Need Winchester schoolin'

[crabo]

I am thinking about a 30/30 for big bore lever action silhouette. I like the idea of the longer 26" barrel. With 26" and a tang sight, I would have a long sight radius. I found this yesterday for $600 out the door. I know nothing about Winchesters.

http://www.chuckhawks.com/win_centennial_66.htm

I hate the gold plating, but I like the way the gun feels. I don't like the way it exposes a lot of lockwork when you work the action.

It has a 1-12 twist. I have the NOE 160GC mold ordered for 30/30. Would this twist work with the 160 GC? Do I also need a hevier boolit for the rams?

Do Winchesters, as a rule, shoot as well as Marlins? I have 3 Marlins so I know what to expect from them.

Any other questions I should have asked and didn't know to ask?

This gun would be used for silhouette as it's first priority.

Thanks,

[NickSS]

You do not metion the distance that you will be shooting. My club holds silhouette shoots at 200 yards using scaled targets. I have shot the 30-30 a lot for that type shooting and can state that it does quite well. I use a 1970 vintage winchester 94 20 inch carbine loaded with a 173 gr Lyman 311041 bullet over 18 gr of IMR 4198. I have never chronographed this load but think it is around 1700 fps but I know that is shoots into a 3 inch group at 200 yards from my rifle using a marbles tang sight and standard blade front sight. I shoot AAA class with it.

[ammohead]

I like the idea of the 26" bbl, the gold can be ignored. But if it is tapped for a receiver sight I wouldn't drill holes for a tang sight. Tang sights are wobbly windage wise and it makes it awkward where to put your thumb with the sight in the way. I have on one my legacy 94 in 38-55 and have second thoughts about it's actual practicallity. It only gives a couple extra inches on an already long sight radius. Given the difference I would rather have it out of the way and rock solid. The scale on the side would make repeatability for different ranges easier too.

ammohead

[45-70 Chevroner]

I shoot a ventage 25" Octogon bbl. Mod. 94 in the local SASS cowboy shoot. This rifle was made in 1925. I use a RCBS 180gr. silouet boolit (actual WW weight is around 195gr.). My load is 20grs. of RL-7 at about 1750 FPS. This load shoots 3" to 4" groups at 200yds. It will probably do better if some one younger was shooting it. I'm 68 and my eyes are not as good as they once were. I shake a little more also. I do ok though as I win that sil. match quite often.
I think the heaver boolits do better at longer ranges than the lighter ones.

[jlchucker]

Crabo, your Winnie "Centennial" was one of the earlier models in Winchester's commemorative craze. After that model, they commemorated just about anything they could think of. Many looked really crappy IMO. That having been said, they were making their own barrels at the time, and on machinery that was really "pre-64" and a whole lot older--and run by guys who had run them for decades. I've got an Octagon 26 inch rifle ("Classic") from that era, and it's very accurate--if the shooter does his part. Forget the gold look if you can, or keep looking for some other octagon Winnie of that era. Many commemoratives had dark receivers--maybe with tacky-looking medallions or cheap-looking stamped-in "engraving". I've never heard of one being anything but very accurate as shooters, though.