NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 1986 - N U M B E R 108

U.S. and Canada, $3.00 Foreign, $4.00

t h o s e special friends. Your Mastercard and VISA accepted. $19.50 ’post paid.

HAGEL’S BEST ARTICLES in t h e last 20 years as a staff writer for Rifle and Handloader magazines. A large, hardcover b o o k li terally p a c k e d with s h o o t i n g , h u n t i n g , a n d handloading wisdom.

More than 500 pages, hundreds of pho tos , load tables , char ts , a n d m o r e . . .

All chap te r s personally selected, updated ,

A lifetime of knowledge and experience a n d re-edited by Hagel.

covered by a mas te r gun writer. .,

i Check these sample chapters: Long Range Big Game Shooting

How Temperature Affects Velocity

How to Detect and Control Pressure Rifle Hunting With a Handgun

Brush Bullets - There Aren’t Any Loading the Magnums Complete Reloading

Rangefinding Facts and Fallacies Is Quality Hunting Gone?

I Why You Missed The Ideal Big Game Rifle

I NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 1986

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3

The Magazine

Number 108 - November-December 1986 - Volume 18, Number 6 The

S t a f f

Dave Wolfe Publisher and Editor

Mark Harris Assistant Publisher

AI Miller Assistant Editor

Holly McLean Copy Editor

Jana Kosco Advertising Manager

Dave LeGate Art Director

Becky Pinkley Production Supervisor

Sandy Casey Circulation Manager

Mardell Harms Sharon Zalitis

Circulation Donna Dailey

Executive Secretary Dave Culver

Staff Photographer R.T. Wolfe, Ph.D.

Consultant

Technical Sam Padala J.I. Galan Bob Hagel Neal Knox Ed Matunas Ludwig Olson Layne Simpson Mike Venturino Ken Waters

ZSSN 0182-3583 A

FEATURES

The Model 1886 Winchester in its Centennial Year ................ .Sam Fadala 18

Fine Tuning the Remington Model 700 Mountain Rifle and Sportsman 78 ............... Layne Simpson 21

H.G. Troester Builds a Custom Rifle ....... .H.G. Troester 26

The Guns of John D. Pedersen .......... .Ludwig Olson 28

Rifleman Bill Bryan Remembers ........... .Ken Kogan 34

A Big Bore 94 ....................... .John Traister 36

Facts About Rifling Forms. ................ C.E. Harris 38

Index to Volumes 17 and 1 8 . . ..................... .68

DEPARTMENTS

Spotting Scope . . . . . . . . . . . - 6 Dear Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . .16 Aiming for Answers . . . . . . . . 7 Capitol Watch . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Classic Rif les . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Book Reviews . . . . . . . . . . . .57 Air Ri f l e s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 ProducTests . . . . . . . . . . . . .63 Famous Riflemen . . . . . . . . . 1 2 Trophy Pointers . . . . . . . . . . 7 0 American Gunmahers. . . . . .14

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ON T H E COVER

Modern airguns are marvels of precision. The .177-caliber Beeman Model P1 pistol and R 1 rifle exemplify the new breed of match-grade pneumatic arms. Both are equipped with Beeman Blue Ribbon scopes. The Prometheus and Beeman Ram Jet pellets rate high among airgun silhouette shooters. The steel silhouette targets are available from Beeman’s, too. Photo by Randy Swedlund.

COPYRIGHT I086

Rifle Magazine is published bimonthly by Wolfe Publishing Co., Inc. (Dave Wolfe, President), 6471 Air- a park Drive, Prescon. Arizona 86301. (Also publisher of Handloader Magazine.) Telephone (602) 445-7810. Second Class Postage paid at Prescon. Arizona, and additional mailing offices. Subscription prices: U.S. possessions and Canada -single issue. $3.00: 6 issues, 516.00; 12 issues, $30.00; 18 issues, $40.00. Foreign - single issue, $4.00: 6 issues. $23.00: 12 issues, $43.00; 18 issues, $60.00. Advertis- ing rates furnished on request. All rights reserved.

