Great Grandfather's Rifle

[Knute1]

I have posted elsewhere about my Great Grandfather who served in the Filipino Insurrection and Boxer Rebellion. When I purchased an 1892/1896 Krag from an uncle I was told about an 1895 Winchester that my great grandfather had. My uncle had sold/traded it with a friend and the rifle left the family. I guess I showed some disappointment that this rifle existed and was no longer in the family. My uncle later got back to me and said that he could buy the rifle back from his friend for what he sold it to him for, $575. Since I had just bought the Krag, I set it up for my brother to get it. Glad he did. Below is a picture of the rifle, built in 1899. The caliber is........30-40, just like great grandad had used in the military. My great grandad had used it for deer hunting, then my grandad had it, then my uncle. Glad to have it back in the family. The sights were changed and a buttpad put on. My brother got the original buttplate that had been removed. It is in good condition.

[Zgun]

Nice looking commercial 1895 Knute. That is great you were able to bring the family gun back into safe keeping. Let us know how the old girl shoots. Did you chase the serial number to see when it was manufactured ?

Zgun

[Zgun]

Duh, manufactured in 1899. That looks in great shape for a 119 year old rifle.

[Knute1]

My brother lives 3-1/2 hours away so we are planning on him coming over for a 30-40 shoot out some weekend. He's got the 1895 Winchester. I have an 1896 Krag sporter and the 1892/1896 U.S Magazine Rifle. We will follow-up the shoot out with some reloading for next time.We'll see then how the 1895 prints on paper. Here is a close up of the receiver. A few scratches, but has a lot of bluing left. I would like to have been at some of the northern Wisconsin deer camps it was in.

[Knute1]

Got together with my brother over Father's Day weekend. We had time to shoot some Winchester 30-40 cartridges I purchased some years back for a special occasion. This was the occasion and it was like opening up a special bottle of wine then we got shooting. We shot the 180 gr bullets and then reloaded some 200 gr along with 220 gr bullets. Seemed to do best with the 200 gr once the loads were worked up. The action worked like it should and the gun felt solid.
Below are some better pictures. Note the peep sight mounted directly to the top of the bolt. I am not sure of the repeatability for this setup, but we shot well for neither of us using peep sights before. On Father's Day we took a 4-generation picture with the rifle as more from the family showed up on that day.

[Zgun]

Great Pics. Glad the old girl shot well for you and your brother. Thank you for sharing.

Zgun

[Preston]

That is a beautiful rifle! What a great story!

[Culpeper]

That is a real purty gun you have there.

[Knute1]

Thanks for the comments. This gun is presently in my younger brother's possession. He is pretty liberal with letting me have it whenever and as long as I want. But I'm afraid of shooting all my 30-40 ammo up (I do reload) if I was to have it very long. He has already stated that it will be passed on down to one of my five sons. Likely the oldest who has two sons himself. That would be 6 generations if that actually happens.
The checkering was actually done by my grandfather's brother who had it until his untimely death in the 1940's. That is when my grandfather had it given to him. The checkering was done with a razor blade. There is a bolt that goes through the wrist of the butt stock. That was done to keep a crack from propagating any further. This type of crack is common for this model. My brother has the original shotgun-type butt plate for this gun. I did offer to get a replacement stock and use this butt-plate. The original stock with the checkering and repair could always be put back on.
My brother will get first crack at getting a deer with it. I'm sure I'll get my chance in the next few years. This gun is perfect for a left-hander like me. (Started out with a Marlin 30-30 back in the 70's, then graduated to flintlocks. So this would be the most modern gun design I will have deer hunted with.)

[Culpeper]

Afraid of shooting up all of your ammo? Do what I do. See a box. Buy two of them. Yeah. The stuff is made from gold now a days. Remington just had a run of the ammo in the past year so bite the bullet if you can and spend eight hundred bucks to get a case.

Buy two cases if you are able. Then get yourself a few fifty BMG ammo cans and fill them up. Set them away in a dry and fairly cool part of the house like the wife's clothes closet. (who needs that many shoes cluttering up the floor?) Then when the day comes that the rifle needs to be handed down the line you can pass them a full can of thirty year old pristeen .30-40 Krag ammo.

The next boy would be the caretaker of the remaining ammo. Each one taking the next can and passing the rest forward.