Original Winchester '73 at 200 yards (photos)

[KirkD]

Ever since I developed my 'ultimate' 44-40 load, I've been looking forward to trying it out at 200 yards. Although there was a bit of a breeze (20 km/hr or 12 mph), I couldn't stay away from the range any longer, so at lunch hour I slipped off for a quick shoot.

Rifle: An original Winchester Model 1873 chambered in 44 WCF (44-40) and received in the Warehouse August 1, 1889. It is in excellent, original condition, with shiny, smooth bore with sharp rifling. I took a photo of this vintage '73 after the shoot, posted below ....



Load: 17.7 grains of 5744 with a pinch of cotton between the powder and the bullet to keep the powder against the primer.

Bullet: Accurate Molds 43-200B ordered to give a sized diameter of .431 ( http://www.accuratemolds.com/bullet_detail.php?bullet=43-200B-D.png ) see photo below ...



and here's a photo of the bullet, pinch of cotton and case, to give you an idea of the amount of cotton I use. I don't weigh it. I just pinch off enough cotton to fill the space in the cartridge with the cotton lightly compressed between the bullet and the powder. ....



Shooting Setup: I set my shooting bag on a piece of 2 x 12 to give the right height. I rested my arm on the pillow. Here's a photo of the setup I used today ....



First Group (peep sticker on glasses):
For this first group, I stuck a small, round sticker about 1/4" in diameter with a 1/16" hole punched in the middle of it onto the front of the right lens of my glasses. This acts as a bit of a peep hole to sharpen up the rear sights for my 57 year-old eyes. This tended to make the front sight a bit more difficult to see. I raised the ramp under my rear sight two notches and fired a 'sighter'. I hit about an inch below the target, so raised the rear sight one more notch. I fired five shots and then headed down to check my target. Although I found the front sight difficult to see because the peep really reduced the contrast of the sight against the target, I got a five-shot group of 5 & 1/8" at 200 yards. I'm sure the rifle is capable of a group half that size, but it was the best I could do this particular day. Here's a photo of the target ....



Second Group (no peep sticker on glasses):
When I am hunting, I don't have a sticker on the lens of my glasses, so I figured I'd see how I could shoot without one. With no sticker, the front sight was easier to see but the rear sight notch was very, very blurry. I slowly fired off five rounds and went down to check my target. Very interesting! This time I got a five shot group of exactly 6" at 200 yards and the entire group was moved over about 3" to the right and about 4" down. I am sure this was due to a much blurrier rear sight notch, making the top and middle of the sight notch harder to figure out. I did find a consistent area within the blurry notch to put the front sight, since this second group is only 3/4" larger that the sticker-peep group, but obviously the sight picture has been altered due to the much blurrier rear sight notch. Here's a photo of the second no-peep sticker target .....



Concluding Thoughts: This fall, I'm planning to harvest a White Tail deer with this fine old classic. The load looks good enough out to 200 yards, but I will have to practice shooting without the sticker peep. Where I will be hunting, the shots are most likely to be less than 50 yards and no more than 100 yards. Nevertheless, I look forward to practicing at ranges between 50 and 200 yards this summer and fall. I think that with practice, I should be able to tighten up my 200 yard groups with no peep sticker on my glasses.

[IRON JACK]

That's a beautiful rifle Kirkd.  Great to know you can plug a deer at 200 yds.

What are the diminsions of your peep sticker, if you don't mind.

I have a uberti 73 in 44-40 with lyman #2 tang sight that works very well for the 59 yr old eyes but could probably benefit from using a sticker with my uberti 66 carbine 44-40. 

Thanks

Jack

[Rowdy Fulcher]

KirkD
Great looking Rifle . Is that a round barrel ?Heave you practiced shooting with out the bench ? Not a bad idea to practice with some 30 to 70 yard shoots . It's amazing how Deer can pop up and the strangest times . Good shooting and the BEST of luck this fall . Looking forward to the picture of that ol monster Buck .