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4 RIFLE 108

UGGED, RELIABLE, ACCURATE R and chambered for many fine big game cartridges, the Model 1886 Win- chester enjoyed a long life, with many shootable 86s extant today, 100 years after the rifle’s inception. Easy-working, the 86 action design did not require close-fit tolerances for proper function, and the rifle served its owner even when its owner did not serve it with constant and careful maintenance.

The John Browning design left the draw- ing board for an October 14, 1884 patent, and the rifle came into hunters’ hands in 1886, beginning with serial number one.

According to Madis, 3,211 ’86s were sold in 1886. Serial numbers 3,212 through 11,516 were made in 1887. Last year of production, 1922, saw numbers 159,109 through 159,337 made.

The 1886 was expensive to manufacture. Its milled receiver began as one 40-ounce piece of steel, and a rifleman might pay $20 or more for an 86, while h e could obtain a Model 73 for $10. In spite of that, the 86 became the rifleman’s rifle of its day. Even after its passing, it was revived by Win- chester in 1935 as the Model 71, an ex- cellent big game rifle with, essentially, an 86 action, somewhat modified, and chambered for the ,348 Winchester, an up- date of the . 3 3 Winchester cartridge.

A list of Model 1886 variations would reach across the room. There was an 86 with an extra heavy 36-inch barrel, for example, a rifle that hefted 15 pounds, in .45-90 caliber. An octagonal barrel with full

Sam carried an 86 Winchester a few

seasons but since it was chambered for the

.45-70, employed it only against deer and javelina.

It was accurate, reliable and the old

round produced quick, humane kills -

what more could any

magazine was offered; same with half magazine (rare), a shotgun buttplate, a rifle buttplate, straight grip, semi-pistol grip, various barrel lengths, fancy wood, plain wood, checkered stocks, takedown models - you name it. As for sights, there was the ordinary open buckhorn with elevator bar, express sights, adjustable leaf with settings from 100 to 600 yards, a peep sight and a tang sight as well. Beautiful engraving was available at extra cost.

There was a carbine - and a saddle-ring option, too. Part octagonal, part round bar- rels were available, a n d t h e Extra Lightweight in .45-70 was a streamlined 86 with a 22-inch barrel. The . 3 3 Winchester

86 featured a “pencil thin” barrel, as they called it, a lightweight tube of 2 4 inches. All that was just the beginning because a Model 1886 could be special-ordered - and quite a few riflemen did just that, adding to the uniqueness of the firearm considerably. There might be a cheekpiece stock, sling eyes and swivels, a trapdoor buttplate or a Swiss style buttplate. Since there were so many options, we find 86s in modern col- lections which show combinations of features, making them, in effect, one-of-a- kind rifles.

Winchester felt the 86 was one of its better developments. So did countless customers. The action, with its double- locking bolts, one on either side of the breech bolt, was very strong for its day -

and remember that rifle was a pre- smokeless design.

Because of the length of this strong ac- tion, some very formidable black powder cartridges were chambered in the 86. While the .45-70 Government remains the best known, it was not the most powerful offered in the 1886 Winchester. In 1886, the .45-70 shared billing with the .45-90 and .40-82, both very popular. In fact, the latter lived to see a smokeless powder loading.

In 1887, the .40-65 Winchester was added, as well as a .38-56 and a .50-110 Express cartridge. In 1894 the .40-70 Win- chester and .38-70 Winchester rounds were added to the 86 lineup. In 1895, the

RIFLE 108 18

in its

.50-110 was loaded with a 450-grain bullet for the .50-110-450 factory round, and in 1903 the excellent .33 Winchester was bom. By 1910, the .40-82, .40-70, .40-65, .38-70, .38-56 and .50-110-450 were dropped. The .45-70, .45-90 and .50-110 were laid to rest in 1919, as far as the 86 was concerned, but the .45-70 rose from the ashes like the Phoenix in 1927 and was dropped again in 1931.

