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Blogging to you from the Northeastern Badlands of The County of Lake, in the state currently known as Fatmanistan, DEEP DEEP DEEP DEEP DEEP inside the heartland of the Banana Republic formerly known as the USA, WELCOME TO THE NEXT CHAPTER! WARNING! ALL FORMS OF SOCIAL MEDIA ARE ADDICTIVE; EXCESSIVE USE MAY LEAD TO MENTAL HEALTH DISORDERS, REDUCED JOB PRODUCTIVITY, INSOMNIA, SOCIAL ALIENATION, GENITAL ULCERS, BLINDNESS, POLITICAL EROTICISM, AND / OR DEVIANT FUNAMBULISM. NOTICE: NO GUNS OR AMMUNITION ARE FOR SALE VIA THIS BLOG. (No, I will not trade my Colt Python for some lubricious adventures with your trophy wife and a future first-round draft pick.) CAVEAT: This blog is not suitable for viewing while at work, while inside a public library, while inside any public or private school, or while inside any public or private restroom. Do not view this blog while driving a motor vehicle or while piloting an aircraft. Viewing this blog may be illegal inside the EU, NYC, Chicago, Seattle, and other parts of the Third World. THIS BLOG CONTAINS (albeit often very childish) ADULT-CONTENT. DISCLAIMER: This blog is a hobby, it is not a livelihood. Even though much of what I blog about relates to firearms collecting and recreational shooting, I am not an expert (by any measure) on any facet of guns, shooting, hunting, or personal defense. Entries at this blog are akin to good old-fashioned campfire chats or post hunt bourbon-fueled barroom-bluster; I offer no opinion on what you should or should not purchase, or what you should be using or doing. What does or does not work for me could be rugged-country-miles away from your tastes and your needs. All products, places, and miscellany that I review for this blog are purchased / rented / leased at retail price by me. I do not accept payment, gifts, discounts, freebies, products on loan, distilled spirits, recreational pharmaceuticals, plea-bargains, probation, parole, Papal Blessings, Presidential Pardons, or sexual favors for doing any review or blog post. TRACKING COOKIES: Google et al stick tracking cookies on everybody. If you are online, you are being spied on via one method or another, for one reason or another; 'nuff said. You may be able to minimize your online DNA residue by using Tor and Duck Duck Go. Vive la liberté! Vive all y'all! Ante omnia armari. To each of you, thanks for stopping by!

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Winchester Model 1873



An over one-hundred-year-old gun in my safe is a Winchester Model 1873 that left the factory in 1891.  I consider it a companion to my 1884 vintage Colt Frontier Six Shooter Model 1873 revolver; both are chambered for the .44 Winchester Centerfire, AKA .44-40., AKA .44 WCF. Since the same cartridge fed both that model rifle and that model revolver, the load became very popular with frontier American shooters as a matter of convenience.

My old Winchester ’73 holds 14 cartridges in the magazine, 4 rounds over the “assault weapons ban” benchmark magazine capacity of 10.
The Battle of Little Bighorn was in 1876 and the Cavalry was using the single-shot Springfield Model 1873 .45-70 carbines. During the same period, having more foresight than the military, many civilians had armed themselves with the high-capacity Winchester repeating rifles, the 1873 being so common it was called “The gun that won the west.” The .45-70 load was not replaced until the military adopted the 5-round capacity .30-40 Krag Jorgensen in 1894, which was replaced in 1903 by the 5-round capacity Springfield Model 1903, which was replaced by the 8-round capacity semi-automatic M1 Garand in 1936, which was replaced by the 20-round capacity select fire M14 rifle
in 1957.

The significance of this short thesis is that high-capacity rifles did not become universally popular with the military until long after civilians began commonly using them back in the frontier days.




3 comments:

  1. Awesome 1873! I have an 1873 SRC that is in average condition (125 years old). I would like to be able to shoot it, but I don't believe it's in firing condition. I don't want it restored, just repaired so that I can shoot it every now and then. Do you know of a gunsmith in either or Wisconsin that would be able to do this?
    Thanks,
    paul
    paulpm@ameritech.net

    ReplyDelete
  2. Try giving the guys below a call; they may be able to help you or steer you to a smith near you.

    R.G.S. Restorations, Inc.
    6441 South U.S. Hwy. 45
    Oshkosh, WI 54902
    920-688-2857

    ReplyDelete
  3. The photo above caught my eye. At a glance, it looked like my Winchester '94 sn 195703 with a 26" octagon barrel & 10 shot tube. It is an odd 25-25 cal. which has high velocity but low hitting power. I once fired it into a 24" cottonwood tree and saw a poof in the grass behind the tree I was able to find the slug which had not even deformed going through the tree. The exit hole was the same size as the entry hole.
    After that event, I had to laugh every time I saw a western with people in a board shack shooting out the window and then ducking aside. That inch of wood was about as good for armor as a sheet of cardboard.
    I got it from a Detroit pawn shop for $25 in the 1950s when a friend would not sell me the one above his mantle. The curved brass butt plate and long lines made it good for decoration. It is more practical for decoration than shooting because the sight drops flat with each round, then has to be tilted up again for the next shot.
    After several moves, it is somewhere in the attic with my Japanese sniper rifle and I have not seen it in years. At 84, Id be happy to sell it if I could find it.
    Harvey Versteeg hversteg@yahoo.com

    ReplyDelete

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