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 25 Lever action 30-40 army (Read 6137 times)
waterman
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Re: Lever action 30-40 army
Reply #30 - Feb 12th, 2020 at 5:38pm
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Culpeper wrote on Feb 6th, 2020 at 4:44pm:
I never thought it would be competitive at Camp Perry but it's going to be a hoot when I get her and her cousin the Win Lee on the line. Cheesy


Before you bang away with the Lee, please track down descriptions of the safety mods retrofitted to some of the rifles by USMC and make sure your rifle has them. 

The guy killed shooting a Win Lee 10 years ago made serious mistakes reproducing the cartridge case, but it was the rifle's design flaws that killed him.
  
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Culpeper
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Re: Lever action 30-40 army
Reply #31 - Feb 13th, 2020 at 6:57pm
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Every thing points to modified .30-40 brass as the culprit in the failures.

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I started down the rabbit hole just after the DeRitter incident and have no fear of the 1895's design.  I was shooting one of my win-lees, oh, five or six years ago using modified 25-06 brass from Buffalo Arms.  Didn't have any problems.  My thoughts on the matter at the time was the 25-06 was designed as a rimless case and should have a substantial web in the case head and minimal brass has to be removed to get it to chamber.  Besides that I don't believe BA would put their winkies in danger by building and selling dangerous ammunition.

Also, I have not read where the Navy had reports of the Winchester Lee having catasrophic failures like the army was having with the 1903s as reported by Julian Hatcher.  Perhaps Knute can run down the Navy reports.



.
  

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Knute1
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Re: Lever action 30-40 army
Reply #32 - Feb 13th, 2020 at 11:55pm
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Are you talking about the Winchester Lee Straight Pull? If so, here is an early report when the rifle was accepted by the Navy. I'll have to find later reports to see if the Navy actually dropped the rifle for other reasons than to standardize with the Army.

Make sure to click on the four tabs by the scroll bar for different places the rifle was written about in the report.

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t+pull+rifle+navy+report&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjwhoDH28_
nAhVHG80KHVIMDy4Q6AEwBXoECAUQAg#v=onepage&q=winchester%20lee%20straight%20pull%2
0rifle%20navy%20report&f=false

More recent info:

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raight+pull&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjG6PHR9s_nAhVBCc0KHYul
DD8Q6AEwAHoECAEQAg#v=onepage&q=navy%20winchester%20lee%20straight%20pull&f=false


A 1910 article from "Hunter, Trader, Trapper"

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traight+pull&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjnxPj598_nAhXZbc0KHQQ
sB9E4ChDoATADegQIABAC#v=onepage&q=navy%20winchester%20lee%20straight%20pull&f=fa
lse

BR likely has some insight on this subject.
« Last Edit: Feb 14th, 2020 at 1:57am by Knute1 »  
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Knute1
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Re: Lever action 30-40 army
Reply #33 - Feb 14th, 2020 at 2:09am
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Still not sure if this is the gun in question, but here is a 1900 article from American Machinist:

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e+straight+pull&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjAhKTN-s_nAhWNHM0K
HRksA244FBDoATAJegQIAhAC#v=onepage&q=navy%20winchester%20lee%20straight%20pull&f
=false
  
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Culpeper
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Re: Lever action 30-40 army
Reply #34 - Feb 14th, 2020 at 6:04am
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Yeah that the gun.  My research poor that it is tells me the War Department got rid of the W-L for ammo logistics.  I could not find any reports of receiver failures due to design flaws.  Perhaps they did occur but the reports are lost to time if they did exsist.

Whereas the flavor of the times and the thinking of the Ordnance Dept was becoming more scientific in their outlook regarding injuries to soldiers and sailors.
  

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waterman
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Re: Lever action 30-40 army
Reply #35 - Feb 15th, 2020 at 10:56pm
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Some of the W-L that saw USMC service have modifications to the rear of the bolt.  There us a U-shaped piece of sheet-metal thickness steel that would protect the shooter if the striker were to be blown free. IIRC, it is spring steel and snaps into grooves machined into the rear of the body of the bolt.

If the USMC armorers had not encountered problems, that mod would not exist. 

That must have been an authorized mod and must appear in writing somewhere.

  
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Knute1
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Re: Lever action 30-40 army
Reply #36 - Feb 16th, 2020 at 2:19am
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I have not found any references to bolt assembly issues with this gun during military use. Not saying there weren't any. Ian from "Forgotten Weapons" has an informative video on this rifle, in case you haven't seen it. The only issue he brought up was with non-military reloaded ammunition. He also explains why it went out of vogue and without manufactured ammo soon after the Navy dropped this rifle.

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