** Evans New Model Carbine For Sale ** Frank Wesson Rifle Photos, Too!

[mtmarfield]

Greetings SSS!

This Evans New Model Carbine was purchased as a "Shooter" years ago, but I've decided to let it go to another BP Ctg enthusiast.

Cosmetically, the wood has moderate "use dings", some deep. The metal has light scuffs and dings here and there. The Barrel is predominantly brown with some grey, and blue in protected areas. The receiver is about 85% blue just turning brown.

The Lever and Hammer/Striker have a nice amount of C/C remaining, except for where contact with the frame has rubbed it away on a small portion on one side. Otherwise, only the Barrel Band Retaining Spring is missing. The bore is very nice, and should shoot very well.

I have made "dummy cartridges" out of .41 Mag brass capped with a pointed, heeled bullet, and it cycled from the magazine with 99% reliability; adjustments to brass length should prevent hang-ups, as well as sticking to a pointed, heeled bullet. I emphasize the use of .41 Mag brass and heeled bullets, because I couldn't get .44 Spl/Mag brass sized down enough to chamber, as others have recommended. I use shortened .41 Mag brass with heeled bullets in my F. Wesson "Two Trigger" Rifle with success; brass expansion is very slight, and I personally believe that .41 Mag brass will work in the Evans, as well.



















I am asking $2000.00 for this Carbine.
 
Thanks to Two Flints for his photo assistance, and feel free to post me with any questions!

Thanks, and Be Well!

Matthew T. Marfield:.
2-18-12

[Jobe Holiday]

mtmarfield -

This is a bit OT from your post, but generated by your post. You mentioned you have had some success with .41 Mag. brass and a heeled bullet in a Wesson Rifle. I have been tinkering with a Wesson, Civil War vintage, and wonder if you would care to expand  bit on your successes with the Wesson? Specifically, which heeled bullet did you use, what is the bore diameter in your Wesson, and did you have to reduce the length of the .41 Mag. brass case, etc.

BTW, for those of you not familiar with the Wesson Rifle, here it is:






                                                 (Photos Added by Two Flints)

The Wesson shown is typical of the thousands of Civil War Wesson Cavalry Carbines that were purchased by some of the Mid-Western states, such as Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, to arm their volunteer Cavalry regiments. This one is the early Civil War model that had no extractor.

By the time they got to serial # 7,000 an extractor was added to the left hand side. This was found to be awkward to use and was soon moved to the right hand side of the frame. The "two triggers" have confused some people over the years, but very simply the forward trigger breaks the action open like a single barrel shot gun. Frank Wesson successfully stayed  in business long after the Civil War and produced some extremely nice target rifles including a Creedmoor series and quite a large variety of handguns  before finally closing in 1888.

Thank you,
Jobe

[mtmarfield]

   Greetings!

  Years ago, I had acquired a set of RCBS .44S&W Dies; to this, I added an RCBS Custom .44 American Mould. With soft lead, the best I could manage was a as cast diameter of .425/.426; with a groove diameter of .428 (?) this worked acceptably for large soup cans up to 50 yds. Wanting a better fit, I ordered a custom two cavity .44 heeled mould from a fellow out of state that would drop the bullets at .430, thereby working in the F. Wesson, as well as the NM Evans. I hadn't had a chance to try it in the F. Wesson yet, and as I stated, I've never shot the NM Evans. I trimmed the .41 Mag brass to .90"/1.00" length, then bevelled, and annealed the case mouth. I drop-tubed 25gr. of GOEX FFFg into the case, and used (I believe) magnum primers. The biggest problem with the .41 Mag brass is the rim diameter; the finger extractor just can't reach the rim. This didn't cause too much trouble for my finger nails, but I would have been happier had I been able to use the extractor. Case expansion was minimal and, in my opinion, nothing to worry about, either from a safety perspective, or from case life / over working of brass. Please forgive my memory regarding the groove diameter of my F. Wesson; I recently moved, and haven't yet unpacked all of my books and reloading notes!
   There's also an article in Shoot! Magazines "Black Powder and the Old West", where a fellow recounts his efforts to get his CW era F. Wesson .44 Rim-fire to shoot, using Dixie Gun Works lathe - turned .44 Long Brass that utilized a .22 blank ctg recessed at the rim; it's an interesting read. I'd like to read more of your experiences with your F. Wesson 'Two-Trigger' .44 Rifle, if you're so inclined!

