Just bought a 50 cal

[Moonpie]

Op is a slacker because of his lack of a range report.

 

[Pops1955]

And Maverick too shows high style. BRAVO !!!!!!

 

[jordanmills]

Nice!

 

[Maverick44]

Aaron, when this pandemic is over with, you need to bring that when you come to visit!

That is pretty cool!

You know I will, along with a few other goodies.

Op is a slacker because of his lack of a range report.

Give me some time to get it, sheesh. I just sent out the money for it today.

 

[Wiliamr]

MAN!!! Do you want to have that blow up in your face? That stock is probably riddled with H1N1, SARS -v1 and SARS v2 VIC 19, not to mention Ebola and Tetanus bacteria. When you get it, do not open it, just forward it to ma and I will take care of disposing of it in a biologically sound and proper manner.

 

[Moonpie]

MAN!!! Do you want to have that blow up in your face? That stock is probably riddled with H1N1, SARS -v1 and SARS v2 VIC 19, not to mention Ebola and Tetanus bacteria. When you get it, do not open it, just forward it to ma and I will take care of disposing of it in a biologically sound and proper manner.

Do not trust this man. He steals.

 

[Maverick44]

MAN!!! Do you want to have that blow up in your face? That stock is probably riddled with H1N1, SARS -v1 and SARS v2 VIC 19, not to mention Ebola and Tetanus bacteria. When you get it, do not open it, just forward it to ma and I will take care of disposing of it in a biologically sound and proper manner.

Nah, it's from the 1800s. It's probably just got small pox, polio, and a bit of measles. I'll be fine.

 

[Moonpie]

waiting on range report.

 

[Moonpie]

View attachment 208880

waiting on range report.

bump

 

[Moonpie]

 

[Wiliamr]

Do not trust this man. He steals.

I redistribute/

 

[Lumberjack98]

I have a similar rifle, but don't really know anything about it. Where can I find additional information and if its safe to shoot or not?

 

[Moonpie]

 

[oldag]

I have a similar rifle, but don't really know anything about it. Where can I find additional information and if its safe to shoot or not?

You will need to examine the rifle for corrosion (particularly pitting). Also, you will need to find out the correct powder charge (can't help you there).

 

[Wiliamr]

You will need to examine the rifle for corrosion (particularly pitting). Also, you will need to find out the correct powder charge (can't help you there).

Correct powder charge, 2Ffg Black powder to base of bullet.

 

[Maverick44]

Well, that took a whole lot longer than I thought it would. I finally have the rifle in hand. She is massive, and has the kind of beauty that only an old, well traveled gun can have. I have some ammo loaded up for it, but I won't get a chance to shoot until Monday. For those curious, it's 450gr bullet over 60.0gr (by weight) of 1.5F black powder with a 0.06" wad. In case you're wondering why I did it by weight, it's because I feel it's more precise to set up in the future. I found a volume that gave me the amount of compression I wanted, and that's what it weighed.

I'm excited to put a few rounds through it. I'll need to take a look at the stock first though. The seller said that the stock had to be professionally repaired at some point, and I just want to make sure that it was.

 

[Maverick44]

I opened up the gun and got a good look at the inside of the stock. I cannot tell how it was repaired as the is no visible crack on the inside of the stock, but it seems pretty sturdy. I tried flexing the crack line a bit and the stock acted like it was solid. It doesn't appear to be in line with the recoil of the rifle anyways, so it's probably fine. This gun is amazingly simple on the inside. There's not a whole lot going on. Pretty much everything is attached to the lock plate, and the trigger is very simple.

I didn't shoot much because I didn't have much ammo made up before hand. I didn't want to load 50 rounds and find out the cast bullets I used were either too big to chamber, or too small to seal the bore and prevent leading. I made 8 rounds. After slugging the bore, it appears to be 0.514", which is great. I cannot remember if these rifles are supposed to have a 0.514" or a 0.515" barrel on them. Either way, I'm happy with that. My mold casts a bit on the large size, but the bullets from it still chambered and shot just fine.

From what I can tell, the gun is fairly accurate for it's age. Here's a three shot group at roughly 75 yard. the POA was the bottom of the paper. I had expected it to shoot MUCH higher. That was kind of a pleasant surprise. I believe about 3-4 MOA is about what you can realistically expect out of one of these. Sub MOA is a recent thing. Even up through the early part of the cold war, sniper rifles weren't really expected to shoot that well, and most military guns with military ammo were expected to shoot around 3-4 MOA IIRC.

Ignore all the 22 call holes. I was function testing a gun on that target the other day.

Anyways, this gun seems accurate enough to buffalo at 200 yards. That's good enough for me.

The trigger is not the best, but it's not horrible. It's about what you would expect of a military trigger. The sights aren't so great. I think they changed the design of the rear sight when they when to the model 1873 and I can kind of see why. It seems a little fragile, and isn't the best for precise shooting. It's good enough though. I think once I get use to it, I'll be able to tighten up my groups a bit.

The gun is just flat out fun. The trapdoor mechanism is really cool and unique, and the gun kicks enough to let you know that you're shooting something powerful, but it doesn't kick enough as to be unpleasant. The weight of the rifle probably contributes to that. It believe it's in the neighborhood of 9 pounds. I'd say that the felt recoil is similar to something like 8mm Mauser or 30-06. Maybe even a bit lighter.

I'll get some more ammo loaded up and post a better range report later.