
I told him about my concerns reference the hammer spring and having to deal with the specter of light primer strikes and told him I'd likely pass.
Well, the seller (needing cash 3 weeks before Xmas) dropped his asking price reference my concerns) from 975 to 850 and (with a slight pause) I agreed and bought the rifle.
I walked around the show carrying the rifle for a while and that light hammer spring was gnawing at me a little (again worrying about light primer strikes) and curiosity got the best of me and I found a vendor selling primed factory Federal 30-06 brass and took the rifle out in the parking lot, wrapped the muzzle in the gun sock that came with the gun and popped a couple of primers in the bed of my truck just to be sure.
It it worked fine (which was a relief).
I got it home late Saturday afternoon and loaded up the brass I bought with some 175 grain Jwords and took it out to see how it shot.
To to say I was pleased was an understatement.
With th no load development and using the starting load for IMR 4895 I was able to turn in 2 inch groups (off the bench) at 100 yards and to my surprise groups were centered on the target.
Feeling froggy I decided to run 5 rounds offhand at 100 at my small steel swinger and was able to turn in the group below:
Again, this is offhand at 100 yards.
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c307/ATCDoctor/1-6-2012/F4C7385B-FF8E-457C-8468-B81F8F28AD44_zpsbggqaq3z.jpg (http://s30.photobucket.com/user/ATCDoctor/media/1-6-2012/F4C7385B-FF8E-457C-8468-B81F8F28AD44_zpsbggqaq3z.jpg.html)
I've been wanting Winchester Model 95 in 30-06 for a long while to go with my Miroku model 95 in 405 and the way this one shoots makes me regret not buying one sooner.
this past weekend and ran across an extremely clean Winchester/Browning Model 95 in 30-06.
I eyeballed it extremely hard for about 20 minutes going over it with a flashlight and a small handheld magnifying glass and could find no obvious signs of wear or abuse as it had been taken care of extremely well.
The only thing that gave me pause was that the hammer spring was extremely light and when working the lever, it's movement was almost effortless.
That screamed to me that somebody had monkeyed with it and I almost never buy a gun when someone's dug around in it as I don't want to end up spending a fortune sorting out somebody else's gun smithing mistakes.
The guy selling the gun knew very little about the gun and had recieved in in trade on another deal he had worked at the beginning of the week.
I told him about my concerns reference the hammer spring and having to deal with the specter of light primer strikes and told him I'd likely pass.
Well, the seller (needing cash 3 weeks before Xmas) dropped his asking price reference my concerns) from 975 to 850 and (with a slight pause) I agreed and bought the rifle.
I walked around the show carrying the rifle for a while and that light hammer spring was gnawing at me a little (again worrying about light primer strikes) and curiosity got the best of me and I found a vendor selling primed factory Federal 30-06 brass and took the rifle out in the parking lot, wrapped the muzzle in the gun sock that came with the gun and popped a couple of primers in the bed of my truck just to be sure.
It it worked fine (which was a relief).
I got it home late Saturday afternoon and loaded up the brass I bought with some 175 grain Jwords and took it out to see how it shot.
To to say I was pleased was an understatement.
With th no load development and using the starting load for IMR 4895 I was able to turn in 2 inch groups (off the bench) at 100 yards and to my surprise groups were centered on the target.
Feeling froggy I decided to run 5 rounds offhand at 100 at my small steel swinger and was able to turn in the group below:
Again, this is offhand at 100 yards.
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c307/ATCDoctor/1-6-2012/F4C7385B-FF8E-457C-8468-B81F8F28AD44_zpsbggqaq3z.jpg (http://s30.photobucket.com/user/ATCDoctor/media/1-6-2012/F4C7385B-FF8E-457C-8468-B81F8F28AD44_zpsbggqaq3z.jpg.html)
I've been wanting Winchester Model 95 in 30-06 for a long while to go with my Miroku model 95 in 405 and the way this one shoots makes me regret not buying one sooner.