custom fit .45-60 brass available

[drew458]

For you shooters out there with reproduction 1876 Winchesters in .45-60

Not all of the reproduction 1876 Winchesters in .45-60 need brass cases with thinner rims, but some of them do. Most of us are using cut down .45-70 brass. Factory .45-70 cases have a rim about 0.066" - 0.068" thick. While the 1876 action will close on a shortened .45-70 case, in some rifles this requires a fair amount of effort. That is not how it should be. The action should close with just a teensy tiny effort, no more than the lightest finger squeeze. Anything harder than that and you are putting stress on the toggle link parts, as well as putting the case head under pressure.

I have found a machinist willing to thin case rims for a reasonable price. He is also a long time shooter, black powder junkie, and reloader. Our kind of guy!

First he made me a set of loaner gauge cases that let me find the right headspace to within half of a thousandth of an inch : 0.0005". He then thinned the .45-70 rims on a precision micro-lathe, and cut a very tiny radius to the front edge of the rim so that the cases aren't sharp. His work looks like it was done by a factory.

He can also shorten the cases to rough length for you. I've been shortening mine using a hand operated case trimmer, and let me tell you, it takes a whole lot of cranking to cut down nearly a quarter inch of brass. Zipping them down to length using a sanding disk works if you go nice and slow, but go too fast and you will overheat the brass, giving you more annealing than you want. Rough length trimmed means you only need to trim them a couple thou, and then chamfer and deburr like you'd do with any new cases. That's only a few seconds work to get brass that is also the precise length for your rifle. Proper headspace and proper length cases means more accurate ammunition.

Right now he's getting set up for large scale production, but he is willing to take orders of 200 cases, even if several guys have to get together to make up an order. For a price better than the shortened Winchester brass you can buy from Buffalo Arms he will make you cases out of new Starline brass that fit your rifle perfectly.

If you just need thinner rims and are willing to length trim your own cases that costs even less.

Send an email to Sam at stumpy147@yahoo.com