black powder in winchester 1873

I competed in cowboy action matches with black powder .38 Specials in 1873 and 1866 Uberti reproductions for 20 years. Those rifles were designed before smokeless powder was invented so they work just dandy! A tight crimp and bullet weights above 125 grains encourages complete case expansion, so very little fouling gets back to the toggles. I kept the carrier and bolt well greased with Mobil 1 and occasional spritzes of Ballistol during a match and after 70 or 80 rounds it was still smooth levering. Clean up was wiping out the carrier, bolt, and mortise with paper towels before reapplying grease and Ballistol. The barrel came clean after swabbing with soapy water, dry patches, and a final pass with a Ballistol patch. Complete disassembly maybe once a year after competition season. Fun guns to run!
 
Yes. Loved it. Shot only BP cartridges in it. Sold but kept my 1860 Henry. Both Ubertis. Get the 44WCF for cleaner shooting.
 
Don't have a 73 but I had a Rossi 92. If you don't have one yet definitely get a 44-40 or 38-40 for easier cleaning. The thin case necks expand when fired and as long as you keep a fired cartridge in the chamber when cleaning you won't get much if any fouling in the action. Straight wall cases like 38/357 and .45 Colt won't expand much so you get a lot of fouling blowing back past the case.
 
Cap and ball has several videos on the Uberti 1873 and black powder. I have an original Winchester 1873 in 38WCF and a Winchester Miroku 1873 in 44WCF. I've only shot black powder.

youtu.be

Uberti 1873 Winchester 44-40 rifle offhand shooting @300m - C&B Single Shots

Did I tell you I love lever action rifles? Especially my 1873 Winchester rifle shot with cartridges loaded with black powders. Here is a C&B Single Shots fil...
youtu.be youtu.be
 
I used black powder blanks in my Henry reproduction on a few occasions when doing Civil War reenactments. Cleaning it afterwards was a chore.

Making the blanks was also a chore. Regular .44 WCF brass could not be used because the overall length (without a bullet) was not long enough to feed through the mechanism. So I had to use .444 Marlin brass, trimmed down to the length of a .44 WCF bulleted cartridge. Then a light crimp to hold the wad in place.
 
45 colt full load 200 gr lead bullet. Never a problem. Suggest full clean with brake cleaner then lube with Ballistol. Remember use BP friendly lube on bullet.
App showdown.PNG
 
J-Bar said:
I competed in cowboy action matches with black powder .38 Specials in 1873 and 1866 Uberti reproductions for 20 years. Those rifles were designed before smokeless powder was invented so they work just dandy! A tight crimp and bullet weights above 125 grains encourages complete case expansion, so very little fouling gets back to the toggles. I kept the carrier and bolt well greased with Mobil 1 and occasional spritzes of Ballistol during a match and after 70 or 80 rounds it was still smooth levering. Clean up was wiping out the carrier, bolt, and mortise with paper towels before reapplying grease and Ballistol. The barrel came clean after swabbing with soapy water, dry patches, and a final pass with a Ballistol patch. Complete disassembly maybe once a year after competition season. Fun guns to run!
Click to expand...
Thanks for the post J-Bar. Purchased the 1873 early last fall in .357.
Any returns on using the .357 cases for that slighter greater 3F powder charge.
I did some preliminary shooting using a drop tube and compression die to fill 38 special cases under a 158 grain SWC lead bullet.
Accuracy wasn’t all that great from the bench. I’m blaming my old eyes as much as the load. Then winter set in and the rifle has set in the safe.
I’m seriously considering a Malcom Scope and side mount from Hi-Lux, to start up again this spring. Today was our first outdoor range session. It got over 60 degrees.
 
I used the same Lee dipper to charge FFG in both .38 Special and .357 Magnum brass for cowboy action matches, and never had a problem. Getting most of the air space out of the case is a good idea, but for my purposes lots of powder compression was not necessary. The most critical variables for me were adequate lube on the bullet, and a tight crimp. I melted beeswax and crisco, 50/50 by eyeball, in a small crockpot, then dipped each bullet into the molten mix while holding it with surgical forceps. So the bullet was covered with lube from the crimp groove all the way down. I let the lube stay on the bullet base as well, making kind of a lube "cookie". Let 'em cool on a sheet of wax paper. I could lube a batch faster this way than by using a Lubrisizer. The excess lube squeezes off when the bullet is seated in the case, so I had to wipe off the finished cartridge, not a big deal.

