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Rebuilding a origional 1885 Highwall in 45-70 (Read 1730 times)

Captjack Participating Member Offline Posts: 43 Joined: May 11^th, 2018	Rebuilding a origional 1885 Highwall in 45-70 Mar 9^th, 2019 at 1:15pm	Print Post
	How can I tell if it is safe to shoot smokeless powder Or am I restricted to BP? I can only see part of the s/n. Thanks Jack


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Schuetzendave Frequent Elocutionist Offline Retired Ex-Shooter Posts: 4232 Location: St. Albert, Alberta Joined: Jan 28^th, 2005	Re: Rebuilding a origional 1885 Highwall in 45-70 Reply #1 - Mar 9^th, 2019 at 1:27pm	Print Post
	Original 1885 HighWalls are fairly strong actions and have no problem shooting smokeless powder. However 1885 LowWalls were designed for lower pressure cartridges. However the original HighWalls have a larger diameter firing pin for use with Black Powder Cartridges. When converting to smokeless in a 1885 we do a Mann-Neidner firing pin conversion which is to insert a bushing where the existing firing pin hole is and drill a hole for a smaller diameter firing pin plus make a smaller diameter firng pin to ignite the modern primers for smokeless powder.
	« Last Edit: Mar 9^th, 2019 at 1:32pm by Schuetzendave »

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Captjack Participating Member Offline Posts: 43 Joined: May 11^th, 2018	Re: Rebuilding a origional 1885 Highwall in 45-70 Reply #2 - Mar 9^th, 2019 at 1:35pm	Print Post
	Thanks for the reply. I will look in Campbell's book to see if he lists the size of the firing pin hole. I am flying blind with most of this rebuild.


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Schuetzendave Frequent Elocutionist Offline Retired Ex-Shooter Posts: 4232 Location: St. Albert, Alberta Joined: Jan 28^th, 2005	Re: Rebuilding a origional 1885 Highwall in 45-70 Reply #3 - Mar 10^th, 2019 at 1:11pm	Print Post
	Winchester produced nearly 140,000 Single Shot rifles from 1885 to 1920, and it was found that the falling-block Model 1885 had been built with one of the strongest actions known at that time. The falling block action was so strong that the Winchester Company used it to test fire newly created rifle cartridges. To satisfy the needs of the shooting and hunting public, the Model 1885 Single Shot was eventually produced in more calibers than any other Winchester rifle. Some of the calibers that 1885s have been chambered in are: .22 Hornet, .223, .22-250, .243, .270 Winchester, 7 mm Remington Magnum, .30-30 Winchester, .30-06 Springfield, .32-40, .357 Magnum, .38-55 WCF, .40-65, .44 Magnum, .45 Remington Magnum, .454 Casull Magnum, .45-70 Government, .45-90
	« Last Edit: Mar 10^th, 2019 at 1:31pm by Schuetzendave »

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Green_Frog Frequent Elocutionist Offline "It ain't easy being green" ASSRA Life #281 Posts: 4164 Location: Lynchburg, VA Joined: Apr 18^th, 2004	Re: Rebuilding a origional 1885 Highwall in 45-70 Reply #4 - Mar 10^th, 2019 at 11:13pm	Print Post
	I have two original high walls that have been rebarreled in 45-70 using modern made barrels. In both cases the breech block was bushed so as to take the late style (small diameter) firing pin. While one was practically always shot with BP for silhouette matches, the other was fired almost exclusively with moderate smokeless loads, mostly 2400 loads (from the Hercules charts) behind the 405 gr flat nose bullet. I wouldn't hesitate to shoot either one with smokeless again. As has been stated, the high wall action was one of the strongest of the single shot era. Froggie


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