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For those that have taken apart an original Winchester 1873


Quiet Burp

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I believe if you look into the YouTube channel 'The Cinnabar', the fella who runs that has done a lot of work on older, original Winchesters. He has lots of videos on those rifles. You might find some useful info there.

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56 minutes ago, Sedalia Dave said:


 

 Are you by chance referring to the new production made by Miroku or an original which has been out of production for 103 years. 

 

Original, I was wondering how the machining is on them made with the tooling they had back then.

 

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6 hours ago, Quiet Burp said:

 

Original, I was wondering how the machining is on them made with the tooling they had back then.

 

 

Tough to compare as Winchester hasn't made a 73 for over 100 years. Most of those hose that are not collectors items have a lot of wear from hard use.

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2 hours ago, Sedalia Dave said:

 

Tough to compare as Winchester hasn't made a 73 for over 100 years. Most of those hose that are not collectors items have a lot of wear from hard use.

 

I'm a home shop machinist, I was interesting (and wondering) what the machining was like on the original vs Uberti's ie. the side plates and internals. Those old timers didn't have High speed steel tool bits, halogen lighting and CNC, but they sure did turn out a hell of a lot of firearms with the equipment they had.

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I've not worked on a Uberti 1873.  I have cleaned up and replaced screws on an original 3rd model 73. And have a Miroku 73.  But I don't think I could answer your question.  

 

Gun quality back then was like today.  Functional junk to unbelievable.  I had a Patker double barrel apart made in 1894 as I recall. Took to action to a trained machinest to see.  The whole inside, every nook and cranny was polished perfect.  No machine marks left. Most shotguns are really rough on inside.  Some really rough on outside. 

 

 

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I have owned three 1873s, all third series from 1890-1891. 

I have worked in precision sheet metal and machining since 1989.

Fit and workmanship does vary on these guns, but attention was made on mating surfaces.  my 1891 in .32 WCF is as good as any Uberti that I have seen in the areas that matter.

One interesting thing is the chamfer on the top of the mag tube mouth in the original guns.  These originals were intended to only be shoot with one cartridge, while the Ubertis do not have this chamfer and can be shot with many more cartridge lengths, especially in the .38/.357.

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I have one made in '81. There are tool marks, the corners where the carrier slides up and down are slightly rounded. In a Uberti or new Winchester they are square. The internals are kind of unfinished where they do not contact other moving parts.

kR

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The quality of the finishing was about the same for the most part. The heat treating was sometimes hit or miss, because the didn't have temp gauges like we do now, and many of the parts that were hardened were done by the "Color" method. They would watch it, and when it got to the right color, they would quench it. But the finished parts were often finished by hand, and had few if any rough areas, unless it was inside, and didn't contact any other parts.

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Years ago I had the opportunity to work on a couple ‘73’s from 1881 and 1883. What amazed me was the quality of the internal parts. Fit was perfect. It was hard to believe that these rifles were built over 140 years ago. Both rifles were in original configuration with only the slightest case hardening visible under the side plates. Also both rifles were octagonal barrels. 

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