The latter may seem chronologically im- possible, since production of the 86 ceased in 1922, but in fact it took 10 years for Win- chester to assemble and sell the remaining Model 1886s, so 1932 marks the true end of new 86s.

The Model ’86 was often thought of as an expert’s rifle. Testimonials for it cropped u p like weeds after a spring rain, coming from all quarters and all types of shooters, from professional trappers and guides to holiday hunters. The 86 gave a man what h e wanted - in its black powder days it fired large bullets. Since high velocity was out of the question with black powder car- tridges, the big bores were king. What you could never achieve in kinetic energy, you made up for in caliber. After all, a .50-110 made an entrance hole half an inch in diameter and the mass of the .38 to .50-caliber projectiles ensured d e e p penetration and .bone-breaking authority.

Many serious and devoted hunters divorced their 73s and took up long-lasting relationships with the Model 1886. In a January 1898 Outdoor Life article, Dall DeWeese, well-known hunter of the day, wrote of “A Moose Hunt in Alaska.” His rifle was an 86. “I have now in camp,” DeWeese said, “my special m a d e .40-70-330 metal patched soft-nose, black powder 86 model Winchester, which I have used for the past four years.” Note that by 1898 smokeless rounds in other rifles were available, but DeWeese put his trust in a black powder 86 and the .40-70 round, a cartridge which appeared with the 86 in its first year of production.

Colonel Townsend Whelen said in The Hunting Rifle, a 1940 text that “During the 50 years of its use, the Model 1886 breech action used on this Model 71 rifle [the Col- onel was referring to the 71 in this state- ment, but his remark centers on the 861 has been easily the favorite lever action of American hunters. No other lever action has appealed to their eye and understand-

NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 1986

The Model 1886 action featured double locking bolts. Although they also

appeared on the Model 92, they are not found on the famous

Model 94.

ing as it has, and particularly the relation- ship of grip, hammer, and trigger lend themselves to most effective and rapid operation. Over 200,000 rifles with this type of breech action have been sold, and unlike other rifles, the great majority . . . have been purchased by really experienced hunters. If one searches back through our rifle history he will find literally hundreds of glowing testimonials as to the excellence of this breech action.”

Elmer Keith, in Big Game Rifles and Car- tridges, said, “While dealing with lever action Winchesters, we might as well take u p the old 1886 model in .45-70 caliber. This rifle was made for a time with a nickel steel, light weight barrel, in solid frame, and chambered for the .45-70-405 grain soft point cartridge. Both rifle and load have proved very reliable for all species of game in the timber.” Keith goes on to extol the virtues of rifle and round on game from deer to grizzlies.

Another 86 lover was Ben Lilly, one of t h e more interesting professional hunter/trappers who lived into the twen- tieth century. He specialized in livestock killers, and probably hunted the very last of the Southwestern grizzly bears. Lily car- ried a Model 1886 Winchester in .33 caliber for its power and reliability. He hunted every day except Sunday, which was reserved for Bible reading.

My only 86 Winchester came in my youth, a romantic desire fulfilled by trading a n M1 carbine for the .45-70-chambered rifle. The 86 was an easy-shooting piece with factory loads, but being interested in performance even then, I wrote a letter to Elmer Keith. Keith replied to my teenage inquiry with his own special handload for the .45-70. (I still have his letter, ensconced somewhere in my packrat collection.) Keith called for 53.0 grains of IMR-3031 behind a 405-grain bullet. I found that Remington bullets, with double cannelures, held

together quite well, and I always thought I might take that load if I ever got to hunt really big game with the rifle. For whitetail deer and javelina, the softer 405-grain Win- chester bullet worked well. I got a couple of deer and hogs with the rifle, then moved on to faster, flatter-shooting artillery.

19

Noted for its smooth operation, the Model 86 action will feed reliably whether it is held right side up or, as Sam demonstrates here, upside down. Trivia lovers please note.

