Winchester 1873 Carbine

[stu1ritter]

This saddle ring carbine has been hanging on the wall for 20 years now. Finally took it down and was quite surprised at how decent a condition it is in. I never paid much attention to it as the letter from Winchester said it had a rifle trigger group installed (along with a rifle butt stock) so it went up on the wall as the "gun that won the west". Fitting for a home in Denver.
The trigger group dates to 1893 but the carbine is a first model from looking at the dust cover rail. There is actually rifling showing in the barrel from the breach to the muzzle amoungst all the pitting from black powder days. I thought it would be a hoot to load up some BP 44-40's and shoot them. Took the rifle apart and did notice that the little nub on the bottom of the breech bolt base is missing (I guess that holds the cartridge case into the extractor) but the rest of the rifle is all there and functioning correctly. I've looked around trying to find a breech bolt base and they aren't all that available, also need a dust cover. Any suggestions? It would not bother me to put a modern part in to shoot this rifle whilst keeping the original broken one around. They are really easy to change out.
thanks,
Stu

 

[jcwit]

There was a piece in Guns & Ammo "I believe" about bringing one of these back to like new condition. I read it while at the VA, and do not know what issue it was but it was fairly new as it had the new style of paper cover.

 

[stu1ritter]

I searched their listings and couldn't find anything. I'll keep looking and thanks for the tip.
Stu
1st Cav Div 1959-1960 in the lovely hills of Korea

 

[J-Bar]

I am not a gunsmith. I own 4 Uberti reproductions of the Model '73. The bottom bolt tab is a source of problems in these guns also. I doubt that a new bolt from VTI Gunparts would fit an original Winchester...you would probably also have to replace the firing pin extension and toggles as well.

You might get a real gunsmith to craft a new tab and weld it into place.

You might describe your problem on the SASS Wire...lots of '73 experts there who can advise you better than me. You can log on as a guest to make a post. Link:

http://sassnet.com/forums/index.php?showforum=12

 

[stu1ritter]

J-Bar, thanks, just signed up over there and will post a question.
again, thanks,
Stu

 

[stu1ritter]

J-Bar, I posted my message over on sassnet. Just wondering, do you know, can the rifle be shot without the little tab?
thanks,
Stu

 

[J-Bar]

J-Bar, I posted my message over on sassnet. Just wondering, do you know, can the rifle be shot without the little tab?
thanks,
Stu

I think you could manually load it as a single shot; you should expect extraction/ejection problems without the bottom tab. I would test it with dummy rounds first. And I would check the headspace before firing it for sure.