Winchester 1886

[andrewdl007]

I recently came across a very early model of the 1886 Winchester in .45-90. I've found some information on the 1886, but I was wondering if any of you had experience with the rifle and what you thought about it. How accurate are the old ones? Have any pictures? Anything at all would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

[Tommygunn]

This was the first lever rifle Winchester marketed that could truly handle the big beefy buffalo killing cartridges of the 19th century. The design was a John Moses Browning one which means it is the "cream of the cream" of gun designs. The .45-90 was a slightly elongated .45-70 cartridge which was the contemporary military cartridge.
The 1886 supplanted the Winchester 1876 which was Winchester's first attempt to market a rifle capable of firing the big hunting rounds of the day. That rifle, while good, was really pushing the design of the old "toggle-link" design first incorporated into the Volcanic and later the Henry repeaters, which used pistold sized rounds.
If your rifle is in good condition it should be pretty accurate. You might have to work up a load for it. .45-90 rounds are not found so readily anymore, though a few specialty places may carry them. If you're into reloading you will save $$ that way.

 

[kbar-04]

I owned a number of original 1886 Winchesters back when I collected them in Montana. I had two in .45-90 and they were very accurate weapons. The .45 bores in the 1886 were fairly uniform whereas the .40s (40-82, 40-65) had a tendancy to be oversized. They are very strong actions and I shot mine with smokeless loads to good effect. The .45-90 is one of the more desireable chamberings in the 1886 so if your rifle is in original condition it would be worth a good bit.

 

[Art Eatman]

Is it correct that .45-70 will chamber properly and can be used in a .45-90?

 

[Ridgerunner665]

Yes...but it tends to lead around the throat (leade), and accuracy goes to crap.

 

[cpirtle]

If you are buying it to shoot you need to check the bore. If it's dirty ask to clean it and then check the bore.

The 45-90 was designed to shoot black powder and if the rifle was not well maintained the bore can be pitted badly & accuracy will suffer.

Not that you asked but since no one mentioned it, 45-90 comes from being a 45 cal bullet loaded on top of a 90 grain black powder charge. Be sure any loadings you get are loaded to black powder spec's or below.

If you roll your own Trail Boss is a good smokeless to use in big bore black powder cartridges. One nice thing is it has a lot of volume per grain so it does a better job of filling the void.

 

[Jim Watson]

It won't chamber PROPERLY. It will go in, go off, not blow up the gun, and launch a bullet in the general direction of interest. It is something that used to be done so as to say you had shot Grandpa's rifle or to shoot a once a season deer at close range. It is not something to plan on like shooting .38s in a .357 revolver. Brass is available if you are a handloader and ammo is available if all you want to do is fire a few rounds to be able to say you had.

A good .45-90 is quite accurate; a friend has one that can suprise the guys with their plastic stocks and Chinese scopes.

Some say a .45-90 will shoot a 405 grain bullet well enough, but don't count on it, the rifiling twist is quite slow for the standard 300 grain bullet.

 

[Float Pilot]

Mine shot very well with 300 grain hard cast bullets (with gas check) and a full load of pyrodex. AND SOME PRETTY WARM LOADS USING Triple Seven.

I think Trail Boss would be great stuff, but I traded that rifle before I ever bought any of that powder. I think I also got some 350 grain bullets to shoot OK , but the 45-90 for the 86s was called the express loading. They wanted a lighter bullet going faster than the standard 45-70 load.
I shot a bull moose in the side of the skull with the 300 grain hard cast and it went right through both sides and kept on going. The moose did not...