Interchangeability of Winchester's 1876 & reproductions ?

[Harve Curry]

[size=14Does anyone know what is interchangeable with the original Winchester 1876 from the Italian reproductions? How close of a copy are they? Are there round barrel rifles like the first year production?
Thanks in advance,
Bill W.pt][/size]

[larryo_1]

   The only part that I know about is the mainspring.  I got one for an original '76 to replace the one on my Cimarron to work on that trigger pull.  It fit with just a wee bit of filing on the back end of the hooks. I thought for a minute that I would have to thin the back end but it slid right into the slot on the lower tang.   Other than that, the two are damn near identical.  I would watch the screws and whatnot as they are metric-for the most part and unless you happen to have a set of metric taps and dies you could run into problems.

Sorry I can't be of more help than this.  As I had been in the process of refinishing the wood, I figured that this was a good time as any to fiddle with the trigger pull.  That is how I fould out about the similarity of the mainsprings.

[john boy]

Does anyone know what is interchangeable with the original Winchester 1876 from the Italian reproductions?

I was told by Nick Ecker, owner of Charter Firearms that part of his revenue was selling Chaparrel parts to owners of original '73's and '76's.  Exactly which parts are swaps - didn't ask

[Grizzly Adams]

Hi, Harve.

Man, I sure would like to hear a "for sure" answer on that question myself!   Chaparral has LONG made the claim that their parts are interchangable with the original - as John has said.  However, I have never seen anything from anyone who has actually done a tear down of both to test the felicity of that claim!  Now, that seems odd to me, given the number of Chaparrals in the hands of folks who have both the original and the Chaparral.    I know that if I had a Chaparral, the first order of business would be to take that puppy apart and compare it to one of my originals!

FWIW, I have an Uberti, and I have taken it apart.  Check this  thread http://www.cascity.com/forumhall/index.php/topic,17991.0.html  and the other two that go with it for the complete story.

It is very much like the Uberti 1873 in that it is "close, but no cigar."   Some parts could be made to work - maybe.  The big difference between the Uberti and the original is the bolt and firing pin design.  Uberti uses a two piece rather than the one piece used in the original and the Chaparral copy.

Hope this helps confuse the issue a little!

[Crotchety Old Grouch]

There's a feller that goes by Ken41 over on Leverguns.com that say a friend of his rebuilt a 76 from an original Winchester receiver and Chaparral parts.  Says even the Chaparral screws fit. 

Here's the link;   http://levergunscommunity.com/viewtopic.php?t=2016

His post is about half way down.

[Buckey O'Neill]

The Chapparal parts & screws interchanged with parts from an original '76.  I replaced all screws, the hammer spring, & both the lever & carrier springs on my Chapparal with original '76 parts. Now on my Cimarron, that's a horse of a different color.

Regards Pards,
Buckey O'Neill

[Grizzly Adams]

The Chapparal parts & screws interchanged with parts from an original '76.  I replaced all screws, the hammer spring, & both the lever & carrier springs on my Chapparal with original '76 parts. Now on my Cimarron, that's a horse of a different color.

Regards Pards,
Buckey O'Neill

That's good to know for those of us with original guns that may need new parts to improve function. 

I am curious as to why you replaced parts in your Chaparral with original parts, however.  Are the original parts "better" in some way? 

Oh, and welcome to the fire, Bucky!

[Buckey O'Neill]

I was not at all pleased with the "quality" of the springs & screws that came on my Chapparal. I replaced the springs to improve the functioning of the rifle, and replaced the Chapparal screws with screws made by Forester that fit the '76.

Regards Pards,
Buckey O'Neill