canoeguy
US Veteran
Well, I picked up another Winchester rifle the other day, one of the new 1886 lever rifles, made by Miroku, Japan with the Winchester label. I have another Miroku made rifle, a Winchester 1895 copy made by Browning in the early 1980's and it is a fine rifle, so I anticipated this would be a high quality rifle, and it is.
As you all probably know, the 1886 is a John Browning design, chambered "Back in the Day" for big bore cartridges, 45/70, 50/90, etc., big Buffalo cartridges. The design was later slimmed down to become the Winchester 1892, chambered in pistol cartridges like 44-40.
Of course, shootable original Winchester 1886's are priced at what a good used car would bring, and even the 1980's vintage Browning examples are priced high as a cats back when you can find one. This one was in my local dealers shop, brand new with a warranty, 90 day layaway made it irresistable.
Heres' a pic:
Took it to the range today and sighted it in with some of my favorite cast lead handloads, 350 and 405 grain bullets propelled by Trail Boss and Unique powders to approximately 1100 feet per second, mild recoil, still accurate and hard hitting. The rifle shoots good, I haven't done any serious accuracy testing as it was cold and windy today, and once I got it dialed in at 50 yards, I was too cold to move to 100 yards for more work, I'll save that for next week. I did have a lot of fun schwacking a 6" swinging steel target, shooting offhand (standing), a 405 grain cast lead bullet has a lot of energy behind it....
The rifle weighs about 8.5 pounds, and holds six rounds in the full length magazine tube.
The rifle does have the annoying rebounding hammer and tang safety, making it mechanically different from the originals or the copys made in the 1980's, but I think I can over look that for now.
Lever action rifles are fun, and even more fun when they are Big Bores!
As you all probably know, the 1886 is a John Browning design, chambered "Back in the Day" for big bore cartridges, 45/70, 50/90, etc., big Buffalo cartridges. The design was later slimmed down to become the Winchester 1892, chambered in pistol cartridges like 44-40.
Of course, shootable original Winchester 1886's are priced at what a good used car would bring, and even the 1980's vintage Browning examples are priced high as a cats back when you can find one. This one was in my local dealers shop, brand new with a warranty, 90 day layaway made it irresistable.
Heres' a pic:
Took it to the range today and sighted it in with some of my favorite cast lead handloads, 350 and 405 grain bullets propelled by Trail Boss and Unique powders to approximately 1100 feet per second, mild recoil, still accurate and hard hitting. The rifle shoots good, I haven't done any serious accuracy testing as it was cold and windy today, and once I got it dialed in at 50 yards, I was too cold to move to 100 yards for more work, I'll save that for next week. I did have a lot of fun schwacking a 6" swinging steel target, shooting offhand (standing), a 405 grain cast lead bullet has a lot of energy behind it....
The rifle weighs about 8.5 pounds, and holds six rounds in the full length magazine tube.
The rifle does have the annoying rebounding hammer and tang safety, making it mechanically different from the originals or the copys made in the 1980's, but I think I can over look that for now.
Lever action rifles are fun, and even more fun when they are Big Bores!
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