I had two of my 44-40,s out this morning

[leslie hetrick]

I took my CD little sharps and my Winchester model 53 out this morning for a little work out, 200 gr cast bullets and 200 gr jacket bullets with 10.3 grs unique. it was windy and 38 degrees so I shot off hand at 50-60 yards at several plastic water bottles and kept them hopping around. I use the 44-40,s for close range work on white tails, double lung shots at under 100 yards are very deadly on them.

 

[BenKK]

Nice rifles! Lever-actions are fun!

 

[bruce moulds]

leslie,
the 44/40 is crying out for "biglube bullets" and black powder.
bruce.

 

[leslie hetrick]

I do shoot black powder some times, but not to much in my older rifles. it costs to much to get them in good condition as I like ex or next to ex bores for shooting cast bullets.

 

[bruce moulds]

black powder and lead bullets are no problem for good bores.
and they are easier to clean properly with black than smokeless.
bruce.

 

[leslie hetrick]

as one who has been shooting black and smokless powder since 1958, I know black has its own problems that can be over come with a little extra effort, along with case care after shooting black. but to say its easier to clean than smokless is not quite right as black blowback into the action(even a little with every firing will add up) will need to be cleaned out or corrosion will begin. lever actions have many small close fitting parts that will be affected pretty quick with black. with smokless I run several powder solvent patches and then two dry patches, the action requires no cleaning, only a light coating of oil. the sharps is a lot easier to clean up after black as the breech block is easy to remove and clean. I have a friend who put his 30-30 Winchester away after hunting with it and firing 8-10 shots to check zero and kill a buck the first day at camp, it sat all year until a week from the next season and he then cleaned with no harm done to it, with black the bore and maybe the action would have been in sorry condition.

 

[bruce moulds]

never put a rifle away uncleaned!
with black you should not get stuff in the action if your cases are annealed correctly.
a once a year action clean is all that is necessary, and you should do that with smokeless anyway.
barrels will clean quicker and easier with black.
certainly a falling block is easier to clean than a lever repeater.
bruce.

 

[leslie hetrick]

I would not ever let any of my older Winchesters, 1873-1876- 1886-1892-1894-1895 rifles go a day with out a good cleaning after black powder shooting that's for sure,. but I have left rifles that were shot with smokless for a few days a few times with no ill affects at all to the bore or actions. depending on the load and cases blow back can be very little or a lot. some of my older rifles cost me several thousand dollars and I chose not to gamble to much with them and black powder.

 

[bruce moulds]

I have an original hiwall Winchester made in about 1912 that has been shot only with black since then.
interestingly it is a flatspring.
probably Winchester had a lot of parts and aust was a good place to get rid of them.
the flatspring is no issue to me, in fact I quite like it.
about 5 yrs ago I rebarreled it to 45/2.4" sharps, and have been shooting with fullbore shooters from 300 to 1000 yds in that time.
sometimes I have even beaten some of the bottom ender fullbore people, and can mostly expect to beat a .303.
have used both groove diameter greasers with 90 gns swiss 1.5, and bore diameter paper patch with 100 gns of same powder.
the 100 gn load lets you know when it goes off.
it has been competitive in scheutzen against 32/40s and 38/55s as well, but that is hard work.
bullets take 3 seconds to go 1000 yds, and there can often be a wind change in that time.
you can shoot, follow through, go onto the spotting scope, and see dust from the bullet striking the backstop.
bruce.

 

[postoak]

Super-impressive collection!

 

[Witold Krzyżanowski]

Super rifles.

 

[CAustin]

Nice rifles sir.

 

[Shootist43]

Leslie, are these crop damage deer tags that you are filling? Or was the deer taken on a previous hunt. I'm with you on the black powder thing. Once fired, it is boiling water time on everything metallic as soon as possible after use.

 

[leslie hetrick]

the spike buck was taken two years ago with the win md 53 in 44-40.

 

[Bob Nelson 35Whelen]

I have an original hiwall Winchester made in about 1912 that has been shot only with black since then.
interestingly it is a flatspring.
probably Winchester had a lot of parts and aust was a good place to get rid of them.
the flatspring is no issue to me, in fact I quite like it.
about 5 yrs ago I rebarreled it to 45/2.4" sharps, and have been shooting with fullbore shooters from 300 to 1000 yds in that time.
sometimes I have even beaten some of the bottom ender fullbore people, and can mostly expect to beat a .303.
have used both groove diameter greasers with 90 gns swiss 1.5, and bore diameter paper patch with 100 gns of same powder.
the 100 gn load lets you know when it goes off.
it has been competitive in scheutzen against 32/40s and 38/55s as well, but that is hard work.
bullets take 3 seconds to go 1000 yds, and there can often be a wind change in that time.
you can shoot, follow through, go onto the spotting scope, and see dust from the bullet striking the backstop.
bruce.

Bruce moulds
I have an old 32/20 loaded with 12grains of Alliant 2400 with 100 grain hornaday XTPs. Accurate and fun. Haven't shot any game with it but would be fine on smaller pigs. Great little fun gun.
Also have a full custom job flat spring lowall in 22K Hornet
Cheers mate Bob

 

[leslie hetrick]

my 45-70 rifles, i have shot black out of a few of them. the pedersoli repo sharps 74 target has been shot with black quite a lot and has only had cast lead bullet thru it.

 

[Dr Ray]

I do shoot black powder some times, but not to much in my older rifles. it costs to much to get them in good condition as I like ex or next to ex bores for shooting cast bullets.

View attachment 274058

Impressive collection

 

[sestoppelman]

How do you like that little Sharps?
Nice collection of rifles. I see one of my favs on the bottom of the stack, the Model 64. I have one of those, the later 70's version called the 64A. Good shooter. I have an Italian 92 in .44-40 sold by Chiappa. Excellent looking and shooting rifle. Been looking for some time to snag one of the old Spanish Tigre's, but last one I bid on went beyond my reach.

 

[leslie hetrick]

i wanted one in 38-55, but at close out(550.00 usd) the local gunshop only had a few, a .22 hornet-.22 magnum and the 44-40. its a light strong easy carrying accurett rifle, i shoot the same loads as in the 53 winchester. lyman imports them now that are all gussied up for large bucks.

 

[BenKK]

A few months ago I was in the Darwin Museum admiring an old Winchester .44WCF that had been used extensively as a horseback buffalo shooter at Marakai (from memory).