120 year old 1892 Win (38 WCF) out to the range.

[Float Pilot]

My 1892 rifle (24 inch barrel) was made during the first year of production in 1892. It has a pretty worn barrel, which I made worse by an extensive cleaning. It seems that lead had been filling in all the pits over the last 120 years, BUT since I let some Marvel Mystery Oil sit in the barrel for a couple days, all the lead slivers came out of the bore.

Since there have been a couple of threads about the 38 WCF round lately (38-40) I decided to haul her to the range yesterday during a lull in our continual snow storms.

Unfortunately I only used some lead cast bullets that are exactly .400 in diameter. (The 38-40 is really a 40 caliber "" 10mm" round). I just happened to have a few hundred Western Nevada Bullet company cast lead slugs already lubed and sized..

But I slugged my bore and the rifling marks on a bullet are only 0.394 while the outside area is 0.398. So the 0.400 bullets are not being squeezed very much at all.

Thus the crappy groups of the day.

All loads using 180 grain Nevada cast bullets at .40 cal. one lube band.
All loads using Star-Line brass and CCI-large pistol primers. With a roll crimp and 1.60 inch COL.

1.
10.0 grains Unique. = 1,472 fps and a 5 inch group. Lots of lead in bore, some bullet yawing at 100 yards. Kinda hot for a black powder era rifle.

Below loads are nice and wimpy for a 120 year old rifle that was made for black powder pressures. They also are good loads for 38 WCF sixguns.

2.
28.0 grains Goex FFFg Clear Shot. = 1,070 fps. Very clean brass, 4 inch group. This is a Black Powder substitute which I believe is no longer being made after the factory burned down. This was a slightly compressed load. It leaves a weird white film inside the brass.

3.
7.0 grains IMR 800X= 1,074 fps and a 3 inch group. Very clean brass. No pressure signs. This is a listed pistol load and could be worked up a little.

4.
7.0 grains Hodgdon Universal = 982 fps. This load already goes this fast from my 7.5 inch pistol. So it is too fast burning for my loner barrel. No pressure signs, but the cases were a little dirty. Very quite load. Hit the pie pan size gong 7 out of 10 shots at 100 yards from standing position.

5.
6.5 grains TRAIL BOSS = 1.073 fps. And a 5 inch group. Very quiet but the brass was very dirty. This is about all the Trail Boss powder you can stuff into the case without compressing the load. Which Trail Boss does not like.

 

[gp911]

Thanks for sharing this, it's nice to see historical pieces being used instead of hung on a wall, groups be damned!

 

[Float Pilot]

I used to have some slightly larger bullets around here that would group between 2 to 3 inches at 100 yards.
Too bad I have so many of the current batch. maybe I could whack them on the bottom with a punch to swell the bullet base.

You can see from the photo that the bullet I pounded through the whole bore was not really deformed very much....

 

[ROCKFISH]

5" at 100yds ain't so bad with Iron sights. I have trouble seeing the bull without a scope.

 

[Float Pilot]

I have it apart right now for cleaning.

Here is the old tang peep sight. it has a DA stamped under the tang plate and it has a patent date of May 1884 on it.... No name.

It has a small peep aperture that folds down so you can use the larger hole if desired.

 

[Float Pilot]

I am having troubles because the hammer was honed a little at some time in its life and now it often does not make enough contact with the bolt, which is needed to cock it completely.

It was not bad until i cleaned out a bunch of old oily black-powder granules that were making the action tighter and resulting in less bolt slop.

See Photos

 

[.45Guy]

Is that original case color on the hammer? Looks to be one Hell of a pretty rifle.

 

[Float Pilot]

She sure is not bad looking...
And she will shoot much better groups, when I can find or cast some bigger slugs. These Nevada slugs are too narrow and too hard.

The lever loop still has some good color on it as well. When I inherited the rifle a few years back,(20 or 25 yrs) the bolt was full of old black powder granules that were soaked with old oil.
Of course after I cleaned it all out of there, the bolt seemed much looser on the rails.

It also had a coating of semi-hard waxy oil all over the rifle and stock. Something like tallow. I had to heat it off with a hair-dryer and wipe away the areas that melted. It smelled like I was barbequing rancid beef.

Here are a couple more photos, after I put her together again last night. The fore-stock has three old notches in it, so it has been out hunting something a few times.

You can see some of the color case-hardening on the lever sides. The bottom is all worn off.
The butt plate it worn gray as well.

 

[.45Guy]

I'm going to have to keep my eyes peeled for a good looking specimen like yours.

 

[Float Pilot]

I have often wondered what the old gal is worth.

 

[Trooper61]

Very nice rifle! My Dad has a 1917 Winchester in 30-30. When it was my Paw paws though, he loaned to a guy who took it and had the thing reblued, thinkin' Paw paw would be happy. Not so! Dad was just a youngin' but remembers Paw paw chasin' that guy off his property with it!Lol!

 

[CraigC]

Is that original case color on the hammer?

I was gonna ask the same thing! The case colors are beautiful and sure have aged well.

 

[Float Pilot]

I too was surprised by how nice the case-coloring looked after I cleaned the old brown tallow off of everything. The whole rifle looked like a dried brown t*rd when I first put eyes on it..
Besides the hair-drier I had to use boiling water on some parts.

I rub down the stock with black-powder Wonder Lube or Bore Butter after every time I handle the rifle. I sure helps keep the wood from drying and cracking. Plus it water -proofs the stock without have some sort of new fangled glossy finish ruining the value. (and looks)

Another little trick to use when shooting pyrodex or black-powder loads.... Use a baking spray product called ( BAKE EASY ) it is made by a company called Welton...
I got the idea when using it on cast iron pans and big glass tray-pans. It does not let anything stick.
So I tried it on the bores of a few of my Black-powder rifles. Boy does it make a huge difference. In my Sharps rifles, which have mirror like bores, one range-patch run trough and all the fouling just falls right out.

 

[.45Guy]

Thanks for all the ideas float! I'll have to give them a whirl with the "ugly stick."