The bore shows strong rifling all the way, but some light pitting and scratching is present. Here is the best picture I could get of the bore, along with a nod to Ysabel Kid's technique
:
The rifle came with an original Winchester .38-72 bullet mould and two boxes of Bertram brass that I had loaded for my friend several years ago using 5744 powder and bullets cast in the original mould. The bullets had been sized to .378, they chambered very easily, and shot terribly! They tumbled so bad that I was hitting ten feet off target at 100 yards! I didn't bother to shoot the second box, I just dismantled them to try again.
First thing I did was clean and slug the bore. Now mind you, I had slugged that same bore several years ago and written it down as being .3795. This time, it slugged .381. I can't explain the difference except that I now have a newer dial caliper than the one I had back then. The closest bullet I had was some .380 Meister Cast 240 grain designed for the .38-55. I loaded five each of four different powder charges and headed back to the range. It has been awhile since I worked with an unknown gun, and I screwed up by not checking the first round I loaded to make sure it chambered. All twenty rounds failed to feed any more than three quarters of the way into the chamber. Back home I go!
I knew my bullet was under bore size, so why the failure to chamber? I decided to make a Cerrosafe chamber casting to see what was going on. Here is the casting with dimensions taken after cooling:
As you can see, the neck area measured an even .400. I measure the case neck thickness and it was .014. Double that to allow for both sides of the case and you get .028. Add that .380 bullet and you get .408, which ain't no way gonna fit into that .400 chamber neck! Thinning the brass might help, but for now I tried something else.
KirkD had sent me a good magazine article by Ken Waters, who had experienced this very thing while doing a write-up on the .38-72 WCF. He beat the problem by switching to jacketed bullets, noting that the other option would be using black powder with a softer bullet that would "bump up" on firing, which he did not want to do. A search of my bullet cabinet turned up a box of Hornady 220 grain .375 caliber jacketed bullets. Great! Back to the reloading press, and to show I learned my lesson, I checked the first round in the gun's chamber. It fell right in! I loaded up five rounds each of two different powders. Hmm, maybe I ought to try some black powder to test that "bump-up" theory. Sixty-five grains of Goex FFg ought to be about right. I used a two foot drop tube to help compress the powder charge, seated a milk carton wad, a 1/16" grease cookie, and another milk carton wad. I sized a 240 grain Lyman 375248 bullet to .376 and seated it. The loaded round was very snug, but it did chamber! I loaded four more for testing and headed to the range.
I shoot five shot groups at fifty yards over a chronograph when testing loads. After getting all set up, I started with a load of 35 grains IMR 3031 under the 220 grain Hornady bullet. First shot went high off target, but on checking through the spotting scope I saw it had gone through the target backer sideways.
I went to a 6 o'clock hold and fired the other four rounds, only two of which hit the target (both sideways) Velocity was 1797 FPS:
Next I tried the same bullet with 30 grains of Re7. Velocity was 1804, but again the bullets tumbled and I had but two hits on target.
Finally I tried the black powder loads. Unfortunately, the light had gone bad and I couldn't get a read from the chronograph, but all five bullets flew straight! The elevation was perfect, but windage put the group on the right edge of the paper, with two of the shots just off the target.
I gotta say it would not break my heart to have to shoot black powder loads in this rifle. I have a very long history of enjoying both muzzleloading and breechloading black powder guns. I think for now I will try perfecting a black powder and cast lead bullet load as it would be the most cost-effective way for me to enjoy my new .38-72 Winchester.
Further reports to come!
Link to Report #2: http://www.levergunscommunity.com/viewt ... =1&t=37503
SHASTA
open the throut some. A mandrill of sorts????
) and try to chamber it. Keep taking off a 32nd of an inch until it will chamber--it eventually will 