[Advertising]

[KirkD]

Iron Jack: I just went to the office supplies store and bought a sheet of round 'dot' stickers. I would say that you would want to get ones that are at least 1/4" in diameter so that you can't see around the edges of it if your pupils are wide open. I took a fine punch, laid the sheet on a piece of 2x4 and punched 1/16" holes in the center of a bunch of the stick on dots.

Rowdy: This old rifle has a round barrel. I usually rest my rifle on my shooting bag when I am testing out a new load, but most of my practicing for hunting is done shooting free-standing, offhand at 100 yards mostly, but with occasional practice sessions at 75 yards and 50 yards. This round barrel is nice and heavy, so it makes offhand shooting a little easier. I can hardly wait until deer season, but it isn't until the third week in November. I did take a decent Whitetail doe a couple years ago with a different 44-40 (an original Winchester Model 53). However, I was using a different cast bullet and a faster load, around 1,450 fps.

[Rowdy Fulcher]

KirkD
I thought that was a round barrel . Do you want to sell her  Not only a Fine looking rifle but a good shooter also . What State do you call home ? I live and hunt in Kentucky and hope to take a few Deer this season with my 44wcf . I love the Vintage Hunting . I guess it's my way of going to a simpler time .

[KirkD]

I only hunt with old Winchesters myself. I find I enjoy hunting way more with these old guns. Last fall I hunted with an original '76 made in 1886, 45-60 caliber. The year before that, it was an original '73 38-40 made in 1891. I live up in Canada. This beautiful old '73 is the crown jewel of my very modest collection of five old Winchesters. I hope I never have to part with it this side of the Pearly Gates. I too miss the simpler life. It was a hard working life, but a fellow had a lot less to worry about than he does today.

[Rowdy Fulcher]

KirkD
Glad to hear you like the Vintage Hunting also . The 76 in 45-60 is a great rifle also , I love 76 and 73 rifles . The 73 is lighter to pack which is good if your stalking . I shot a nice buck a couple years ago with my 45-60 . Was hunting out of a ground blind . I had been sitting there just a short time when he came to check his scrape . He was at about 70 yards when I shot him ,and the rest is all history now . Hopefully this fall I can use my 1873 in 44wcf using a black powder round .

[Mossyrock]

Kirk,

Do you still have your '76 in 45-60?

Mossyrock
(From the old Leverguns Board)

[KirkD]

Mossyrock, yes I still have the 'ol '76.

[w44wcf]

Kirk,

Excellent report & nice shooting!  A <6" group 200 yards with open sights and older eyes with a vintage Winchester is great!

1875 - Winchester claimed that the 1873 was effective and accurate at all practical ranges up to 500-600 yards.

Late 1800's-early 1900's - "Up to 300 yards it is very accurate and sufficiently powerful to kill bear, deer, antelope, mountain sheep, etc."

Regarding the 1875 claim, several years ago, I tested my 1873 Winchester at 500 meters (547 yards) at the Ridgway, PA high power silhouette range. Ammuntion was the Lyman 427098 bullet (215 grs) over 17 / H4227E. I just barely had enough elevation to get there using the Lyman tang sight at max elevation in combination with the vintage Marbles improved front sight which has a hole underneath the bead. I used the bottom of the hole as the aiming point.

After getting sighted in with the aid of my spotter, from the bench I fired 10 rounds at 10 steel rams (13" high x 32" wide)and managed to connect with 4 of them.  My spotter indicated that the other rounds impacted very close to the silhouettes.

Winchester was right! I sure wouldn't want anyone shooting at me with a '73 at that distance!



w44wcf  
  

[KirkD]

Although my real-life hunting with this '73 is likely to be at ranges of 50 yards or less, there is another reason why I like to see what it will do at longer ranges. I am a Louis L'Amour fan, with over 50 of his novels on my iPad. A fellow can only read so many of his great stories before beginning to wonder what a '73 would do in a shootout in some 1870's canyon in the old west. It raises the ante at the range when you imagine that you are in a fight with some rustlers who are shooting at you, and you have to make good in the first shot or two at 200 yards.

