A Couple of "New" Single Shots

[Jeff Higgins]

Not really... I would say "new to me", but they aren't really that, either. I first "met" these rifles almost 30 years ago when my best friend and hunting partner's father passed away, leaving him a collection of over 400 guns. Long story short, my buddy wanted to get these two shooting again, so I showed him the ropes with regards to old black powder cartridge rifles. Now, after having been initially pretty excited about the whole thing, his enthusiasm has worn off. Only took 30 years...

So, he just gave them to me, saying his dad would have liked to have seen them go to someone who will keep shooting them. You guys know me - of course I will.

The first, and most straightforward of the two, is a Remington Hepburn No. 3 Sporting Rifle in .45-90. We got this one up and running first, and my buddy actually hunted with it for a few years, taking a number of deer. It is a very accurate rifle and a real joy to both shoot and carry. The serial number indicates a late 1880's date of manufacture, but with Remington's poor records, that's as close as we can narrow it down.



The second, and by far the most challenging of the two to get shooting, is a Winchester 1885 Highwall in .40-70 Sharps Straight. Winchester kept really good records - this one was made in 1886.

The challenge with this rifle was that it had an original spec .40-70 SS chamber, which meant it was undersize per our modern ideas of such. Many breach loaders back then were chambered to accept bore diameter, rather than groove diameter bullets like we use today. This rifle has a .400" bore and .408" grooves, so we would really like to shoot .408"-.410" bullets in it. The original chamber would accept nothing larger than .400" diameter.

The original idea was that a dead soft lead bullet would "bump up", or obturate, to fill the grooves and seal the bore. That does work, to a degree, and we got it shooting well that way. It took a custom bullet mold, which is no big deal, but it also required the use of Bertram brass, which turned into a big deal. That stuff would pretty consistently split on about the second or third firing, no matter what we tried. And they cost about $5.00 apiece. That wasn't going to work in the long run.

So, I broke down and rechambered it with the "modern" .40-70 SS reamer. This allowed the use of standard .408"-.410" bullets. More importantly, it allowed the use of "modern" brass, reformed from .348 Winchester. Much, much tougher stuff.

Anyway, here's the Highwall:



I'm pretty excited. I guess it was all too obvious that I was lusting after these all these years. Now it's my "job" to keep these things going, and to someday pass them on to someone who will do likewise. It would be a shame to see these old girls fall silent.

[Seahawk]

What scopes are you going to put on them?

I keed!

I did some searches and those are really beautiful rifles. Like most, I had never heard of either.