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Rifle to shoot 45 schofield


Marshall Matt Dillon

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On 1/13/2021 at 7:23 PM, Marshall Dillon said:

Which has best chance to feed schofield. Marlin, rossi, or uberti? 

Here's a picture of side of an 1873 carrier.

1797359866_1873carrier.jpg.3c5c24e5c9ba06929f277a081ea1ebd8.jpg

That line at right bottom represents the slope on the inside of the carrier where the round will feed from the magazine into the body of the carrier.  That angle also represents the difficulty the carrier will have pushing a round partially on the carrier (as the one fully on the carrier is shorter than the carrier), back into the magazine as the carrier is raised to position the cartridge in front of the bolt to be pushed into the chamber.

 

It needs to be steep enough that it does that with ease, but... it's what allows the variety of overall cartridge lengths to operate in the gun.  My 1986 production gun has a shallow enough angle that it will feed Schofields with longer noses, and 45 Colt rounds with wad cutters... as long as there's some curve to the portion protruding from the case.  It will NOT feed C45S length cases with anything.    My 2009 1860 Henry & 2014 1873 have steeper angles and will feed pretty much any length 45 Colt, from 125 grains barnstormers to 250 RFN... but... the COAL needs to be under 1.585"  

 

As you can see, it is most likely a matter of hit or miss whether your particular acquisition would feed 45 Schofield reliably without modification.  The secret will be if there is enough to push that round back into the magazine.

19 hours ago, Marshall Dillon said:

i am leaning towards a winchester 73 after reading all day. A short carbine.

Short rifle, maybe... but the "Trapper" lengths will not allow 10 in the magazine.  The follower and spring take up enough room in the magazine that generally nine are all that fit.  I have a 18-½" half round/octagon "short rifle" from Taylor's & Sons that fit 10 45 Colt rounds with just enough room to be comfortable loading.  No man-handling of the spring or follow, or the magazine plug in order to make room.  It is still quite the handy little package.  With the weight of the octagon rear portion of the barrel, it feels solid, and is less susceptible to bounce or jump as you move from target to target in the shooting string.

 

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16 minutes ago, Griff said:

 

Short rifle, maybe... but the "Trapper" lengths will not allow 10 in the magazine.  The follower and spring take up enough room in the magazine that generally nine are all that fit. 

 

 

9 of colt, or 9 of schofield?

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I have a 92 that feeds  .45 Schofields , .45 Colt ( the round it's chambered for ) and .44 spl. with 240 gr. SWC bullets  with-out a hitch ... 

The .44 spl. is due to a borrower taking ammo from the Blue Box , instead of the RED box He hit 10 for 10 on targets at 20 yards and none of us noticed anything 

odd till I got my brass back .... 

He said it was the slickest 92 he had ever shot ......

 

Jabez Cowboy

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1 hour ago, Griff said:

...Short rifle, maybe... but the "Trapper" lengths will not allow 10 in the magazine.  ...

 

 

You might not have read my post above.  I have a 16" '73 trapper carbine from Cimarron.  Holds ten 45 Colt at 1.58" OAL.  VERY tight fit, and the last round loaded is at an angle on the carrier and must be straightened before trying to lever the first time (yes, the bevel in the frame mortice is there, but too much spring pressure to overcome).  But I shot it that way for some years before I started shooting Shofields in it, just because it is easier to load the rifle.  Note that on toggle link guns the last round loaded is on the carrier, not in the mag tube.  And the Cimarron trappers had a hollow mag tube plug and special tapered spring, but even without those parts it should hold ten Schofields.

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5 minutes ago, Abilene, SASS # 27489 said:

 

You might not have read my post above.  I have a 16" '73 trapper carbine from Cimarron.  Holds ten 45 Colt at 1.58" OAL.   

I was just reading first page again to look for that. I was sure i had read that!

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2 hours ago, Abilene, SASS # 27489 said:

 

You might not have read my post above.  I have a 16" '73 trapper carbine from Cimarron.  Holds ten 45 Colt at 1.58" OAL.  VERY tight fit, and the last round loaded is at an angle on the carrier and must be straightened before trying to lever the first time (yes, the bevel in the frame mortice is there, but too much spring pressure to overcome).  But I shot it that way for some years before I started shooting Shofields in it, just because it is easier to load the rifle.  Note that on toggle link guns the last round loaded is on the carrier, not in the mag tube.  And the Cimarron trappers had a hollow mag tube plug and special tapered spring, but even without those parts it should hold ten Schofields.

Hmmm... my 18-½" Short Rifle won't hold 11, that one extra will only go in about half way.  Must be a significant difference in the compressed spring length.

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1 hour ago, Griff said:

Hmmm... my 18-½" Short Rifle won't hold 11, that one extra will only go in about half way.  Must be a significant difference in the compressed spring length.

 

That special Cimarron spring was very tapered on each end to collapse into itself.  Sometimes Uberti would fail to put those parts in (What?  Uberti make a mistake???)  and the trapper would only hold 9.  I got a special deal on that gun.  If I had it to do over again, I'd probably get the 19" (I have 2 of those in other calibers), or some 18" job, but this one has been fine, especially now with the Schofields (but I'm looking harder for the empties now :) )

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