The 'new' rifle: An original Winchester Model 53 in caliber 44-40 (44 W.C.F.) made in 1928. Now I know that some of you might be thinking, 'he traded away an original Winchester '86 .45-70 for a Model 53!!!???' Yep! That's right ..... and I am very pleased with the trade. According to Madis, there were only 3,293 Model 53's made in caliber 44-40, which makes the Model 53 44-40 one of the rarest Winchester Model/caliber combinations. It is very seldom that you will find one for sale anywhere, including auctions such as GunBroker and RIA, or on the normal websites selling vintage Winchesters. I've wanted one of these for about 20 years. A friend of mine had one and I would casually mention, from time to time, that if he ever wanted to part with it, to let me know. Well, he finally did. The Model 53 44-40 was the final iteration of the Winchester Model 1892/92/53 line for the 44-40 caliber. Winchester did come out with one more iteration of the original Model 1892 action after this in the form of the Model 65, but the 44-40 caliber was not offered for that model. This is a very light, fast-handling little rifle. From the photos below, you can get an idea of its compactness and fast-handling ability ...... quite a change from the earlier original Winchester 1892 full octagon barrel version, itself a nice little rifle ....
Load: 16 grains of 2400 under a 200 grain plain base cast bullet sized to .429, yielding an average chronographed velocity of 1,248 fps. (The exact same load in my older Model 1892 44-40 rifle, with a barrel 2" longer, gives 1,294 fps.).
100 yards:: Today, I wanted to get an idea of how accurate this load is in this little rifle, so I rested my rifle on my shooting bag, while sitting at a bench, and squeezed off 3 shots. The wall thickness of the barrel is so thin, that I figured I'd start with just a 3-shot group in case the point of impact changed as the barrel heated up. The result was a 3-shot group of 1 & 7/8" at 100 yards, photo of target below .....
Then I got to wondering what 5 shots would do with no cooling and starting off with a pretty warm barrel already, so I set up a new target and fired another 5 rounds. I was pleasantly surprised to see that the 5 shot group was 2 & 5/8" at 100 yards. I was pleased because, first of all, the sight radius is pretty short for my old eyes with this 22" barrel. Secondly, that barrel was very hot when I finished, yet it did not seem to affect accuracy. A photo of this target is below ......
If you place the two targets on top of each other, the bullseye bullet hole widens the group to be an 8-shot group of 2 & 7/8" at 100 yards, with 7 of the shots still within the original 2 & 5/8" group.
Offhand shooting: I finished off with 10 shots fired down range at the target, which was on an 8 1/2 x 11" piece of paper. I did not take my time to carefully aim and fire, but I did not fire the 10 shots fast either ..... moderately fast, but I know I could have done better if I'd taken my time for each shot and disciplined myself for better control. Still, 6 of the shots were within a 2 & 1/4" radius of the center of the bullseye, 8 shots were within a 4 & 3/4" radius, and only one shot was off the bottom of the paper .... a called low shot the moment I pulled the trigger. This is not great shooting, but for my first time offhand shooting with this little rifle, I am very happy with how easy it is to accurately shoot, if I will do my part. I think I will up the velocity for my next load .... I'd like something between 1,350 fps and 1,400 fps. I'll see what another grain of 2400 chronographs at.
It is a real nice looking rifle 
Too bad that when a fellow shoots, he couldn't burn up fat at the same rate as he burns up powder .... but then maybe it would be too much work to shoot.
