New Spencer Carbine: What to Expect

[.56/50 Iron]

I think I finally figured out how to post!!! This note may help some folks who get a new Spencer Carbine along with the basically useless instruction manual. I got my Spencer from Dixie about three weeks ago. I also got H1N1 about the same time (It is now gone...) and the carbine was a get well present to myself! It worked. I also got about 100 empty Starline cases. I'm saying "Starline" as about half of them were headstamped with the Starline logo and .56/50, the others look like they were lathe turned and had no headstamp. The base of the case was also too thick to shut the breech block and the area of the base of the case about 1/4 inch above the rim was too large in diameter to chamber, and had to be resized. The carbine itself is beautifully made. The case colors are fantastic, but there is no protection covering them and I put heavy duty auto paste wax wherever there are case colors to help preserve them from wearing off.  The bore looks like it is cut rifled and has a groove diameter of .512". Wood to metal fit is perfect. Now to nit pick a bit. The trigger pull was a horrible 30 pounds! Felt like I had the hammer at half cock! Why in heaven's name they put this kind of mainspring in the lock I will never know! As Spencer parts and Sharps parts are largely interchangeable, and by luck I had an original Sharps mainspring, I took the factory Spencer mainsrping out and put the Sharps mainspring in the lock. Perfect fit! Now the trigger pull is 6 pounds! When I did the mainspring change, I found that ALL the internal screws in the lockplate were not even close to being tight! I tightened them up. The screw in the bottom of the forend was also two turns loose!! I tightened. My advice is to check all of the screws and bolts. Put a little grease on the threads of the bolts so that you can always get them out when you want them out. I knew that feeding a cartridge from the magazine tube depended upon how long or short the cartridge was. There is NO guidance as to what the overall length of the cartridge should be so that feeding even happens. This took some time and many dummy rounds before I got it exact. Now the Spencer feeds the bullet I am using as slick as can be! I can only get six rounds in the tube, but I don't care about this point. Just in the little reading I have done here, there seems to be some question as to the accuracy of these carbines past 50 yards. With the loading I am using, accuracy is astounding at 75 yards. The best I have done so far is three shots grouped a bit under an inch at 75 yards from the benchrest. I posted a photo of the target under another topic here somewhere.


                                              (Photo posted by Two Flints)

Will repost if someone wants to see it. I intend to knock a white tail deer down in a couple of weeks with the carbine. I have about 90 rounds through mine so far and really like the little carbine! It has plenty of 100 yard punch for deer hunting. I would be happy to help out anyone who gets a new Spencer and who might be having some initial "situations" with it. That's all for now!
GregT. aka ".56/50 Iron"

[Shenandoah]

What overall cartridge length worked for you?

[.56/50 Iron]

Hello! I got the feed system to operate when I finally hit the 1.580" overall cartridge length. Keep in mind that I am using the Lyman #518145 bullet, sized to .512", 350 grains . I have not read of anyone else using this slug, but it is a natural for the Spencer .56/50 cartridge. I lucked out and had the mould as I also use it in my old .50/70's. I think that the feed system is quite sensitive to the length of the cartridge due to the bullet used. The profile of the bullet noses (ogive) are all a bit different and this one again matches the old Spencer slug pretty close. Purest luck on my part! Thanks for asking!
.56/50 Iron

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[Shenandoah]

I have a Spencer in .44 Russian. It's a great plinker and I plan on buying another one in the next several months. I ordered a Lyman 515139 mould and all the other reloading components. Last weekend I cast/sized/lubed about 250 rounds.

I'm just gathering info when I start to tinker with my new carbine.   

I really like walking about my property plinking with my .44. It's cheap to reload.