Many of us have faced the question of weather or not to keep a quality veteran rifle in service. The question is generally a thorny one and it can become even pricklier if the cartridge that the arm is chambered for is obsolete. Very often it is simpler to relegate the arm to a place above the mantle after it has been rendered inoperative. There are times, however, when you may choose to go the extra mile to keep the arm functioning for purely personal reasons regardless of the cost.
Such is the case with a lovely old rifle that belonged to my late wife Jan. She had been looking for a rifle for Michigan deer hunting when a good friend directed her to a find at a local gun show. I remember her looking at the relic and asking me what I thought of it. What lay before us at that show was a Winchester High Wall. Here was one of the great old single shot rifles designed by firearms genius John Browning. On seeing it I was expecting a high price as the actions are prized by black-powder single-shot cartridge gun shooters today … I suggested that she ask the price and I was surprised by the response! It was a real bargain! The rifle was chambered in the obsolete 33 Winchester Center Fire cartridge. The arm came with bullet mold, load data, two boxes of formed brass, and dies! I knew that I would have to form brass in order to keep the well-worn relic shooting but the bore and chamber were new and the brass could be formed from 45/70. I encouraged her to make the purchase. A short time later… After cleaning the rifle up a bit… as someone had varnished the stock… She was on the range shooting the arm and was offered more than twice what she paid for it! To say she was happy was an understatement!
The rifle never quite performed to the standard that I wished for it though. Certainly, it shot well within the level of an off hand deer rifle and in that sense Jan was pleased! She never did get to go hunting with it though.
Recently, I decided to take up the problem of the rifle’s lack of accuracy and look at the cartridge seriously. The first place that I looked in the accuracy department was the crown of the barrel. Though the smith that rerifled and chambered the long gun had done a fine job, the crown was in sad shape. A trip to my old friend Ron Kontowsky of R.A.K. Specialties quickly sorted that out as he easily mounted the arm in the lathe and crowned the barrel with his appropriate .338 cutter. (That is what the old 33 WCF really is by the way… a light .338 or medium cartridge capable of taking either deer or black bear at reasonable distances in the north woods.) The crown is one place that you should look right away if you are having an accuracy problem on any arm. The crown is critical to accuracy and it is a place where life’s bumps and dings or improper cleaning methods can cause horrible down range performance. A recrown job is not a terribly expensive proposition either!
A Fresh New Crown
While the rifle was out for the crowning job I became curious about the history of the arm. The barrel is a 30’ number 2 contour and is stamped 32/40. This would have lead me to believe that the arm was originally chambered for that cartridge if it were not for the fact that the forend of the stock shows signs of having once been in contact with an octagon barrel. While it is common for parts to get swapped on these old rifles, the walnut of the for end and stock looked pretty close in color to me after removing all of the old red varnish that was on it with a buffing wheel. I think that they are both original to the rifle.
Having visited the Buffalo Bill Cody museum complex in Cody Wyoming some years ago I knew that they had all of the old records that once belonged to Winchester. This world-class museum and library complex is truly a wonder that I recommend to any serious student of arms or the west. As I recall it took several days to tour it and it has much to offer any member of the family! I decided to contact them to see if they could shed any light on the origins of this rifle. Their response revealed that the rifle was in the Winchester warehouse on July 7, 1892, that it was originally barreled with a number 3, 30” octagon barrel that was chambered in 40/82. Their records show that the arm shipped on September 14, 1892. This report confirmed my suspicions about the history of the arm in that I am now sure that it was rebarreled at least once and had its rifling and chamber recut on the last modification. This also fueled my suspicion that the arm was owned by at least three people over the years.
One of the reasons that the 33WCF fell out of favor around 1936 was that there was never an express loading developed for it as there was for the 30/30. The round appeared around 1902 and many woodsman and writers alike were enamored of it. The cartridge was almost always chambered in the relatively week Winchester 1886 lever repeater and, while it was popular, it seemed unable to compete with the new, and impressive for its day, 30/30. The 33WCF was used very successfully on deer elk and moose at 200 yards or less. Still… the fact that there was only one loading and that it was a 200-grain flat-nose gradually lead to its demise.
