Range Report - Original NWMP Winchester 1876 SRC|Winchester Hunting, Shooting & Reloading|Forum|Winchester Collector

After considerable time gathering the proper brass, dies, and a bullet mould, I developed a smokeless load for the .45-75 cartridge that gives original ballistics, albeit at a lower peak pressure than black powder. I settled on 28 grains of 5744 under a soft-cast 350 grain, plain base bullet for an average velocity of 1,335 fps. This is lower than the velocity out of a ’76 rifle (1,390 fps), but since the carbine has a 22″ barrel, I went for about 50 fps lower muzzle velocity as measured over a chronograph.

This week, I took it to the range just down the road from our house. Three shots at 50 yards were about 9 inches high and gave a 1 & 7/8″ group, so I set up a target at 100 yards. I had one flyer to the lower left as you can see in the photo, but the other four rounds went into a 2 & 7/8″ group and I was out of ammo. Here are three photos, one of the carbine (purchased by the NWMP in 1882) at the range, the 50-yard target and the 100-yard target, both with an original .45-75 round for comparison.