Winchester 1895/98 US Musket

[Drydock]

Latest project:  A 1922 Winchester 1895 .30-40.  Pristine barrel, but reblued and restocked sometime in the last 90 years.  Found a set of Musket wood on Ebay, Fitted a Krag sight.  Should make a dandy LR rifle.

[Quick Fire]

Sweet!

Quick Fire

[Niederlander]

Very cool!  You going to shoot it at the Muster?  Hmmmmm?

[Drydock]

It may make the trip.  Need to get it on the range and get the sights regulated.

[Silver Creek Slim]

Very nice.

Slim

[Sagebrush Burns]

 Nice!

[The Pathfinder]

Beautiful, Major. Is the upper wood around the sight the same as the carbine? I can find carbine uppers, but can't find anything listed for the musket upper wood and I've got one I'd like to bring back as well. Thanks.

[Drydock]

It is the same.

[The Pathfinder]

  Thanks, I'll get a replacement ordered until I can find an original.

[Charles Isaac]

Now that is cool! More Winchesters is always a good thing! I do believe S&S had the upper band for it!!

You tried a speed reload with that old shooter yet?  Yeah, who needs stripper clips!? The 7.62x54 model got nothin' on the .30 US gun......................or does it, Colonel???  

[Quick Fire]

I was at an auction today where a 95 in 30-40 Krag brought $350. 00 It looked to be in good shape, although I don't know what the bore looked like.

Quick Fire

[Drydock]

Oh, there's no fast way to load a US 1895.  Frankly, I can't understand how JMB let this get out of the shop, as Winchester had military sales in mind from the beginning  The design fairly screams for a Mannlicher clip! 

[Charles Isaac]

Good point-the Mannlicher clip would have done wonders to fix that gun militarily, although lever guns are much harder to operate than bolt actions in the more sensible but unmanly prone position! Works of art though, those M1895s-a true machinists marvel! I've always admired them, but unfortunately have never found one for the right price.

I've had aspirations of cobbling together a Lee Enfield that used Mannlicher clips. Maybe some day........

[Drydock]

QF, old Winchester Barrels from that era, that high nickel content "Special Smokeless Steel" was damn near stainless.  Its relatively rare to find a bad bore.  Expensive stuff, why they quit using it in the 30s.

[Niederlander]

Good point-the Mannlicher clip would have done wonders to fix that gun militarily, although lever guns are much harder to operate than bolt actions in the more sensible but unmanly prone position! Works of art though, those M1895s-a true machinists marvel! I've always admired them, but unfortunately have never found one for the right price.

I've had aspirations of cobbling together a Lee Enfield that used Mannlicher clips. Maybe some day........

But why, Charles?  Lee-Enfields had an easily changed magazine!  It's hard to beat a ten shot magazine for arms of that era!

[Charles Isaac]

That's true. I don't have any clips for my Enfields so I just change magazines for the 10 round rapid at the local service rifle match.


I think if the Enfield had a Mannlicher clip it would have been a better combat rifle. Extra magazines were expensive to produce and bulky to carry-and the Quartermaster would have made everyone save them -even in combat. The Mannlicher clips were expendable and easy to carry. I think a Mannlicher hybrid Enfield would outrun a standard Enfield in the hands of most experienced users.


The rimless stripper clip Enfield was a good option too, but they were too little too late.

[Niederlander]

As far as the Enfields go, I think a combination of magazines and stripper clips would have been just about ideal.  One of the problems with enbloc clips is that you can't top off a magazine.  From what I read, the biggest reason the British didn't go for extra magazines was they figured troops would lose them.  Stamp out a few million and ceases to be a problem.

[Drydock]

Y'know, just me, I've never bought the top off argument for the Mauser clips.  I just can't see anyone in the real world breaking up stripper clips to do it.  Or pulling a live round from the chamber and having to fiddle it off the extractor.  Even in what we do I think the better, faster way to go is shoot the gun dry and load a fresh clip.  The only real advantage I'd give a Mauser over a Mannlicher is no hole in the magazine. 

[cpt dan blodgett]

Love that rifle.  Too bad the SASS folks are too myoptic to allow the use of a 95 in long range competitions.  I think given the configuration it might pass muster for the Bucky O'Neill match at WR

My present to myself when I got out of the Army in 1987 was on of the new Browning 1895s in 06.  I have not shot it enough to find a load it likes enough to shoot less than 4 or 5 inches at 100.  After I retire in at the end of June that may change.  Am hoping it likes hornandy SSTs either 165 or 180 and a respectable but not too heavy charge of 4350 or even varget

If anyone out there has a super load for one of the new model 30-06s please don't keep it secret

[Drydock]

Got it out to the farm today to do a sight check.  Windage is dead on!  Yay, I was worried about that.  Elevation is interesting.  I knew the front sight was shorter than my Krag infantry, but was not sure how it would add up in relation to the new (1901) rear sight,  Turns out, with the 1901 sight set at 100 yards, the rifle is dead on at 100 with my GAF load (200 grains at 1250 FPS).  Seems to hold to 200 yards, that's all the range I've got right now.  Military loads will probably be a foot high, but I can work with that, its a pinned blade just like the Krag, I can add a taller blade if I want.  But this is fun for now.  An initial 3 round windage check at 50 yards had three holes touching! A very nice barrel, as well as a healthy measure of dumb luck.  5 shot groups at 100 ran 2 inches off the bench.  It's a heavy beast, little recoil with this load, no barrel heat at all.