1905 or 1907 Winchester

[Tornado]

I got impatient and went out and got the book,  so far it is pretty interesting.  I have read about 1/4 of it and it spans multiple generations of one family from 1849 to present, but not chronologically.  It concentrates on the precivil war era and on the preWW1 era.  The author did his homework with the firearms, the .351 has been mentioned once so far.

[Galen]

Any one know of a way to keep the forearm from cracking?

[Tornado]

Any one know of a way to keep the forearm from cracking?

I have heard of people reinforcing Browning A5 forestocks by embedding fiberglass or carbon fiber on the inside.  I would guess you would have to recess the patch some to still have the clearance.

[Niederlander]

Would it possibly work to replace the 07 recoil spring with an 05 spring for use with lighter loads?  Unfortunately, I don't have either one to try.

[Tornado]

If the 1905 spring rate is lighter than the 1907 spring then yes it would help some, but probably not a whole lot.  Being a blowback operated gun, most of the delay is absorbed by the mass of the bolt.  Reducing the weight of the bolt is the proper way accomplish your goal of reduced loads.  Saying that, I would only do that in very small increments because if you reduce it too much you could get unsupported case detonation.

[Niederlander]

Looks to me that going with the look alike 1905 would probably be the best way to go, especially if the same magazines work.  Much easier to find brass to modify, as well.

[Colt Fanning]

Hi,
You might consider using the 1905 in 32wsl.  The brass is easily made from 32-20 brass and is available at buffalo arms.  I have shot my
1905 with lead bullets from hunters supply successfully.  I shoot a reduced load but the bolt still whacks the receiver pretty hard.  I bought one of the repo 10 round mags and modified it for the 1905 but was only able to get it to shoot reliably with 7 rounds.  I got one of the 1907 10 round mags (351) and it shoots the 32wsls pretty reliably without modification.  There is no zoot chapters here in the dallas area but I like to shoot it at the range.
Regards
Preston C

[LongWalker]

Any one know of a way to keep the forearm from cracking?

I've never seen one that wasn't cracked.  A friend and I once took one and did the necessary repairs, then shelled out the inside with a Dremel.  After a coat of epoxy, I laid in some fiberglass (repair stuff from an auto parts store), then basically glass-bedded the threaded portions of some drywall screws where ever I could fit them.  Then I used epoxy putty to build it back up. 

More bother than it was probably worth, but as far as I know that one hasn't cracked.  The later ones were bulkier, and less-likely to crack (looked "a little pregnant", but they didn't crack).  I've seen repros available from one of the stock companies, Macon maybe.   

I always preferred the Remington Model 8, so my thoughts on appearances may be a bit biased. 

[Tornado]

Well I stumbled upon this rifle not long ago and it was priced so low I had to bring it home with me.  It is a 1905 in 32SL, it was build in 1920 according to the serial number, one of the last ones to be made.  I'll order some ammo soon and report back. 

[Tornado]

I found 31 vintage rounds of 32sl and took them to the range the other day.  The brass was marked Winchester Repeating Arms and they were of an unknown vintage and unknown bullet weight.  I shot the first 6 over my chronograph and they averaged 1390fps,   that sounds exactly like what all the original 165gr loads were suppose to be.  I had about 5 of them to fail to eject, but other than that, they all went bang.  I brought my 1917 Savage as well, both guns were manufactured in 1920.

[Tornado]

C&Rsenal did a very informative video on the 1907 Winchester:

[DeaconKC]

As usual, they did an excellent video. That's gonna be a pain to handload to operate reliably with reduced velocities.

[Tornado]

Well it has been a long time, but I finally got my modified 1905 up and running in a match this weekend.  I have been very pleased with it's performance lately, from 15 to 25 yards at the match to even eventually getting shots at a gong at 200 yards when I was sighting it in. 
  I bought a spare barrel that I found online, a previous owner had cut 3" off so it was a good price.  I then relined the spare barrel with a .357" bore liner, I then reamed the chamber for 38 special.  After months of tuning on the TripleK magazines and the ammo it has been running the new cartridge perfectly, the all new 38SL.  I found a tang sight for it on ebay for a rear sight, and I had a compensator made, modeled after a Thompson Cutts compensator, for a front sight.  It kind of has a Hyman Lebman conversion vibe to it now.  I still have finishing work to do as you can tell by all the in-the-white metal.  I still have the factory barrel and magazine so it can go back to stock if I wanted to, but I doubt I will.  Being able to shoot a Winchester Self Loader for pennies a round is awesome.

[DeaconKC]

Tornado, that is fantastic! That is a great idea converting to .38 Special.

[Tornado]

It is not quite 38 special,  basically a semi-rimmed 38 special +p.  The rims of the 38 special are too wide to fit in the magazine and it runs best with a warm +p load.
Here is a little bit of footage of the match, you don't see much of the rifle though.

[pony express]

A semi rimmed .38 special +P? Why not go with .38 Super? Sure, the brass isn't as cheap as .38 special, but then there would be no need to turn down the rims.

[Tornado]

A semi rimmed .38 special +P? Why not go with .38 Super? Sure, the brass isn't as cheap as .38 special, but then there would be no need to turn down the rims.

If the 38 super's case length was longer, it would have been perfect.  I have to use a long 147g bullet in the 38 special case to get OAL long enough to run reliably.   I may ream the chamber to 357mag in the future, that way i could use shorter bullets.  This would also keep these +P loads from ending up in my older 38 special revolvers.

[Tornado]

I took the ol' girl to a match the other day and she ran perfectly:

[Tornado]

Our range had a Prohibition themed match this weekend.  There were lots of lever actions, auto loading Colts, double actions, and single actions.  I brought out the 1905 Winchester and a 1908 Colt.  It was a little hot, so excuse the lack of costumes  .

Just the 1905:




Stylized highlights of the match:

[DeaconKC]

Those were fun thanks!