1873 UBERTI WINCHESTER ..... TODAY
PACO
From the book.... THE DRIFTER... by Paco Kelly..."Brothers First and Second, Chickaway Indians, saw the bushwacker on the roof of the hotel, looking down in the street, aiming a rifle at their friend The Drifter. Both Indians brothers fired their 38 WCF ..1873 Winchesters at the same time. And from the impact of the two bullets, before he could fire, the killer rolled over the edge of the roof... rifle going helter skelter, and the body ending up hanging half off the covered roof of the board walk ...in front of the hotel. Two large blood red blossoms of death could be seen from the exit wounds on his back...."
In it’s time the 1873 Winchester, was the gun reported to have won the west. There is a lot of controversy to the truth or falseness of that, the Henry, the 1866 Winchester the 1873 and 1876 all were a part of that great move in our country. But it can be clearly said the 1873 was the rifle that was most sought after by those in the last three decades of the 19th century. The 44-40 was the caliber of choice, but the 38-40 was selected by a good number of folks. In 1882 the 32-20 was chambered also in the 1873 design but wasn’t as popular as the other two.
The difference between the 44-40 and the 38-40 cartridges in power of the black powder era wasn’t that much, because the 38-40 wasn’t a 38 caliber at all... it was a .401/2 caliber and the 44-40 wasn’t a 44 caliber but a .426/7 caliber. With the same powder amounts and according to the loaded rounds, up to only 20 grains in bullet weight difference favoring the 44 WCF. They were not called by the powder weight 38-‘40' and 44-‘40' by Winchester... the big W called them the 44 WCF and the 38 WCF, for ‘Winchester Center Fire’.
Because the designation WCF was a Winchester Copyright... when other ammo companies began to load for the rounds, they were called by the powder amount. And it stuck. So the mighty 38 WCF was not a 38 at all. But thousands of shooters didn’t know that....
Today’s modern clone 1873s come in many calibers including the 44 WCF and the 32-20 WCF... I am told they also come in the 38-40 but I have yet to see one. Several distributors also chamber them in more modern calibers like the .357 magnum. Since the toggle system design of the 1873s is not a very strong system, with a very slim bolt... that chambering surprises me. For a design that was made to take 15,000 psi (to a top load of 23,000 psi in modern steel)... the 35,000 psi of today’s commercial 357 loads is way over the stress points of the design. And some commercial ammo is still loaded to the original 357 pressure levels of 45,000+ psi.
How can this old technology take the added pressure. Being a cartridge case with a small case head, so there is less back thrust against the bolt is surely part of the reason. But it can’t be the whole reason. The newer steels used today have an added strength increase also, and that helps, but it too is not the whole answer.
I have a Uberti 1873 all steel action Short Rifle in .357 Magnum. It is a gorgeous rifle.. With it’s deep charcoal type bluing and case colored action, the colors don’t show well in the photo. A 20 inch octagon barrel, that is usually the carbine length. But this levergun has the rifle forearm, barrel, loading tube, barrel band, and octagon barrel. It weighs in at 7.4 pounds unloaded. It has buck horn sights, but that will change as soon as the peep sights I ordered come in from MidwayUSA. The wood is dense walnut with a goodly amount of figure, the photos also don’t show the grain very well. In fact some of the weight comes from the heavy walnut of the forearm and buttstock. It has the traditional curved butt-plate of the 73s. The butt-plate has the same blue as the barrel and loading tube.
If you look at the close up photo of the brass lifter in the up position, it’s the photo looking down into the action... you can see the bolt between the two sides of the brass lifter.... it is not very big in circumference, and it’s somewhat long and unsupported at firing. And who knows how really strong it is, even if it is steel and not brass..... In my article on the 1873 steel clone 32-20s I mentioned that they shouldn’t be reloaded past 23,000 psi. That is my arbitrary top loading pressure for new steel ‘73s. In respect for the simple but weaker design.
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Most of the reloading books call for top loads in pressure around 16,000 for well made and tight 73s. With the modern steel 1873 action and smaller head size of the .357 cartridge, I figure 20,000 to 23,000 psi tops isn’t going to hurt my rifle. I have shot +p 38 Special commercial ammo out of it, with out problems and that was rated at 23,000 psi. but that was only around 50 rounds... so extended use of 23,000 or below will be fine. If I want true 357 mag rifle velocities, I have Winchester and Legacy leverguns that can take top mag pressures. No sense hurting a fine 1873 rifle.
In powders I have found that the old standbys like 2400 and H-4227 are very good... but HS-6 and Blue Dot in some loadings turned out very well. For example 8 grains of Blue Dot under a 110 grain jacketed bullet will give near 1450 fps from the rifle with only 17,500+ psi from the 20 inch barrel.. A near magnum load from a short barreled handgun. And it will make a very bad day for a coyote inside 100 yards..... Acc #5 with 8 grains will push a 125 grain jacketed bullet from the rifle at 1350+ fps for around 18,700 psi. and it is a neat load out to 100 plus yards. 7 grains of HS-6 under a cast 158 grain Keith bullet will go 1300 fps..... a modest 17,000 psi..... this load at 50 yards is ideal going into an inch when I hold well enough with buck horn sights... As most of my readers know I am not a buck horn sight aficionado.
And using any good reloading book, you can find many acceptable loads for squirrel to coyotes in the 38 special plus P sections... it’s a fun gun. But if I want to go 1900 to 2000 fps with 357 mag chambered leverguns... I can always break out my Browning ‘92, Winchester Legacy, Navy’s Legacy Short Rifle mod. 92, or Marlin 1894... This gun is a low pressure thing of beauty, fun to shoot, no recoil to speak of, accurate to a fault... And I hear the squirrels are picketing the Uberti Arms manufacturing plant !!!!