Hello from Alaska

[200yearstoolate]

Hello folks

New member here, hailing from Palmer Alaska, and I have a lot of catching up to do

I am 70 years young and have had my dad's Model 94 in .25-35 around me all my life so I am not exactly new to lever guns, although I am researching the purchase of a modern 1873 Winchester/Miroku in either .44-40 WCF or .45 Colt

I am going to be looking through the old posts to try and answer some questions and I am sure I will have other questions that I would appreciate more comments, thoughts, and input on

I will wrap this up and just say I am looking forward to the journey

Michael

[AmBraCol]

Welcome to the fire! Pull up a log and pour yourself a cup of coffee.

[GunnyMack]

Welcome!
We'll have you buying all kinds of fun stuff!

[Griff]

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and Welcome to THE Forum from Texas! I have 6 rifles in 45 Colt, and absolutely love the cartridge and the guns. 3 are Uberti toggle link actions, 2 1873 & a Henry. I've not had any issues shooting smokeless powder thru them, but... BP fouling can be VERY frustrating. It gets back into the carrier mortise and sticks to the carrier & the sides of the mortise, eventually gumming up the carrier movement. I don't use fillers and generally load about 30-32 grains of 2F with a cast 225 (nominal as cast weight), lubed with SPG and sized to .452. The RCBS 45-225-CAV mold (discontinued) has a fairly deep lube groove and carries enough lube to have a "star" of lube on the muzzle. Even in the 24-¼" bbl'd Sporting Rifle. Accurate molds carries quite a number of 45 Colt molds that would be suitable for BP. To control fouling for competition, I've thinned the width of the carrier by about 30 thousands. This leaves enough space in the mortise that I can shoot 6 stages of 10 shots over the course of the day. I've shot several 3 day matches (usually only 4 stages per day) without gumming up the carrier. But... on a couple of those matches, the rifle was a little sluggish on the last stage or two. Mighta been humidity related... but I got thru 'em. The .44-40 versions are far more forgiving of BP use. The bottleneck design and thinner walls of the cartridge keep fouling out of the action to a far better extent than .45 Colt. Some guys anneal their 45 Colt mouths to get them to expand more, better sealing the action, others use 44-40 brass for their 45 Colt rifles. But, that can be hit or miss depending on the tolerances of their bolt and reloading set up. My Dillon 550 doesn't seem to care, and Uberti uses the same bolt for both cartridges. Miroku... I'm not so sure about. IMO, there are many more options for projectile choices with the 45 Colt than the .44-40. Also, note, that the specification length for a 45 Colt is 1.600". Same as the .44-40, but... even tho' the carrier mortise is supposed to be 1.60", I find that in my Ubertis I need to keep my OAL to 1.576"-1.579" for smoothest feeding.

I'm sure that none of that helped... but... maybe answered some unasked questions!

[LeverGunner]

Howdy from Kentucky. I have an 1892 Winchester made by Miroku, but mine has been converted to traditional halfcock notch. Mine's in 44 Mag and it feels SWCs well, but it's limited to 1.630 OAL length so it won't feed the Lyman 429421 or 429244. I haven't tried the 429215 yet, but it'll fall within my rifles OAL constraints. It feeds Lee's C429-240-SWC like butter.

The Lee C430-310-RF feeds fine, but it jams into the rifling in my rifle. I don't know if they all have short throats, but mine does.



I feed mine the Ranch Dog 432-265-RF for heavier loads - https://bulletmatch.com/bullets/ranch-dog-tlc432-265-rf

[gamekeeper]

Welcome to the campfire

[earlmck]

Welcome to the campfire Michael. I'm just down the road from you in Oregon. Also have a 25/35 amongst my levers but it is a newer Winchester. And 44/40 in the Rossi version, which mostly gets fed the Lee 200 grain bullet tumble-lubed and just gets used (so far) for plinking of tin cans. And another Rossi in 45 Colt/454 Casull that would be my side-kick should I ever decide to go fishing in griz country. Anyway, I'm sure you are in for some good explorations.

[JimT]

Glad to have you aboard! I have spent a little time in your amazing State .. but mostly up around Fort Yukon. Three of us from down here and one from your town did a wonderful hunt on the Yukon River, starting in Circle and going North until we found a spot we liked. Man I enjoyed that week we spent, far from civilization.

Thanks for allowing us to be part of your time here on Leverguns!

[Ysabel Kid]

Welcome aboard!

[OldWin]

Welcome from Maine! I'll be in Kodiak next month visiting my son and his family.
You've come to the right place, but I'll warn you, it can get expensive.

[Scott Tschirhart]

My cousin Doug Boyce lives in Palmer.

Welcome to the fire.

