Cimarron 1876 rifles

[Horace Patootie, SASS #35798]

Thinking about one of these rifles and wonder about caliber. They offer 45-60, 45-75, and 50-95.  For those of you with experience with these, which caliber would you choose? What about brass availability, brass cost, ease of reloading or any other issues with these calibers?  Thanks for any advice about this.

Horace

[Larsen E. Pettifogger, SASS #32933]

.45-60.  Brass is easily formed and bullets easy to find.  While the other two are theoretically offered finding anything for the .45-75 and .50-95 is a real challenge.  Almost bought a .50-95 that was hanging on the wall at a local gun shop last year.  After investigating and finding how hard it is to find brass, dies and bullets I gave up on the idea.

[Red River Rudy, SASS #8490 LIFE]

45-60!  All the reasons Larson said!  Very easy to form brass from 45-70.  Mine shoots great in the 45-60 chambering.

[La Sombra]

I have one in 50-95 and another in 45-75. Bullets and dies were not a problem. When I purchased the 50-95 it came with over 400 smokeless rounds (Buffalo Arms). I was also able to find 80 pieces of  45-75 brass. So your mileage might vary. 
 

I am now looking for a 45-60 and eventually a 40-60.

 

La Sombra 

[watab kid]

learned something new , thanks , ll sytick with my 4570 but good to know of the others 

[Bingo Montana]

I have an Uberti 1876 in 45-60 and use trimmed 45-70 brass from Hornady LEVERevolution brass (already a tad shorter) and 300 grain Hi-Tek coated bullets with APP 2F BP substitute.  Very nice shooting rifle, able to hit a 200 yard gong with the stock open sights, which are about the limit for my eyes and the buckhorn rear and plain front post sights.  A couple of notes, the hammer spring is very strong resulting in a VERY heavy trigger.   The rifle proved to be very accurate with the 300 gr/APP 2F combination, 1 MOA @ 100 yds.  I haven't tried any smokeless loads, just don't have the time right now to work on that.  Fun rifle to shoot and always gets attention at the range, you just don't see many of them.

 

Easy to find 45-70 brass and load.  I use RCBS 45-70 3 Die Set, and crimp with the modified Lee Factory Crimp die to get the crimp right.  I machined 0.200" off the bottom of the Lee FC Die to get the crimp just right with the shorter 45-60 cartridge, for me that was cheaper then purchasing a 45-60 die set.

 

Of all the rifles I have, it's my favorite to shoot.  Although I don't have a Sharps or 1885 yet.

 

In the video below I'm shooting a 24"x18" gong @ 200 yds, it is the one on right.  Those 300 grain projectile really get it swinging!   

 

Edited July 27 by Bingo Montana
Added loading die info.

[H. K. Uriah, SASS #74619]

Mine is a .45-60, and that's what I'll recommend.

But here is something I learned the hard way.    The chamber size of these modern guns is not the same as the classic version of the cartridge.  I found some .45-60 brass with the correct headstamp, and even after running it through the RCBS full length dies, it will not chamber.   On the other other hand, .45-70 brass trimmed to the correct length and just run through .45-70 dies chambers perfectly well.   

Also, the RCBS dies ever so slightly bottleneck the brass, both the stuff made to original specs, and cut down .45-70.   But, it doesn't seem to need to be, as the stuff run through the .45-70 dies does not bottleneck , and as I said, it chambers just fine.  

So, if you want to get an original and a reproduction for some reason, be aware of the fact that the chamberings are very slightly different.