doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion Classic & Custom Single Barreled Sporting Rifles @ doublegunshop.com WTB-1886 33 WCF

When I bought mine, I knew I was going to have to hand load for it, but consoled myself that Incould use the excellent 200gr Hornady flat point bullets.

I then found that they had been discontinued, and Steve Hornady,who was at the Game Fair, told me their was no hope of them being re-introduced.

I ordered some 200gr Flextip, but they never arrived. Perhaps that was fortunate as I have since heard that they tend to stick under the magazine follower in 1886 rifles.

I asked a friend who was going to Australia to try to buy some 200gr Woodleigh flat points. He couldn’t find any but did find an old box of Hornady flats points. Result!

A friend with a lathe has flat pointed a supply of 210gr Partition, and I recently acquired an NEI custom gang mould for FP GC 220gr bullets.

All I need now is a suitable non-toxic bullet for when our lead ban on live quarry comes in. I assume casting bismuth bullets would be a non-starter?

One possibility is to obtain some Barnes .338 solids or brass-only bullets and then have your lathe-owning friend
custom cut and flatten them to around 195-205 grain projectiles.
Hence, an answer.

Horrors! The British Isles banning lead or lead shot. Next they will pick up the lead ban on water fowl as in the US.
That means tungsten, bismuth or some other bloody non-lead concoction.
Do not forget Hawk Bullets in NJ.
They might consider a limited run of 338 non-lead FP bullets.

We have had a lead ban for waterfowl/wetlands for many years. What we now face, effective in about 3 years, is a total ban on the sale and use of lead shot.

For hunting live quarry bullets of .243 and above will have to be totally lead free .

We have been fortunate in that it has been accepted that there are no viable lead substitutes for lead in air rifle pellets,.22 rim-fire snd sub-.240 rifles.

If you gentlemen have not done so it would behoove you to search out a copy of the huge tome "The Winchester Lever Legacy" by Snooky Williamson, a soybean farmer from Mississippi, AIR.

He collected and shot every model of Winchester lever guns in every caliber available, hand loading the rounds and testing them for accuracy, having fired in excess of 750,000 rounds over the course of the research for this excellent book. Load data and targets are included in the book.

I read through it last year and am still amazed at the amount of data contained in it.

Williamson was very "high" in his opinion of the '86.

https://www.amazon.com/Winchester-lever-legacy-Clyde-Williamson/dp/0962026719

Thanks Stan,

Whilst I am trying to reduce my collection of gun reference books ( many of which I don’t open from year to year) I will try to find a copy of that one on this side of the pond.

I am slightly familiar with it as about 9 years ago a very kind gentleman, Micharl F. Carrick from Oregon, air mailed me a bundle of info on loading the .33 WCF including a copy of the most informative chapter from that book.

I read the data again on the 33 WCF just this evening in the book, Parabola.

AIR, the best load he found for his shot a 1 5/8" group at 50 yds., with the original iron sights, of course. I seem to recall it was pushing a 205 gr. Nosler bullet.

It is a rifle and calibre that groups remarkably well for a lever action.

I have a target that I shot with a variety of cast and jacketed bullets and all had more or less the same mean point of impact.

IIn the narrative on the calibre he shows that the cartridge “punches well above its weight” even with what I believe is called a Texas heart shot.

Stan;
I have a copy of Snook Williamson's book and he did a great deal of work, with George Madis looking on. It is generally conceded
that he did push his handloads a bit higher than normal.
While it might be possible to venture into .348 WCF territory with 200 gr jacketed 33 WCF handloads, it is not a wise practice for our older
1886 rifles. I just handload for accuracy and it is rewarding when hunting in the Rockies for deer and bear, or even possibly a disoriented bull elk in the rut.

Ben Lilly is credited with killing at least 3 grizzlies in Mexico, Arizona, and New Mexico with his 1886 Winchester in 33 WCF. The bear that almost got Lilly in ambush
was killed on the Blue near Hannagan Meadow in NE Arizona, above the Mogollon Rim. This occurred in about 1913 while he was hunting alone, except for his hounds.
Lilly's 33 WCF full magazine 1886 is still thought to be somewhere in New Mexico.

Mantons of Calcutta imported .33 Winchester 1886 rifles into India between the Wars.

It is possibly how mine made it is way to the U.K. as it was not British Proved until 2011 ( had it been a direct import it would have been submitted to Proof in 1903 or soon after).

Rifles that shoot different weight bullets to the same point of impact are scarcer than hen's teeth. I have only encountered one in my lifetime that would, and I still own it. It is a Ruger #1V chambered for 7mm Rem. Mag. I have shot bullet weights from 115 grs. to 145 grs. in it and they need no scope adjustment nor Kentucky windage to be accurate to POA. I cannot understand or explain the phenomenon but, it's pretty cool to see.