The 33WCF, Left and Center, Parent 45/70, Right
Deciding to keep this veteran shooting, I sought to revitalize the old 33 for myself in this Highwall with the use of some of the most high tech components available to see if it had an untapped potential to offer in this single shot. My quest quickly lead me to Barns Bullets and their famous X-Bullet. I knew that they offered a wide variety of projectiles for the 338 Winchester Magnum and wondered if any might fit the bill for an express loading in the 33WCF. I settled on the 160 grain X-Bullet after speaking with the Barns tech staff about its tested performance. It happens that this particular bullet will expand to twice its diameter at 1,600 feet per second. That is plenty for a whitetail and I surmised that I could sure drive it faster safely in this lovely old rifle.
The Barns-X is an all copper bullet that has a tremendous ballistic coefficient due to its size to weight ratio. The 160-grain .338 X-bullet with a .337 ballistic coefficient compares very well to the B.C. of 200 of the Hornady 200 grain. This lead me to believe that it would most likely give good accuracy in a light recoiling express load. I was unconcerned about the pointed bullet design in this case as this is a single shot rifle and there is no chance for a chainefire in the tube magazine due to the line up of bullet point to primer on successive cartridges. I did decide early on to coat the bullets with molibdinumdisulfide as a dry lubricant using the tumbling method. From past experience with this process I knew that it would yield loadings with higher velocities at lower pressures than non-coated bullets. I would have used the coated bullets manufactured by Barns if they had been available in this caliber and weight.
In order to accomplish this express load I would need some hand-load data though! There is data available for the reloading of this cartridge through Hornady as they still market a flat nosed bullet suitable for the lever gun in 200graines. The people at Accurate Arms Powder were most helpful in determining extrapolated data for two powders in their product line that they thought would be safe in this arm and cartridge with the uncoated Barns bullet. This would establish a healthy safety margin for the load I was looking for. Of the two powders, Accurate’s 2520 produced the cleanest burn in initial testing and initial chronograph data indicated performance well within a safe range. This particular powder is a modified ball type that is very consistent in the metering process from powder charge to powder charge.
Alas… In the testing stage I discovered that this old rifle suffered a common problem of arms form that era. The extra large diameter black powder primer firing pin was in a mating extra-extra large firing pin hole on the breach block. The result of which was that the primers tended to extrude into this large hole even with light loads. Though there was no hazard yet, I knew that there would be if the arm were not repaired. The problem also makes it quite difficult to remove a spent case, as the falling block tends to want to shear off the extruded primer. In this case, the repair consists of bushing the firing pin hole to modern dimensions or replacing the breach block. A new firing pin is usually fitted also. Undaunted, I sent the arm back to RAK who did a bang up job of bushing the breach block and installing a new firing pin.
My first trip to the range after the repair showed that the last load I used was still a relatively light one. I would have to bump the powder charge and put it over the chronograph for final testing. This process produced a good load at 2,300 fps that would consistently produce a three shot group that would fit in 3/4 inch at 100 yards off of a rest. As you might guess, I am very pleased as this load outperforms the 150 grain 30/30 express load throwing a heavier bullet faster.
If you have a veteran arm and you decide that you want to keep it shooting it can be a great experience that does not overburden your wallet. I can highly recommend it! Be sure to consult a qualified gunsmith as well as the shooting resources below.
Special thanks to the great people at: Buffalo Bill Cody Museum (www.bbhc.org/firearms/index.cfm), The Detroit Sportsmen’s Congress (www.d-s-c.org), Barns Bullets (www.barnesbullets.com), Accurate Arms Company (www.accuratearms.com/home.html), and RAK Specialties Gunsmithing (gunsmith@massnet1.net).
Good luck and good shooting!
