45 Colt to John Taylor for "Gender Reassignment Surgery" to a 44-40!

March 23, 2019

After years of trying to get an 1892 Japchester in 45 Colt to shoot accurately, I gave up. I sent the rifle to John Taylor for "gender reassignment surgery". It is now chambered in 44WCF. To say that I am happy with the quality of his work and the accuracy of the rifle would be a gross understatement. I have shot it on paper and have found a few loads this rifle really likes. I have put enough ammo through the rifle to consider it broken in and am starting load development. The pictured gong target was a complete surprise......

I was fire forming new Starline brass. The load was 6.4gr of Trailboss and my cast 43-220C wheel weight alloy bullets. Easily hitting clay birds on the 50 yard backstop. So just for the heck of it. I raised the tang sight and was hitting clay birds at 100 yards. Well.......the guy with the AR was done pelting the new gong at 200 yards so..... I figured I might be able to hit it at least once. After shooting and raising my tang sight until I was on target I hit the damn thing 10 times in a row, shooting off hand! Oh hell yes! I think this rifle and I are going to be close friends. You can see the small dings from the scoped AR 223 ammo vs the big lead splashes. You can also see that I was getting tired and wobbling. The last shot only about a quarter of a bullet hit the gong.

There were two black rifle enthusiasts behind me talking. When they heard the ding, ding, ding, ding they stopped and watched. I mean, a lever gun? No scope ? No bench rest? 😁

I hope this rifle likes 2400 as much as it likes Trailboss.