Special Interests - Groups & Societies > The Winchester Model 1873

1873 30 inch conundrum.

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Baltimore Ed:
Guys, thought I’d bounce this off you. Y’all are smarter than I am. I bought this nice 30 inch .45 Cimarron 1873 thirty plus years ago. It turned into a hot mess when I discovered the beautiful new looking rifle had a bogus barrel and would pattern as opposed to group. As it had Cimarron’s name on the barrel I contacted them. After initially claiming the rifle wasn’t theirs they relented and I shipped them the ‘73. It stayed there a whole year while a barrel was built and shipped from uberti. Anyway the gun now groups but at 71 I have issues with the weight. As I’m not as strong as I was then so shooting a ten round string is tough. Because of that I haven’t shot it in a match in quite a while. My 24 inch marlin or 27 inch ‘66 musket are manageable plus I have an original ’73 musket. And I’m really liking my Marlin Trapper ‘94 and Stoeger 18 inch ‘73 builds so much better. My conundrum is do I sell the long barreled critter or cut it to 19-20 inch? As it won’t run Schofield loads it can’t become a trapper but it wouldn’t look good that short anyway. Appreciate any thoughts you might have.

Abilene:
My thought would be sell it and buy what you will use.  But why won't it run Schofields?  I run them in my 16" '73 since it is so much easier to load ten than with .45 Colt.  It needs a 200 or 250gr bullet to be long enough to cycle.

DeaconKC:
Gotta agree with Abilene. Trade it for what you want. Maybe look at a 92 with a 24" barrel. It would be a lot lighter and still have a reasonable sight radius.

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Baltimore Ed:
Where the lifter on my stoeger ‘73 cams the next [255 gr swc- 1.40 inch]  45 Schofield cartridge back into the magazine this rifles lifter is different enough that it doesn’t cam the round, just locks up. I guess the angle of the radius on the front bottom of the lifter is too flat.

Coffinmaker:

 :)  Hi Ya Biltmore  :D

I have several thoughts (the resultant pain is horrible).  Whilst I have reservations about whacking off your long barrel (fella up on 'gunsmithing' looking for one), you might consider changing out the Carrier Block (If it's not the "old" short block).  Or reshaping the cartridge return ramp.  should you elect to whack it off, consider a "special" Carrier Block from The Smith Shop and shoot C45S cases.  In which case you could whack it off to 16" if desired.

My thought though, is to sell it on and grab up something more user friendly for us more "seasoned" players.  Those long barrels suddenly aren't fun anymore if you know what I mean.

Play Safe Out There

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