Winchester 1873

Picked up a Winchester 1873 Saddle Ring Carbine in .44-40 last weekend. It is in pretty good condition too. It has the original dust cover, butt plate, and original finish. It was made in 1880, serial number 47513. The only thing that isn't original is the rear sight, but it is a leaf sight off an 1866. It has a metal star put into the butt stock. But the best part is how much I paid for it.....$900! The blueing is pretty faded and there is a ware on the stck right in front of the receiver, which if I'm not mistaken is worn from being rested on a saddle and rocked by horse. The guy at the gun show must have had no idea what this rifle is obviously worth. And just an hour after I bought it I got offered $1600 for it! This is a dream come true. I've wanted an 1873 for a long time but the prices were always too expensive.

Now I want a 1876 carbine

Great find! You obviously have better luck at gun shows than I do...

Wow!!! Must be nice having that kind of luck.

I orginally went looking for a pre-64 Winchester Model 70. And I'm really picky about guns I collect, most of their parts have to be original, and with the pre-64 model 70's, if there is no butt plate and there is a recoil pad instead I don't even bother (not trying to sound like a snob) but I did find the model 70 I was looking for, but on the table across from it I spotted the beauty! The guy selling it said, some guy traded it and he wanted to get rid of it as fast as he could. I'm excited to shoot it! But, I'm going to be careful and not buy .44-40 ammo off the shelf at a store and will reload some cartriges that'll have low muzzle velocity so it won't damage the barrel too much.

Good find. I too am not that lucky. Although I have been finding some of the guns I have been looking for lately at a good price.

I agree to not use off the shelf ammo in it. I would also take it to a good gun smith and have them give it a once over just to be safe. Am going to do that with my Winchester 1897 before I start shooting it.

Also check out Trail Boss gunpowder. It is new and made for lower vilosity shooting. Like Cowboy Action. Has more bulk to it so it is more consistant too.

Good luck and enjoy.

I've heard good and bad things about trail boss powder. The good was it is almost grain for grain with real black powder and much cleaner than BP. However I've heard it is alot dirtier than unique and some other powders and won't go as far as unique. 30 grain trail boss vs. 6 grains unique. Just what I've heard though. I'm very new at the reloading thing and there is soooo much info out there it can get a little overwhelming.

I have 6 pounds of fffg BP so I may reload some 45 colt the way it was meant to be. Dirty and smelly.

Trail boss was developed for cowboy action shooters using 45 colt cases, basically huge cases originally designed for quite a bit of black powder, light charges for CAS, gave inconsistent burning and bad accuracy. Trail boss takes up alot of room, But back the truck up katy,,, your charges should be around 5 grains, not 30, not sure where you got that 1 for 1 with BP thing. Please consult a manual.

You are correct. My bad .I think I got screwed up on the grains by volume vs. grains by weight. I use 30 grains by volume( powder measure) of fffg with my cap and ball revolvers. I don't know what that is by weight. I was under the impression the trail boss was made to fill the case up more for a more even burn. Is the 5-6 grain you stated by weight or volume? I don't know. I haven't started up reloading yet so this is all new to me. I haven't even been able to find a good manual around here.

Trailboss: One of the Best Kept Secrets

Just a bit of info on trail boss powder with a link from IMR. I would be curious to know what the grain weight vs. volume is on this stuff. From what I've read it is very "lofty". I know with real BP it is right at 1 for 1 on volume to weight. So 30 grains by volume of BP is roughly 30 grain by weight. So what I'm asking is is 30 grains by volume equal to roughly 5 grains by weight of trail boss? I haven't really been able to find that anywhere.

Grain is a unit of WEIGHT, not volume, if you are using black powder you are using 30 grains (weight) of ffg. There are powder measures designed to hold that volume. Black powder subsitutes like pyrodex are designed to give similar performance to an equal volume of black powder. Really is stupidity on the part of many in the black powder community writers, pyrodex makers, etc people who should know better, to use that grain by volume stuff. That's like saying I have a 50lb bag of feed by volume. Huh? Makes no sense. Neither does 30 grains by volume. No such thing. All reloading data is based on weight, IE grains. Grains is a unit of weight. 7000 grains to a lb. Goes back to old english measurement based on a lb of barely. Trail boss ISNOT a blackpowder substitute, it is a smokless powder designed to use in the older large capacity cases at reduced velocity. Its volume compared to BP is 100% irrelevant, just get that volume stuff out of your head and load by weight.