            Be Well!

                             Matthew T. Marfield
                                      2-19-12

[mtmarfield]

   Greetings, Jobe!

   Your F. Wesson looks a lot like mine, excepting the Finger Extractor, and non-factory rear sight on my Rifle! With a decent bore, you should enjoy shooting yours. Nice photos!

             Be Well!

                              Matthew T. Marfield
                                     2-19-12

[Jobe Holiday]

Matthew -

I had intended to respond much earlier, but sometimes "Life" just gets in the way! I have been playing around with Wessons for the past few years. They have all been the Civil War models. In studying them I have found that Wesson had some severe quality control issues with bore diameter. I did a bore diameter in a study of about a dozen .44 caliber Wesson Carbines. The result was a myriad of bore diameters varing from .410 to .430. The nominal seems to be about .425. The one I shoot has been converted to center fire, and has a bore diameter of .426 land to land. The chamber has been reamed with a .44-40 chamber reamer. This is not able to be done with the Wessons that have a smaller bore diameter because the pilot won't fit into the bore. The mould I use is an original Winchester mould from somewhere around the turn of the last century. This mould casts a .427 dia. bullet, which is what Winchester called for in their .44 WCF cartridge. I use 24 gr of 3FFG Goex and about 12 gr wt of white corn meal for filler. The bullet just barely compresses the load. I don't have any fancy reloading tools so I use an old original nickel plated Ideal "nut cracker" hand tool, loading one round at a time. Shooting from the bench has shown an acceptable level of accuracy, for me anyway. The load I quoted above produces an average 50 yard group of about 2 inches. Not too bad for an original bore!

Another historic note about the Civil War Wesson Carbines. If you have one of the military models, which are all .44 Wesson and do not have the sharp sporting crescent butt plate, and it is counter stamped on top the barrel "Kittredge & Co., Cincinnati, Ohio", these were the ones purchased during the Civil War from Wesson by Kittredge and resold to the Mid-Western states who were arming their volunteer Cavalry regiments with state owned arms. There are a number of Kittredge marked Wessons in existence that have had sturdy after market saddle rings added to them, much like the  Civil War photos of Mounted Infantry units shown armed with Spencer Rifles. I knew I could tie this back to Spencers just for Two Flints! Who, by the way, I must thank for permitting this diversion from the normal Spencer threads.

Jobe

[mtmarfield]

   Greetings, Jobe!

   My first metallic reloading was with Ideal "Nutcrackers" at the campfire; generally, they work fine. Shame that your chamber was recut; you "should" be OK with 40gr's of FFg. Recall that these were also chambered for the .44 XL cartridges, which were, in some loadings, at least fully the equal of the .44WCF, but with a heavier bullet; do what feels safe, however.
   I saw your hammer, and thought that you might have a RF, or a modified RF to CF. Mine has the Patent Hammer that can be adjusted to RF or CF. Either way, it looks like you've got a very nice shooter. The "Two Trigger" Rifles are elegant in their simplicity! If I had the cash, I wouldn't mind getting another, especially in .38LCF, or .38XLCF.

      Be Well!

            Matthew T. Marfield:.
                     2-20-12

[Jobe Holiday]

Actually, the Wesson pictured is still in rim fire, and isn't the one I'm shooting. There is no need to increase the loads, I'm just punching paper! Thanks for the explanation on your heeled bullet. Factory rebate moulds are difficult to find if you don't want to go the custom route. Last year I saw a Wesson in .38 XLCF. What a beauty, factory tang sight & hooded globe front. It was only $1150, but I didn't have the wherewithall that day!

I also have a scarce transitional Wesson in .22 RF. I say transitional because of the left hand extractor which was short lived.

Jobe