Winchester 1885

[Dalton146]

I am new to the forum and hope I am posting my question in the right area. If not, please advise me where to post this.

40-82 Silouette

I have acquired a Winchester 1885 High Wall which was originally chambered in 32-40. It was rebored to 40-82 Sillouhette (Crossno) and I have C&H dies for it. Does anyone have load data for this caliber using Chey-Cast 400 gr Snover (.409) 1:20 Alloy - BP Lube bullets? I have brass that came with the gun. Someone said I could load black powder or modern powder and I need to know for sure. Thanks. [/B][/B][/B]

[Captain*Kirk]

The High Wall is one of the strongest actions ever built. I have fired factory smokeless ammo through my .45/70 High Wall with MV at 1330fps...I have also fired smokeless handloads at MV's of nearly 1900 fps with no detrimental effect other than to my shoulder.
Is your High Wall an original or a modern firearm?

[Chill Wills]

Welcome Dalton146, Yes, either safe pressure smokeless loads OR black powder loads will be fine. The BP loads will give great performance and at safe pressures but may need some load development to get you to the point that you can produce good groups on demand.
Light smokeless loads will get you going to have fun with your new rifle right away.
The load data for smokeless is mostly geared to the lighter bullet the factory ammo was loaded to. Something like 250 grain bullets BUT due to the fast twist in the 40-82 Crossno, bullets like you mention, like the 400gr Lyman Snover are a better choice with accuracy in mind. That rifle most likely has a 16 to 1 or faster twist in it.

[DHDeal]

I wonder if Dave had anything to do with this? I don't know if he had anything to do with reboring though.

You knew him didn't you Chill Wills?

[M-Tecs]

I am new to the forum and hope I am posting my question in the right area. If not, please advise me where to post this.

40-82 Silouette

I have acquired a Winchester 1885 High Wall which was originally chambered in 32-40. It was rebored to 40-82 Sillouhette (Crossno) and I have C&H dies for it. Does anyone have load data for this caliber using Chey-Cast 400 gr Snover (.409) 1:20 Alloy - BP Lube bullets? I have brass that came with the gun. Someone said I could load black powder or modern powder and I need to know for sure. Thanks. [/B][/B][/B]

Since it started life as a 32-40 and was rebored I am assuming is an original??

If so dates of manufacture become somewhat important. Winchester started using stronger steels in the barrels around 1894 for the 94's and the 95's. Not sure when they made the change in the 85's. I am just going from memory and I could be off but I believe all the coil spring guns all had the stronger steel barrels. Around 1906 they also changed the steel in the actions. Even if it's not the newer steel any smokeless load under 28,000 PSI will be fine.

Some of the older 85's have overly large firing pin holes. Back in the day Mann-Niedner Firing Pin conversions were a solution for this. Those rifles were being rebarreled to modern high-pressure cartridges. This is not an issue with the pressures you will be running in a 40-82 Sillouhette.

Some date here for the 40-82 W.C.F. https://winchestercollector.org/forum/winchester-shooting-and-hunting/40-82+W.C.F.+reloading+data/

Had to look up what the Crossno is.

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?154803-40-82-wcf-or-40-82-crossno

http://www.assra.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl?num=1424128152

[Crustyshooter]

I have an Uberti 1885 Win Highwall replica as well as a Marlin 1895 SBL, both in 45/70 Gov't! My question is- how strong is the Uberti action (bought new about a year ago) compared to the Marlin? In the past year I have been staying with Trapdoor loading data but would like to know how much of a safety margin I would have if I used 1895 loads in the 1885, if it is weaker?

[oldred]

It's likely as strong or possibly even stronger BUT Uberti states their HighWall actions are safe to 28,000 PSI which is well above Trapdoor pressures but under the max for the 1895 which I "think" is around 40,000 max. Those Uberti actions are good ones and should handle any sane load with no problems.

[M-Tecs]

It's likely as strong or possibly even stronger BUT Uberti states their HighWall actions are safe to 28,000 PSI which is well above Trapdoor pressures

Per SAAMI the TD'S are 28,000 CUP/PSI. At 28k they are both the same unit of measure. Lyman and a couple of others reloading manuals recommend lighter but that is not 45/70 SAAMI specs.

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?196900-45-70-Trap-door-official-SAAMI-pressures

[samari46]

Original Winchester Hi Walls were used by the Winchester company for all of their ballistic testing for many years. So if your High Wall is an original one no problems so no problems. They also used standard model 70 cations after they stopped using the High Wall actions they had been using for many years. Frank

[oldred]

Per SAAMI the TD'S are 28,000 CUP/PSI. At 28k they are both the same unit of measure. Lyman and a couple of others reloading manuals recommend lighter but that is not 45/70 SAAMI specs.

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?196900-45-70-Trap-door-official-SAAMI-pressures

I agree 100% with what you are saying and there was some confusion a couple of years back when the Uberti website stated 28,000 PSI and the PSI/CPU question came up, I will see if I can still find that info from Uberti, not because of the PSI/CPU thing but because there are several more interesting things about the strength of the Uberti action that folks might find interesting.

FWIW, I know a fella who has been shooting loads in his Uberti 45/70 Highwall that I wouldn't shoot on a dare but he has had no problems at all with it.


That's very interesting about the TD, I always thought they were limited to 18,000 PSI.

[M-Tecs]

Interesting read on TD strength http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?61694-Trapdoor-Strength


From Pedersoli http://bpcr.net/site_docs-results_schedules/documents/pedersoli_proof_rules_and_allowable_limits_09-04.htm

For the CUP/PSI pressure page 22 and 34 https://saami.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/ANSI-SAAMI-Z299.4-CFR-Approved-2015-12-14-Posting-Copy.pdf

[oldred]

Interesting read indeed!

Thanks for posting that it clears up a couple of misconceptions I had concerning the Trapdoor and also has a lot of good info concerning Pedersoli rifles in general.

[Kev18]

I have a 40-82 rifle and it took years to actually get loads that work. Hopefully yours works well!