I started a thread a while ago that devolved into a discussion of the early Winchester auto-loading rifles. (05, 07 and 10) I thought a new thread would be appropriate.
I have a first year production Model 10 in 401 wsl. The wood was rotten and the receiver looked more like a rusty farm implement. However, internally it was fine. This became my first rebuild. I ordered a nice grained rifle blank and hand carved the stock. I then polished and re-blued the rusty pieces. I think it turned out pretty well.
The next step was trying to make ammunition. It took several months, but I finally located an original die set from the 30's. I located two sources of cases. One was 401 stamped brass from Quality Cartridge and the other was modified 7.62x39 brass from Buffalo Arms. THR members were able to help me with finding ancient reload data. Hawk Bullets were the only jacketed bullets I could source for years, but Graf and Sons recently offered .406 fmj 200g bullets at reasonable prices.
I swear the ejected empties leave faster than the bullet even though I only load hot enough to barely operate the action. I found 2400 a bit fast and settled on 4227 as the optimum powder.
Let's hear about your wsl experiences...
I have a first year production Model 10 in 401 wsl. The wood was rotten and the receiver looked more like a rusty farm implement. However, internally it was fine. This became my first rebuild. I ordered a nice grained rifle blank and hand carved the stock. I then polished and re-blued the rusty pieces. I think it turned out pretty well.
The next step was trying to make ammunition. It took several months, but I finally located an original die set from the 30's. I located two sources of cases. One was 401 stamped brass from Quality Cartridge and the other was modified 7.62x39 brass from Buffalo Arms. THR members were able to help me with finding ancient reload data. Hawk Bullets were the only jacketed bullets I could source for years, but Graf and Sons recently offered .406 fmj 200g bullets at reasonable prices.
I swear the ejected empties leave faster than the bullet even though I only load hot enough to barely operate the action. I found 2400 a bit fast and settled on 4227 as the optimum powder.
Let's hear about your wsl experiences...
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