The old rifle did its job well, though there was n o startling visual impact when a deer dropped from the lead slug. The game piled up after a dash of 50 to 7 5 yards and the meat was intact. My notes show a sight-in of 100 yards with my 86, and groups from two inches at 100 yards for five shots to about three inches at the same distance with handloads. The 53.0-grain IMR-3031 charge behind that 405-grain bullet gave a muzzle velocity of 1,827 fps (information gamered from NRA data, my crinkled notes show) for a muzzle energy of over 3,000

foot-pounds with a breech pressure of 28,933 pounds per square inch.

The 1886 Winchester is still for sale, as it were, because the well-made rifle has withstood the test of time and good shooters are available widely. Of course, prices are a bit higher than they were when the 1886 was in production. Prices vary according to condition, and to the rifle’s features. Naturally, the rarer 86s cost a lot and the more common cost less. Special-order 86s, with engraving and other embellishment, can command thousands of dollars.

In its centennial year, the 1886 Win- chester is available again. The Browning Arms Company of Morgan, Utah, is sell- ing its “1886 Lever Action Repeating Rifle.” It does not, of course, bear the Winchester trade name. However, this rifle is patterned after original Browning design and it is in- deed the 1886 we know so well. The Grade I sells for about $500, while the High Grade goes for about $850.

Caliber? Why .45-70 of course. The bar- rel is 26 inches long and is octagonal. Sights are open buckhorn type and the magazine is full length, holding eight rounds of .45-70 ammunition. With a 13-inch length of pull, the straight-grip stock gives an overall length of 44.5 inches. The buttplate is rifle style, or crescent. The overall weight of the rifle is 9.5 pounds. The rifle was introduced at the January 1986 SHOT Show in Houston, Texas.

Some good things never seem to fade totally into the sunset. So it is with the Model 1886 Winchester. It served so well and made such a fine reputation for itself, that collectors and even some hunters still admire and seek this model. They are still available for those willing to search one out and pay the price. The other option is the purchase of the Browning 1886 Lever Action rifle, the replica of the old 86 style. With handloads, from Keith’s standby to numerous other recipes available to the modem shooter, the 86 is still a viable close- range hunting tool. It will remain so as long as there are thickets and river bottoms and dark woods to hunt and big game animals with which to match skill.

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0

Cartridges of the Winchester Model 1886 ballistics from 26-inch barrels

d B P P B 2 c P

cartridge

a a

charge weight velocity energy penetration’ Introduced* 5 black I powder bullet muzzle muale w a r

(grains) (grains) VPS) (fVlb) ti .33 Winchester (H-4895145.13) ,38156 Winchester 56 ,38170 Winchester 68 ,40165 Winchester 65 .40/70 Winchester 70 .40/82 Winchester 82 .45/701405 Government 70 .451701500 Government 70 ,45190 Winchester 90 ,5011 10 Winchester Express 100

200 255 255 260 330 260 405 500 300 300

2,2003 2,150 not tested 1,359 1,046 11 1,449 1,189 10 1,325 1,014 9 1,349 1,334 13 1,445 1,206 12 1,271 1,452 14 1,179 1,544 18 1,480 1,459 13 1,536 1,572 11

L 1902 2 1887 1894 s

s 1887 E 1894

1886 3 B 1886

1886 g

3 1886

ti 1899

O

- c

c

c $ 1 penetration in 7/kinch soft pine boards at 15 feet. 2 year of introduction in the Model ’86; the two .45 Government loadings z

I t d

had been adopted as military cartridges in 1873.

was standard for the .33 caliber. 3 load from Hornady third edition. Velocity from 24-inch barrel, which

1

20 RIFLE 108

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pounds and fairly amazes fellow shooters at the bench when it chews its half-inch groups. Whelen believed that a .270, for example, should weigh eight pounds or better.

The Colonel was very careful about his averages. Because of this, I believe his statements on accuracy may be somewhat misconstrued today. He a p plauded a rifle which would fire a two- inch, 100-yard group, but the Colonel was considering hundreds of groups fired over several years’ time.

