Shot the Winchester 1892 Today

I put 50 rounds through my 1895-vintage Winchester 1892 in .38 WCF today out at a friend's.

The target was my first 5 shots, from about 50 yards offhand. Point of aim (POA) was 6 o'clock on the bull. I'm hoping full power loads will shoot lower, and closer to POA due to less dwell time in the barrel, meaning the bullet will exit the muzzle before the barrel raises as much under recoil.

FWIW, I'm happy with the group considering the condition of the bore near the muzzle, and especially since my almost 50 year old eyes can barely use the microscopic notch in the rear sight. I am seriously considering taking advantage of the fact that the tang is drilled and tapped for a tang peep sight.

Recoil with the Ultramax cowboy loads was about like shooting a .22. Full power loads will have more kick, but it will still be a mild recoiling rifle. We didn't have any malfunctions.

We mostly shot at an 8" gong, which the .38-40s smacked it pretty good. We also shot my Cimarron 1873 Sporting Rifle in .44 WCF a little with my handloads (200 grain cast lead bullet on top of 8.6 grains of Unique). Those really smacked the gong around.

The flintlock in the picture is my friend's Euroarms Kentuckian carbine. A couple years ago he took a deer during the antlerless season, shooting out the window of his living room. He didn't even set off his smoke detectors. Today was the last day of  this year's late flintlock season. He was considering taking the rifle on a walk around his property after we were done to see if he could fill his flintlock tag.

After we finished up and I was standing there cleaning the rifle, and my friend had packed up all his stuff and taken it inside, a nice big doe came out about 25 yards behind our shooting position. Figures.

It's a shame that my friend's land is within the SE Pennsylvania special regulations area, where breechloading rifles are not permitted for deer hunting. Either of these two leverguns would be perfect for deer hunting on his land, where 50 yards would be a long shot.

To add some icing on the cake, tonight I won an eBay auction for this Ideal Number 6 reloading tool for .38 WCF. Other pics from the auction listing show the mold cavity to be in good shape. This will be really neat to load up some black powder handloads.