[w44wcf]

Kirk,
Having shot the 44-40 at extended ranges, I know that one could certainly kill a man with the first shot out to  200 yards if he knew his rifle well.  With a MRT of about 15", if the rifle was slighted to put the bullet 6" above the top of the bead at 100 yards. the bullet would impact within the bead at 200 yards.

Then again, if the rifle has a flip up rear sight with yardage graduations or a tang sight were the adjustment is known for certain ranges, that would be an advantage.

What would be telling would be shooting at a bank at 200 yards distance where the bullet impacts could easily be seen.
What fun!

w44wcf  

[Rowdy Fulcher]

Howdy
I was looking at the Sporting rear sight in the 1875 Winchester catalog . According to that the adjustments were from 50 to 300 yards . The catalog also stated the velocity for the 44wcf was 1325 fps which would penetrate a pine board about 4 inches at 1000 yards .

Has anyone tried a 1000 yard shot with a 44 wcf . This would be a Excellent test for the Swiss powder . 

[w44wcf]

Kirk,
Interestingly, the accuracy you're getting at 200 yards is very similar to testing done by Winchester almost 100 years ago.
I got this information from copies of the tests from the Winchester ballistic lab that were sent to me by the fellow that has the original documents.

They don't indicate if 5 or 10 shots were fired.  


Winchester test date   bullet     /    powder  / 200 yard accuracy
Sept. 22, 1913.............   200 lead.      /    black     / 7 1/2"
Sept. 22, 1913.............   180 lead h.p. /   Lesmok  /   8"
Sept. 22, 1913.............   200 lead     /    Lesmok  / 7 1/2"
Sept. 22, 1913.............   180 lead h.p. /   black     /   8"
Sept. 3, 1914 ..............   180 lead h.p. /   smokeless /  8"
Feb. 21, 1916..............   200 s.p.     /    smokeless / 6 5/8"


Rowdy,
I have sent some 44-40 rounds at "Homer" the steel buffalo at the Ridgway Rifle Club.  He is 950 yards from the firing line.
I managed to hit him a couple of times in 20 shots.  It was pretty windy at the time though.......


w44wcf
 

[KirkD]

That is amazing info, w44wcf. Looking at those 1913 ballistic lab results, I don't feel so bad about my 5 & 1/8" group at 200 yards. That is fascinating information. Thanks for posting it.

[Rowdy Fulcher]

Howdy
To bad we couldn't all get together some weekend . We could shoot , tell tall stories just have a Good time . 

[KirkD]

That would be fun for sure. I just ordered an original tang site for my '73 and another original one for my '86 (an original received in warehouse 1890, 45-70 with full octagon barrel).

[hammer1]

Kirk, my wife and I both like the simpler life, of years past. She bought me a Uberti 1876 in 45-60 a few months back, I cant afford a original,( yet). Ive been looking at the hunting guns I have, and the hunting Ive done in the last ten years. Only one hunt comes to mind that I would have hesitated a shot, Caribou in Quebec. Ive really gotten bit by the call of the old guns, even if they are replicas. But I ve started getting ready to make room with the new, and make room for the old.

[w44wcf]

Kirk,
That vintage tang sight on your vintage Winchester '73 will be pretty neat!  
Now you need a black powder load for "stepping back in time" to when your vintage Winchester was made. (Smokeless 44-40 cartridges were not introduced until 1895, 6 years after the production date of your '73.)

Here's a 10 shot 200 yard group with b.p. to show that the 44-40 b.p. cartridge is indeed accurate.....

 

w44wcf


  

[KirkD]

Well John, you are surely tempting me to try out some BP. I got my original '73 tang sight in hand. I'm excited to mount it and get it sighted in and see what I can do with it.