So I'm still ooooing and aaaahing over my Browning 1886 carbine I picked up Tuesday evening. A nice little rifle.
Last night I got to examining the little carbine's rear sight....it's calibrated to 2000 yards!...Although in reallity I would imagine at the indicated angle of elevation it would be good only for 'volly fire'/area denial use.
I fired a few 405gr cowboy loads from my .45-70 saddle ring carbine...and was thrilled with the accuracy at 75 yards...these loads probably running about 1000 fps...close, but lesser than the old guberment 'carbine loads' of like 1150 fps with a 405gr bullet.....this got me to wondering just what load Winchester back in the day calibrated the old original 1886 rifles/carbines for?
Did they use 405gr light or heavy .45-70 guv style ammo....the newer 500gr ammo or some differing bullet weight commercial style .45-70(Winchester being an ammo manufacturer too)...
I'm guessing the carbine's sight calibration is probably set-up for a 405gr bullet at the full published 1300 fps...just like my original 1881 made 1873 trapdoor rifle's rear sight...but I could be wrong(and probably am wrong).
If my 1886 Browning carbine is a more or less direct clone of the Winchester 1886 SRC...what ammo do you think the sight calibrations are set-up for??
Thanx..Rag