Then came the 3 different loads of the .32-40! Since I was more interested in the numbers, I never looked thru the spotting scope to note where the individual rounds landed or how they grouped. Ended up with 17 rounds on the target, but only recorded times for 15, two rounds just didn't register on the chronograph! But, all that aside, it's definitely fun playing with this rifle. Hoping I can get out this fall and fill a deer tag with it! It's a toss-up as to which is more fun, this 26" barreled .32-40 or it smaller cousin, a Low Wall with a 20" bbl in 45 Colt!.
Last up on the day were 3 rifles running my cowboy45special cowboy loads. These are a powder coated 160 grain RFN pushed by 3.4 grains of Clays, with Winchester WLP primers in Starline cases. 1st round out of the 1st rifle was the first every split case I've hand with these little rounds. The 3 rifles were my 1894 Marlin with a "Cowboy" bbl cut to 17"; a Uberti 1873 Border Rifle, 18-½" half round/octagon bbl, and a Uberti 1860 Steel framed Henry, 24-¼" bbl. The Marlin averaged 781.5 fps. The 1873 averaged 729.7 fps and the 1860 averaged 742.0 fps. I had one round run thru the Short Rifle that must've been a little short of powder, as it only attained 472.2 fps. With that not counted the other rounds averaged 781.16 fps. That would have made more sense as the longer bbl on the Henry isn't providing any gain in fps with the fast burning powder. When I load up some of the lead bullets again, I'll have to compare the un-lubed powder coated bullets to the lubed plain lead. These rounds get loaded on an as needed basis. Dumped in an ammo can and basically, last in, first out. While these were all powder-coated bullets, I've run out of them, and when reloaded, it'll be with plain lead, although the same bullet. Since I also shoot the same loads out of my Colt SAAs, I should've brought them with me and seen what velocity is attained thru the 4-¾ bbls. Sounds like a good excuse to visit the range again!