Whelen’s persistent belief that only shooting would tell the whole story has affected me as well as many other shooters. For example, I was recently working with four different calibers in an attempt to dope out their trajectory curves. I had three choices: I could com- pute drop by doing the math myself, I could consult tables or I could do a lot of shooting and see where the groups landed on paper. In spite of extraneous variables and a lack of statistical significance, I chose the latter course, the way Whelen would have. My drop tables varied a little from the estab- lished data, but I knew what my rifles and handloads were doing at the altitude where I was shooting.

Colonel Townsend Whelen was a military man by profession, a soldier. At one time, he was in charge of the Frankford Arsenal. Later, he was in charge of development and research at the Springfield Armory. He was also in command of the National Guard shooting range at Essington, Penn- sylvania. More than anything, Whelen was a rifleman. He shot a lot of black powder. He promoted accuracy every way he knew how. He studied trajec- tories, powders, bullets and various car- tridges from the most modern to the ob- solete. He tested every rifle he could get his hands on, in as many calibers as he could locate. He developed short-range loads and long-range loads. He pro- moted bench rest shooting. He was a hunter in the best sense of the word and a handloader who did much for that branch of shooting.

When James V. Howe developed a .35-caliber wildcat based on the .30-06 case, he named it the .35 Whelen in honor of the Colonel. Howe was not the only one to recognize Whelen’s impact on shooting, of course, and various other awards were also named for the Colonel. There is professional jealousy in any field but I can’t recall any arms writer attacking Whelen or his work, for the man earned a high level of respect for what he did. “Only accurate rifles are interesting,” said the Colonel, and he went about promoting that ac- curacy, not only in the rifle itself but in the ammunition it fired. His mark is not likely to fade soon.

NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 1986

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Firearms of the American West,

I866-I894 Authors: Louis A. Garavaglia and Charles G. Worman. Published by the University of New Mexico Press, Albu querque NM 87131.1985.423 9x12 pp< illustrated, annotated, bibliography. index. $40 plus $2 p&h.

This is the second of two volumes: thc first, Firearms of the American Wesi 1803-1865, was published just about a year ago.

This volume is divided into threg parts: Military Arms (long arms anc handguns), Civilian Arms (rifles shotguns and handguns), and Indiar Arms (postwar Indian guns). Each is further divided into a general intro duction of several pages which sum marizes the activities of the Army, thf civilians and the Indians in the Wed during the period, then into chaptei sub-headings on various types andloi makes of arms under discussion. Eacl is a concise but complete summary o its field. An experienced student o Remington arms, for example, migh want a more detailed reference but thi: will be entirely adequate for his stud: of Springfield, Marlin, Ballard, Win Chester and other arms. For the non specialist, it is a thoroughly adequati study of the arms of the period, no only the popular ones but the lesser known as well.

The authors have an impressive background in the study of arms tha one would expect. Among their credits Louis Garavaglia was once assistanr technical editor of The American Rifleman; Charles Worman wa8 firearms editor of Hobbies magazine.

The production of the book is firs1 class in all respects. The paper is E heavycoated stock; photos are outlinec to remove background distractions 19th Century photos are reproducec

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The Machinist's Bedside Reader

Author and Publisher, Guy Lautard, 2570 Rosebery Avenue, West Van- couver, British Columbia, Canada V7V 229. Softbound, 8?hx11 inches, 206 pages plus an appendix, 106 photographs and illustrations. $16.95 (U.S.) postpaid.

According to the author, this book was written for the hobbyist machinist, the chap who has most of the tools and knowledge he needs but not, perhaps, as much experience as he'd like. The explanations, tips and techniques described on its pages have been gathered from all sorts of sources: per- sonal experience, friends and acquain- tances, journals and magazines (all with permission, of course). The result is a highly literate potpourri; mostly fact with a bit of fiction tossed in for good measure - some to illustrate a point, the rest, purely for reader enjoyment.

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RIFLE 108