Hello SSS,
I thought I'd pass along to you a copy of an Evans repair summary that was recently completed by Bill English, aka Happy Trails, of The Smith Shop, Warwick, Rhode Island, who is also an SSS member. He does remarkable repair work on the Evans Repeating Rifle. I want to thank Captain Jack and Happy Trails for letting me post their Emails and photos. Two Flints
Howdy Captain Jack,
Your Evans is done. I apologize for taking so long but I have been under the weather as they say for a couple of months. Anyway here are some pix of the Evans and some explanations. Just click on the link to open the pictures.
Photos of your Evans:
Left Side View
Right Side View
Hammer and Stop
Lever Open
Hammer Cocked
Hammer and Stop
Rear Sight
Trigger Screw
Lever Stop
Extractor
During Assembly and Fitting
Bent Lever
During the assembly process I noticed the lever would not close correctly. I compared it to mine and found that it was pretty badly bent. I had to heat the lever and bend it to the proper shape as shown in the bottom picture.
We briefly touched on ammo for the Evans Transitional. Following is more detail.
The original Evans ammo for the Transitional rifle used a slightly tapered case and a .419" diameter bullet. However all rifles measure .431" in the bore.
No one really knows why the Evans brothers specked .419" when actually a .419" bullet will free fall through the bore. The speculation is the gun held 34 rounds and if fired continuously the powder crud would build up in the bore and the final few bullets would be traveling through a pretty constricted bore. So they figured if their ammo was undersized to begin with by the time you get to number 34 it'll make it through the clogged pipe without blowing up the gun. Realize they were trying to sell to the military so they realized soldiers wouldn't have time to clean the bore. Anyway if you shoot true Evans rounds of .419" they will print a shotgun type pattern. I know - I've done it. You can't hit the proverbial barn door at 100 yards. So the right thing to do is shoot .431" bullets and clean the bore every 34 shots or so.
There is no one that I know of that makes Evans Short ammo at this time, unless it is with .419" bullets and we know they don't work well.
The Evan Short cases that Buffalo Arms sells (
http://www.buffaloarms.com/Detail.aspx?PROD=157289&CAT=3839) are for .419" bullets and are therefore tapered to match the chamber of the gun. To use a properly sized .431" diameter bullet the chamber needs to be about .011" larger in diameter down near the bullet end of the chamber. I have reamed your chamber for this size like mine. Now if you are ever able to find or ever want to try shooting original Evans ammo it will indeed fit and function however it will still be super inaccurate as mentioned. However at least now with the slightly opened chamber you can shoot what I term .44 Evans Russian. This is ammo made from the readily available .44 Russian brass.
Now I say "made from" because the original Evans brass (original, not the replica stuff from Buffalo or the other possible suppliers) has a couple of requirements to function correctly.
The rear of the case rim needs to be "chamfered". This is so the "extractor" can more easily slip by the rim when the action is being closed. The Extractor (one of your new parts) is on a pivot on the "lever" and is also spring loaded. As you close the lever the Extractor is required to "cam" or "snap" over the rim just like an extractor in a modern rifle or handgun. However the Evans Extractor swings into place by the action of the lever being closed. If the rims are left "square" it is a hard action to close the lever because you are compressing the spring a great deal. The Evans brother discovered if they tapered or chamfered the rim of the cartridge a bit the Extractor worked much easier. How do I know this? When I first got my Evans Transitional and was disassembling it I found some previous owner had lost the little spring cup that works against the sliding gate where you load the ammo. He used an original Evans empty brass case. here is a picture of the case from the butt stock.
Here is a copy of my loading spec sheet for the .44 Evans Russian.
The brass is easily modified. Using standard (empty cases of course) .44 Russian cases you can hold them in a drill press or even in a hand drill clamped in a vise. Use a fine tooth file and file the chamfer on the back of the rim as pet picture. Remember your only breaking the square corner of the rim. Then polish them if you have small buffing wheel.
The second exception required by the Evans rifle is that you use a "pointed" bullet. The ones on my loading page work the best. Why pointed? When the first round "up" has been fed all the way through the helix feed screw and is ready to be introduced to the chamber it is "dropped" into the chamber area from the left hand side of the mainframe. So when the lever is being "closed" you are feeding the cartridge forward from the left side. We are used to most guns, both rifles and pistols, feeding a round upwards from a magazine below the chamber like a .45 in a 1911 for example. On the 1911 the "ramp" to guide the round into the chamber is on the bottom. On the Evans it is on the side. It's also a long stroke to get into the chamber so a long pointy bullet accomplishes that best.
Now some folks might say yikees a pointy bullet in a repeater spells disaster. Well it would in say a Winchester lever rifle because one bullets point is right on the primer of the bullet ahead of it. But in the Evans each bullet is separated by the Helix feed screw and so each bullet is independent from one another and never touch each other. So pointy bullet are OK.
Just rereading the above paragraph reminds me that most folks don't realize it but the Evans does not have an "Ejector". The Extractor pulls the empty out of the chamber and the action of the indexing lead spline that is feeding the next new round into place "kicks" the empty out. You will notice all empties just fall right at your feet. They are not like a gun with an Ejector like a 1911 that throws the empties across the room. Just a note - the Winchester 1873 rifle does not have an Ejector either. It relies on the "carrier" that is bringing up the next round to flip the empty out of the top of the gun.
I will send you a few dummy rounds so you can see how the ammo is made.
Anyway that’s all I can think of for now. I will get the rifle ready to ship back to you this week. If you have any questions let me know.
Happy Trails