If you try this method, one helpful trick is to tilt the crockpot enough that part of the bottom is exposed. You can slide the bullet to be lubed into that upper edge of the molten mix each time to get consistent coverage even as the lube gets used up.

In the beginning I got poor groups at the range becase the felt cookie between powder and bullet did not completely lubricate the long rifle barrel. Groups tightened beautifully after I got plenty of lube on the bullet.

Good luck!
 
I do use the melted lube for all of my blackpowder bullets except those loaded in paper cartridges.
I need to experiment with powder loads minimal to compressed in the rifle loads. Both this 1837 and a 45/70 Sharps I also purchased late last summer.
 
AlexanderA said:
I used black powder blanks in my Henry reproduction on a few occasions when doing Civil War reenactments. Cleaning it afterwards was a chore.

Making the blanks was also a chore. Regular .44 WCF brass could not be used because the overall length (without a bullet) was not long enough to feed through the mechanism. So I had to use .444 Marlin brass, trimmed down to the length of a .44 WCF bulleted cartridge. Then a light crimp to hold the wad in place.
Click to expand...
They make 5n1 blank brass that is especially for that.
 
I have 3 Winchester (Miroku) 1873s. A standard rifle, a round barrel short rifle, and a saddle ring carbine. All are chambered for the 44 WCF cartridge and all have only been fired with black powder cartridges. Load is 36g of OE FFg behind a 200g Big Lube bullet (SPG lube).

Dave
 
I have a Uberti ‘73 in .357 and a (Miroku) Winchester ‘73 in .44-40. Most of my cowboy ammo is charged with APP (American Pioneer Powder, a black powder substitute that does not require a soft lube on the bullet.

The .44-40 is ideal for black powder ammo but I’ve done reasonably well with .38 Special ammo. I use a 158 grain bullet with powder loaded to the base of the seated bullet. It appears the pressure is sufficient to ward off a lot of “blowby”.
 
I shoot black powder .44-40 in a Cimarron 1860 Henry and 1873 Sporting Rifle, and black powder .38-40 in an Uberti 1866 Sporting Rifle and a Marlin 1889.

Cimarron_1873_BP.jpg

I've found that both .38-40 and .44-40 seal the chamber very well because the brass is thin. I get no blowback into the action.

You must use bullets that carry enough BP-compatible lube for the length of your barrel. For example, I've tried bullets cast from an original Winchester 19th Century mold and they do not prevent development of a crud ring about 4" down the barrel of the 24" Sporting Rifle. I'm sure they worked OK with original 19th Century sporting grade BP, but not with modern BP, especially Goex. (Modern BP is actually inferior and messier than late 19th C. BP.)

Swiss powder is noticeably cleaner and more powerful than Goex.

So, in .44-40 I use bullets cast in an Accurate Molds 43-215C, and in .38-40 I use an Accurate Molds 40-180E mold. Both have large grease grooves. The original bullets for these cartridges used pure lead but you can add a little tin to help the lead fill out in the mold.

Mostly I use a 50/50 mix of mutton tallow and beeswax. SPG also works if you don't feel like making your own. Bore cleanup requires only maybe 10 wet patches.

Powder charge in .44-40 is usually 2.2cc which works out to be about 35 grains. This gives a slightly compressed load that helps combustion. I sometimes load 1.9cc (about 28 grains) with a 1/8" thick nitro card, to duplicate the ballistics of the .44 Henry rimfire cartridge. This has a bit less recoil and less fouling.

The 2.2cc .44-40 loads with Swiss 3Fg and the 219 grain 43-215C bullet chronographed at 1300+ FPS from the 1873 Sporting Rifle with a small SD and grouped into about 1.5" to 2" at 50 yards (as good as I can shoot without a scope).

My rifles group better with BP than Unique.

Don't forget to wash and dry your brass after shooting BP, else the fouling will attract moisture and corrode your cases.
 
Absolutely.

When I got my 44-40 Uberti 1873 all I fired in it was black powder cartridges.

Same with my 44-40 Uberti Henry.

And my original 38-40 Winchester Model 1873 that left the factory in1887 if I recall correctly.
 
Back in black powder days leveraction rifles were .38-40 or .44-40 (tapered almost bottle neck cases) but never .45 Colt ( straight wall).

I have tried black powder in my .357 Rossi lever gun and learned to stick with smokeless in straight wall cartridges in leveraction rifles.
 
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