KirkD
04-09-2009, 07:45 PM
Well men, a friend of mine is coming over for a major shoot in 3 weeks time and he's bringing along an original Winchester 1876 that I'm planning to purchase from him. Of course, I didn't have even 10 cents to buy it, so I up and sold my very rare original Winchester Model 65, which provided a good chunk of the funds, and I'm also selling my original Winchester 1892 38 W.C.F. (38-40) to achieve the whack of cash I'm going to need to make the purchase. Anyway, I've been thinking that with 8 vintage Winchesters in my collection, I had too many. I'm the type of fellow that seems to enjoy things a lot more if I don't have too many of them. I'm planning to reduce my collection to just 5 old Winchesters. My 'newest' one will be a Winchester Model 94 made in 1954, 30-30, which I call 'Old Savage'. Even though it's pretty 'new' (the same age as I am), it's a special one and I ain't parting with it. On the other end of the spectrum will be this Winchester Model 1876 that is showing up in a few weeks. It was made in 1884 and is in .45-60. I had sold all my brass for this caliber except for 6 original, ancient cases that must be around 100 years old. However, I began to get a nagging feeling that, someday, I would own another one.
In anticipation of the '76's arrival, I was going to make up some brass from .45-70 cases, when I remembered the 6 original cases that I had been given by another fellow member on this forum. Today, I loaded up 5 of them. The brass has been annealed, so is nice and elastic. It as a bit of a pain, not having dies (but I ordered those today as well). I sized the necks by running them into my 45 ACP sizing die. Then I slightly belled the mouth just enough to start the base of the bullet. I then seated and crimped the bullets using my 45-70 seating die. Seems to work well, except the 45 ACP die sizes those necks a little too much .... I wonder if my 44-40 sizing die would have been better. Anyway, here's a photo of the 5 old timers, alongside a .45-70 cartridge for comparison .....
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v497/3855Win/45-60-cartridges.jpg
In anticipation of the '76's arrival, I was going to make up some brass from .45-70 cases, when I remembered the 6 original cases that I had been given by another fellow member on this forum. Today, I loaded up 5 of them. The brass has been annealed, so is nice and elastic. It as a bit of a pain, not having dies (but I ordered those today as well). I sized the necks by running them into my 45 ACP sizing die. Then I slightly belled the mouth just enough to start the base of the bullet. I then seated and crimped the bullets using my 45-70 seating die. Seems to work well, except the 45 ACP die sizes those necks a little too much .... I wonder if my 44-40 sizing die would have been better. Anyway, here's a photo of the 5 old timers, alongside a .45-70 cartridge for comparison .....
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v497/3855Win/45-60-cartridges.jpg