Got My Spencer!! Photos Added

[treebeard]

By the time I read NDNCHF excellent suggestions on how to buy a Spencer I had all ready had one on the way.  It is a Burnside with
serial no. 28977 with stable cutoff and is complete. I had been prepared to have a Hoyt reline done but believe it is good enough
as is to go ahead and use it. So now the Learning curve on getting it shooting starts! I have seen at least one Spencer were the
upper block was converted to center fire but I would like to go the route of buying one from S&S along with center fire follower.
By the way it is not marked as a Model 1865.

In regards to the brass I noticed that Buffalo Arms sells brass for original Spencer chambers--how does these work out?

Correction--In natural sunlight I could see the lightly struck Model 1865 marking.

[ndnchf]

Photos Treebeard Photos!!  You're teasing is

But congratulations, your going to have a lot of fun with it.  My M1871 Spencer Springfield rifle is made from a M1865 Burnside.  May I suggest you read the great information in the SORI folder and also look at my postings on my efforts to convert mine to centerfire and determine the overall cartridge length I needed.  That thread is here:

http://www.cascity.com/forumhall/index.php/topic,49487.0.html 

[treebeard]

I will be getting pictures up in the next couple days--carbine is pretty much a brown gun but complete. Bore is shootable--
Hoyt has done a number of relines for me over the years and I have allways been pleased with the result--depending on how
the shooting goes I may still have him do it.

The thread NDNCHF gave me was excellent and I hope to learn from his learning curve. Looks like the Starline brass
is just not going to work. The SORI threads have also given me a lot to think about.

[Herbert]

I have used Starline brass in my Burncide Spencer with no problems,but with the OAL of the cartridge needed for best feeding in these carbines the Rapine 350T bullet is no good(it will have to be seated out too fare,then the shape of the bullet will cause problems,you can not use the longer case in the Burncide to overcome this)There are some very good bullets moulds made that are especialy made for original 56-50s Spencers a couple are the NEI .525-395 gr and tha BACO .520-375gr moulds,these will crimp on the crimp groove and give you the proper OAL and feed very well + alowing the use of 40gr of FF in the starline or cutt down 50-70 brass or 45gr of FF in the cutt down 32ga shot shells(booth loads will need a powder compression die to compress the powder before seating the bullet

[ndnchf]

Herbert gives good advice and was very helpful to me.  Heed what he says. 

Every rifle is different and you'll have to see what yours likes.  In mine, I found I needed the longer case to get the correct overall length and support the Rapine 350 bullet.  I ended up using cut down .50-70 brass.  This combination works very well in my rifle.  My follow-on thread about shooting the M1871 Infantry rifle documents my recent load development and results.  I've been able to get 1.25" groups at 50 yards off the bench with it.  I consider that excellent for a near 150 year old military rifle and my aging eyes.  You can read about it there:

http://www.cascity.com/forumhall/index.php/topic,49533.0.html

Keep us posted!

[Herbert]

What I was trying to say is the chamber is shorter in the Burncide Spencer than the Sprinfield Burncide converted to rifle Spencer.I made up some longer cases the way ndnchf so the Rapine 340T bullet can be used for my friends Sprinfield Burncide Spencer and they worked very well(I think he may switch to this bullet and tells me to thank ndnchf for the tip)I tryed the same loaded cartridge in my Burncide Spencer carbine and it will not chamber butt a cartridge with the same OAL but useing the starline brass and the NEI 525-395 bullet cambers and feeds perfectly

[ndnchf]

Herbert - Good point about chamber length difference.  Glad the longer cartridges worked out well for your friend.

[treebeard]

Thanks to NDNCHF and Herbert for the input on cartridge cases and bullets--this is the kind of advice I need and
appreciate. As soon as I can get my photographer daughter to take some pictures of my Burnside Spencer I will
get them posted. By the way it is sitting several feet away from my Burnside carbine. I will be retiring from
full time work in December and looking forward to working with both of these in the coming year. The Spencer is at the
top of my list!

[Herbert]

Herbert - Good point about chamber length difference.  Glad the longer cartridges worked out well for your friend.

He was already using the longer cases but with the Lyman 340gr bullet.I had given up on the Rapine 350T bullet and had it packed away as it was no good with my Burncide Spencer(too short OAL when seated to the crimp groove and took up too much powder room and if seated out to proper OAL the shape of the bullet would stop it chambering)After seeing your results with this bullet I sized some down to .516 and loaded them up for my friend and me to experment with(They will also chamber in my very much modified Armi Sports Spencer that I had the barrel relined and I turned it into a take down sporting rifle)results were improved acuracy with the Springfield Sencer with the added bonus of more lube,in my rifle with a 1in 36 twist barrel acuracy was not as good as with the NEI bullet and standard lenth cases with 45grs FF but when I reduced the loas to 40grs of FF with the Rapine bullet and the longer cases acuracy improved to close to that of my standard load,the springfield Spencer is not as acurate with this load(I think the bullet is too long for the 1 in 42 twist rate)

[Snakeeater]

I use a slightly different load for my M1860 Spencer Rifle. When Larry Romano re-barreled the action, he recommended chambering the new barrel for .56-50 to make it easier to reload. He also recommended using his .519-dia. (0.869 long) 395-grain bullet mould sized down to .510 with 40 grains of triple-fine (FFFg) Goex (loaded to OAL 1.567 using Starline cases). Don't have any targets to show here, but first three shots fired in the individual matches at one of the N-SSA Nationals offhand at 50 yards, the first two shots scored in the 10-ring at 4 o'clock, the other at 8 o'clock, while the third shot was dead centre in the X-ring. Unfortunately, this was the group in my sighter target. No medal that day, but that day is coming.