New 86 take down .45-90 range report

[1886]

Hit the range with the new 86 T.D. .45-90. First some observations on the rifle. It is fairly heavy, shoots well from the bench, has a fairly smooth action, a smooth, uniform bore, and a pretty good out of the box trigger. I used Starline brass. It was excellent right out of the box with uniform primer pockets, deburred flash holes, and uniform lengths at 2.390"-2.392". The only case prep I did was a little deburring. I used Lyman dies to prep the cases with a custom expander at .455". Mt.baldy 405grFNGC bullets sized at .460" were used as these have proven accurate in other rifles. 2495 is one of my favorite cast powders and proved equally good in this application. I used 57grs, 58grs, and 59grs. CCI-300 primers are among my favorites in levergun rifle case loads when using extruded powder but I think I may have reached their ability with these powder charge levels. Crimps were applied with a Lyman Taper Crimp Die. All groups were shot benchrest at 42yrds with the factory sites. The sights on this rifle were very useful providing an excellent site picture. They remind me of the Marbles sites that Marlin provides on their Cowboy series. All groups are 5 shot. Pasters are 1 inch. Group 1 is to the left. Velocities ran from 1668fps-1662fps. Very consistant. Group 2 in the center ran from 1718fps to 1686fps. The lone high shot was not a flyer but was rather the highest velocity recorded in this string. Group 3 on the right ,velocity ran from 1756fps to 1695fps. Again the lone high flyer was the highest velocity shot recorded in this string. Leverguns can be tough from the bench. The 2 piece stock design and barrel time can make shooting good groups difficult. The lone flyers attest to this. Without the chronograph telling me what was going on I would have been left to wonder. I think switching to Fed 200 primers might eleviate the extreme spreads and the flyers. If I had been shooting at extended distance the flyers would have been the difference between a hit and a miss. Fed 200 primers are a logical step up. They offer more fire but no additional brisance. One note on the rebounding hammer. I have read that some have experienced misfires while using arms supplied with the rebounding hammer. I have fired almost one thousand rounds in various rifles with rebounding hammers and have never experienced a single misfire. In fact this 86 pierced two primers out of twenty while I was shooting this data. The primers were not pierced due to pressure. These loads are very mild. The primers were pierced due to huge striker impact. I wonder if the misfires others have experienced were due to primers not being fully seated. Just a thought. I will repeat the test and will change nothing except the primers. I will report my results when finished. Thanks. 1886.
"

[Chuck 100 yd]

WOW! That one is going to be a shooter!

[Sixgun]

1886,
Your on to somethin' there! Its nice having a gun with close tolerences and a nice smooth barrel. You got a good one. Keep on shootin'----------------------------Sixgun

[C. Cash]

[Ysabel Kid]

Great way to wrap up 2007!!!

[crs]

1886;
Good show! Thank you for the thorough report.
My initial Miroku 1886 45-90 close range results were similar with a variety of factory loads from cowboy action 45-70 and 45-90 up through current jacketed bullet hunting loads at 1800 - 2000 fps. Because of my eyes, the factory open soghts were not good enough beyond 50 yards and that led to the installation of the Marbles peep tang sight. This wirked wonders for me at 100 yards.

I did notice fewer fliers and smaller groups after the trigger job which reduced the trigger pull from 10+ pounds to 4 pounds; this gave me much better trigger control. Do me a favor and put a trigger pull gauge on your 1886 trigger and report that reading(s) back; it should be interesting to know.

PS My last plinking outing was to adjust the folding Marbles barrel sight. Using the last of some old Black Hills 45-70 cowboy stuff at 25 yards, four shots made one hole and the fifth was 3/4 inch high (first shot from clean lightly oiled barrel). I have yet to hear from anyone with one of these Miroku .45-90 rifles that does not report excellent acuracy.

PPS I have been concentrating on hunting load practice for my elk hunt this weekend, but after that, I plan to stuff some powder and bullets into the 100 already primed Starline cases and have some fun at the range. Depending on the weather and work at the farm, this may take a while, but when done I will post the results of both cast and jacketed bullet tests.

Keep up the good work and keep having fun!

[J Miller]

Great report, great tiny groups. But we need a pic of the rifle too.

I think the deal with the misfires caused by the rebounding action is tolerances and roughness in that action design. When everything is within the proper tolerances and smooth they work, otherwise they don't.

Joe

[1886]

J, I posted pics of the rifle about 1 week ago. It was resting on a piano. It is typical Miroku quality with excellent blue, fit and finish. The wood is nice but not special. Do you remember seeing the pics? 1886.

[J Miller]

1886,

I do remember seeing pics of a rifle resting against a piano with the foot pedals in the pic. Was that yours?

There are so many of us posting pics that it sometimes just blurs in my mind.

Joe

[1886]

J, I think I had it lying down on top of the key board cover. I will take some more when/if it ever stops snowing. A dry summer and the SNOWIEST December on record. I give. UNCLE. PLEASE NO MORE. 1886.

[Lastmohecken]

Great report, great tiny groups. But we need a pic of the rifle too.

I think the deal with the misfires caused by the rebounding action is tolerances and roughness in that action design. When everything is within the proper tolerances and smooth they work, otherwise they don't.

Joe

I think you are probably right, I have heard that the 94 angle ejects seem to suffer less with this probem then the 1886's which we all have heard about. I have never had a missfire with either of my model 94 angle ejects, and I never had a problem with a model 95 I used to own, but my 1886 definately developed problems with misfiring and I was shooting factory ammo. What baffels me is why would a gun work for a while and then start misfiring with no changes in ammo or anything else, but it sure did on my 1886 Extra Lightweight.

[Lastmohecken]

I wonder if maybe the 1886s have suffered from a weakened hammer spring over time, and then can't overcome the rebound spring.

[Blaine]

With smokeless, do you still find an advantage with the 45-90 over the 45-70? If there is, one must be darn near recoil-proof to take advantage of it

[1886]

Well it seems there would be a range advantage but I think you are right the recoil starts to really climb and quickly becomes very uncomfortable. The steel butt plate is a real joy. The .45-70 is a proven killer and dead is dead right? 1886.

[Blaine]

Well it seems there would be a range advantage but I think you are right the recoil starts to really climb and quickly becomes very uncomfortable. The steel butt plate is a real joy. The .45-70 is a proven killer and dead is dead right? 1886.

I might have been asking the wrong question......You were using 405s whereas the typical load for the 45-90, in it's typical Express Loading, used a 300gr for extraordinary FPS and flatter shooting.......I should have read a bit closer

[Ben_Rumson]

Accurate & a Take Down too!!

[1886]

BlaineG, I have not tried lighter(300gr) projecticles in this rifle. You are correct the .45-90 was envisioned as a light for caliber bullet shooter. This rifle does not have the twist of the original .45-90s( 1-30 something). The rifling in this arm is around 1-20" give or take a little. My other, newer 86s will shoot bullets up to 460grs accurately. I have tried bullets as heavy as 500grs but no soap. Maybe if I tried to push the heavier projectiles faster ... but I do not want to tolerate that much fun! 1886.