[200yearstoolate]

Thank you all for the warm welcome and all the good info to get me started

I guess it would help my cause to tell you what I had initially WANTED to do, vs what I see now as the probable reality of what I CAN do following the recent research I have done

First off I am not a CAS shooter, just a guy who spends time outdoors in Alaska

I have a Bowen Classic Arms Alpine model that began life as a long barreled stainless Ruger Redhawk in .44 Magnum and was cut down to 4" and rebored/rechambered to .45 Colt. I call it my "fight my way to a long gun" pistol. It accompanies me everywhere in the bush up here, either in a Ringler Wyoming shoulder rig or a Milt Sparks 200AW belt holster and 6 round belt slide. I have a load consisting of a lot of 296, a CCI 350 primer, and a Cast Performance 335gr WLFN gas check bullet (I stocked up, luckily). Needless to say it is carried a lot, but with that load it is only shot occasionally. I have a 250gr round flat nose load that is at the upper end of a factory duplication load that I shoot much more often

Now to the what I WANTED to be able to do initially, and that was to have a reproduction lever gun (73 Winchester) that would digest the heavy load mentioned above ON OCCASION

I didn't want a 92-94 Winchester or a Marlin, I wanted a 73, thinking that modern metallurgy would come to the rescue, although I am now aware of the inherent limitations of the toggle design, modern metals notwithstanding

I know this line of discussion comes up a lot on the interwebs, and people frequently toss the "What about all the 73's in .357 Magnum" into the mix and possibly hope that will somehow change the outcome of the conversation

I don't have a shortage of long guns to carry into the bush but I was hoping to have a modern "Two guns, one cartridge" scenario going on

I know the 335gr load at a bit over 1,200 fps out of a six gun is overkill in some places but not up here

Anyway, that was what I wanted to do but I think the reality is buying a 73 and probably a Schofield and being content with that for range and fun use

[AJMD429]

.
If you already like your 45 Colt Redhawk, then I'd probably go for a 45 Colt in a levergun. If you go with a WInchester/Rossi 92 or Marlin/Henry 94, both are handy little carbines that can be loaded with 'modern' loads that have a ton of punch. You could up the ante with a Rossi 92 in 454 Casull if you wanted, too. I've got a little 16" 454 Casull that is easy to carry and still not much recoil. It would be my choice if I were to trek from Indiana to Grizzly country, along with my 45 Colt Redhawk. Now for just fun-shooting and whitetail, I'd be very content with a 44-40, although I've not got one since I got into 44 Magnum as my first centerfire handgun (Super Blackhawk) and rifle (Marlin 1894) cartridge.

[samsi]

I agree with Doc, the Rossi in 454 would be the simplest route to getting something that will safely digest your heavy Redhawk load.

I'm no expert on 73's but I believe that they withstand 357 and not heavy 45 mainly due to the fact that case head thrust of the 357 is only about 30% of that of the 45.

Welcome to the fire, Alaska is one of my bucket list destinations.

[Bill in Oregon]

I believe you'll like it here, Michael. And as Gunny hinted, you've fallen into a nest of enablers!
I've only been to Alaska once, to the Panhandle, fly-fishing for salmon and Dolly Varden out of Wrangell. I dream of returning some day, but the clock is winding down.

[200yearstoolate]

Thanks again for the welcomes and the advice, and I feel that you guys are right in steering me towards a "modern" .45 lever gun. I am going to shift my research towards something that will digest my loads on occasion and still be light and handy. I haven't looked at Marlin guns since my oldest boy bought a .45-70 years ago and tried adding some Wild West parts and ended up with a pile of garbage, in my opinion. That left a bad taste in my mouth about Marlin and Wild West, but it was close to 2 decades ago and I know things have fundamentally changed with Marlin, although I don't see any of their rifles offered in .45 Colt

I will probably make the rounds of the gun stores and see what I can find

Alaska has changed a lot since I got here 37 years ago, although the incredible beauty is still very much a part of living here. It is on a lot of people's bucket lists and rightly so. We lived out in the bush for 8 years, 400 miles from the road system, and that was one of the best times of my life, the hunting and fishing possibilities were endless.

[hfcable]

hello from bozeman mt and wasilla ak

i spend more time here in montana now but still my primary residence is out in meadow lakes, outside of wasilla. been in alaska since 1984

i have a severe lever action addiction and at age 78 cant expect a cure !!

[AmBraCol]

Thanks again for the welcomes and the advice, and I feel that you guys are right in steering me towards a "modern" .45 lever gun. I am going to shift my research towards something that will digest my loads on occasion and still be light and handy. I haven't looked at Marlin guns since my oldest boy bought a .45-70 years ago and tried adding some Wild West parts and ended up with a pile of garbage, in my opinion. That left a bad taste in my mouth about Marlin and Wild West, but it was close to 2 decades ago and I know things have fundamentally changed with Marlin, although I don't see any of their rifles offered in .45 Colt

I will probably make the rounds of the gun stores and see what I can find

Alaska has changed a lot since I got here 37 years ago, although the incredible beauty is still very much a part of living here. It is on a lot of people's bucket lists and rightly so. We lived out in the bush for 8 years, 400 miles from the road system, and that was one of the best times of my life, the hunting and fishing possibilities were endless.

I know that Marlin did a run of 45 Colt rifles for the Shootists last year, but don't recall if they've done any for the general public.

[stretch]

Welcome aboard - pull up a saddle!

You've come to the right place, but I'll warn you, it can get expensive.

GunnyMack and OldWin are correct - your wallet may take a beatin', but think
of the FUN you'll have!

-Stretch

[oldebear1950]

I am retired from the US COAST GUARD, after 20 years, and was stationed in Kodiak for 5 and 1/2 of those years.
I had an older Marlin 1895 45-70 all those years as protection against brown bears.

[Paladin]

Welcome from currently North Central AZ. I pass through your area a few times a year, running to the farm in Delta Junction. Most of my lever guns are large bore due to the locals up there.

AZ

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AK Farm

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