Front sight for my 73 Spanish contract carbine project

Baltimore Ed · January 28, 2020, 01:13:21 PM

My first attempt at a Crossfire Trail 1873/76 cartridge carrier. I messed up and stained it darker than I really wanted. Not too bad though. I used a 30-06 to measure for the loops for the 45-60 even though my rifle is a 73. Looks pretty close to Rafe?s. Turned out a whole lot nicer than the too thin mess of a crappy carrier that Cimarron sent me for 59.00 plus postage which I returned. I bought 100.00 worth of leather, dye and a few tools from Tandy and have a ton of material left over for many more projects. But theres a cut blemish on the back side that I didn?t notice until I was half done so I might do a second one.

dusty texian · January 28, 2020, 05:22:09 PM

That came out nice Ed .,,,DT

Baltimore Ed · May 27, 2020, 06:09:42 PM

Got my '73 back from the gunsmith today. Our signals got crossed up and he mounted my sight correct for a Spanish contract carbine but far out for a 76 centennial lookalike but it will work. Was going to cut it back a little and split the difference. Oh well, now to figure out a cleaning rod. I don't think there is enough room and the last thing that I want to do is split the forearm. Two thoughts, one to just shorten it to 6 inches or cut the rod down to 1.5 inch, thread it, d&t the nosecap and just screw it in. I would use a sling, the sling swivels and rod for the Spanish carbine and remove the swivels and rod for Rafe's centennial. I'd maybe screw a screw into the hole to hide it.

Tried shooting it some and it's hitting high, don't understand why as the front sight is the band sight from the carbine just with the rings removed and the blade part soldered on the bbl. I'm going to recut the crown, don't like what my smith did. I might need to tinker with my loads and see if a new load will lower the poi. I'm going to install a buttstock sling swivel as my cartridge carrier is sliding forward. Thinking it will hide the swivel and give me something to anchor the carrier to. I have 2 front bbl bands, a plain one for Rafe's centennial and one with a swivel for the slinged Spanish contract carbine.

Baltimore Ed · June 09, 2020, 08:07:52 AM

Figured what was going on with my rifle. There was a notch cut out in the bbl where the magazine band screw was. The smith welded this up but somehow damaged the inside of the bbl with the weld. The heat expanded the steel into the void of the bbl. I was getting crazy fliers and I think this caused them. He's going to cut the bbl and remount the sight.

Baltimore Ed · June 14, 2020, 10:18:22 AM

My Stoeger carbine is back at the smiths getting the bbl worked on where the welding of the exterior notches has put metal into the bbl. The one at the muzzle is an easy fix, cut, face and remount the sight. The other one will take some work to remove. He's working on it.
But something that I've noticed in shooting .45 Schofield loads in it is the very unique sound that it makes vs a 45lc load. Does anybody else experience this when shooting the shorter rds in the longer chamber? I'm wondering if it's the full length wood or magazine tube arrangement might cause it. Whenever I get it back I'll do some experiments.

Baltimore Ed · August 25, 2020, 05:02:52 PM

After further bbl repairs to the '73 bbl my rifle is back from the smith. I just put 20 rds through it and hit everything, small sass marshals, plates and pins on my rail and the real small marshals. Using 5.2 clays, 200 gr rnfp in schofield brass, hitting a tad high at 35 yds-dead on for windage. A few more cosmetic things and I'll be done. Pictures tomorrow.

Btw, what I eventually did to the front sight was to use the saddle ring band sight that was on the rifle and cut the band off the sight and then my smith silver soldered it to the bbl. Turned out nice and seems to be dead center.

Got my stock sling swivel installed, going to touch up the bluing on the muzzle and try a lever wrap tonight. 20 more rds and all hits though I'm not crazy about the steel carbine buttplate, wants to slip all over my shoulder if I run the gun fast.

Did some more work on my rifle yesterday. The cartridge carrier was moving forward when the rifle recoiled so I cut a walnut blank to fit into the stock swivel mortise, took two tries. I then installed a modern screw swivel stud in the center so the lacings will hook behind it and keep the carrier from moving. I'll just swap the blank out with the sling swivel to change from the centennial to the Spanish Contract carbine. Planning on shooting the 'centennial' this month along with a schofield and 1860 conversion.

Decided that it needed a faux cleaning rod to complete the military look so I've been messing with that. Drilled and threaded the nosecap but didn't like it so I had to make a piece of aluminum to go inside the cap to give me something more to thread. Got my nosecap side screws installed. About done, a couple more coats of stock stain and truoil and I'll be done with it. Photos soon.

Baltimore Ed · September 07, 2020, 09:58:23 AM

My 1873/1876 Centennial is done except for a dummy screw to fill the hole in the nosecap for my cleaning rod. Was on the fence about the cleaning rod but decided it needed it. I've found photos of them with and without exposed cleaning rods. Just a matter of swapping bbl bands, removing the ammo carrier, installing the sling swivel and screwing in the cleaning rod and voila I've got a Winchester Spanish Contract Carbine. Years in the building [started in 2017]. Hope Rafe likes it. I'll take a few more shots when I drag out the rest of his gear.

Baltimore Ed · September 24, 2020, 02:18:21 PM

Drug out all my gear [forgot my Gus hat-doh] for a photo shoot. .45-60 canvas belt, wolfs ears holsters, cap? pouch. ASM Schofield, uberti 1860 Open Top, 1873/76 Centennial Carbine and a nice antler crown knife that I found on ebay. We are supposed to shoot a regular cowboy shoot Saturday. Even got a new shirt to wear. I've heard it said that if your 'good' clothes are your cowboy clothes you might be into cas a little too much but my wife was just tickled that I wanted to buy new clothes so she was all for it. I had trimmed my covid beard back to a goatee a while back but for this impression Saturday I will trim the goatee back to a mouche ala Rafe's. Looking forward to shooting a match with 3 firearms that I've never shot in a match before. I'll be a 'new' shooter?

Baltimore Ed · September 26, 2020, 11:26:31 PM

Shot our monthly match today and was clean for 3 scenarios. But then the bottom fell out during lunch. We gave it a little more time but finally called the shoot. Half a shoot is better than none. It slacked off some while we tore everything down. Still had a good time yakking under the shelter. I like my '73 and will use it again next month but as the Spanish Carbine. We are doing double actions then so I'll either carry my .38-40 new services or .45 hand ejectors. Might have to carry some of my Halloween props for next month. Boo!

Baltimore Ed · September 30, 2020, 11:05:46 AM

Here it is in the Spanish Contract Carbine configuration. Anyone know what the Spanish military in the late 1800s was using for sidearms? I've read about the 1892 Eibar revolver, a .38 copy of the Hand Ejector and later the broomhandle Mauser but nothing else. We're doing double action revolvers next month so I'm planning on using the '73 and a pair of Smiths.

DeaconKC · September 30, 2020, 07:38:58 PM

I found references to the Spanish using the M78 Mauser "Zigzag" revolver and the C96 Mauser. Hope this helps

Baltimore Ed · September 30, 2020, 08:25:35 PM

Thanks Deacon, that is certainly an 'interesting' [read ugly] revolver. I just watched Ian tell me all about them on a Forgotten Weapons episode. Don't imagine one of those rare critters will wind up in my safe any time soon. Never even seen or heard of 'em before. However I knew of the Reichsrevolver, another European 'beauty'. Looks like I'm shooting a pair of competitive .455 Hand Ejectors next month. I had a long bbl .38 HE but now it's sporting a sexy 2 inch bbl.