Winchester 1885 Hunter

[Kougarok George]

Howdy all,

I just purchased a new Winchester that is the hunter. 24" barrel, do any of you load for this beast? What bullet does it prefer. I will be shooting the holy black only. I realize that I can measure the twist to help estimate what bullet weight I can stabilze. Anyone know of where a 45 caliber twist rate to bullet weight chart is?

45.70

 

thanx

kg

[Cliff Hanger #3720LR]

Never Mind! I read it as 1895, not 1885.

 

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The 1895 Winchester was built as a rifle for the new modern high velocity smokeless rounds. It was not intended for BP. They do not shoot lead bullets well at all. It takes a lot of work to develop rounds to shoot well. And you may find that a load that shoots well at 100 yards will not do well at 200 yards. This requires developing loads for say every 50 years.

 

Here's a short article on the Winchester 1895. I happen to have an original like the third one down. Been shooting it since the 50's. It really like the Winchester Silver Tip ammunition. At all distances.

 

http://www.brimstonepistoleros.com/gazette/july10.html

[BLACKFOOT SASS #11947]

Look on the Shilen rifle barrel site for twist rate/bullet weight information. What caliber is your smoke pole??

 

Blackfoot

[Marshal Mackenna]

The rifle has a 1in 20 twist, any cast bullet up to 500 grain will shoot well in it. Jacketed bullet for hunting, 350 grain works well. If you load only black powder a 405 grain cast is a standard, compress the powder 1/16 to 1/8 and you will get about 1400 fps. good out to 100 yards on large game.

 

Mackenna