I saw this one in an Arkansas gunshop while on a business trip. I've been trying to find a Marlin Zane Gray for a decent price, don't care about the commemorative part but I wanted a long octagon barrel levergun.
It's obviously well used, and the price was very good, too good to pass up.
Has anyone ever worked with one of these with cast bullets? I'm going to add a Lyman 66 receiver sight. If anyone has a quantity of 30-30 brass they want to get rid of, let me know.
The pic isn't loading right, but if you right click and VIEW IMAGE ...
Nice rifle Warhawk. I hear about a lot of people getting 38-55 rebores, but I sure like my 30-30 as is.
When I read your opening post I was waiting for a punch line. "I bought this rifle in an Arkansas gun shop. You know, the kind of place where......."
Sorry, couldn't resist.
Jeff
"I come from a state that raises corn and cotton and cockleburs and Democrats, and frothy eloquence neither convinces nor satisfies me. I am from Missouri. You have got to show me." Willard Duncan Vandiver
What's cool to me about this one ... when my youngest son Cody was a baby (he's an Air Force C-130 pilot in Afghanistan now), I stumbled into a Buffalo Bill carbine in a pawn shop for $125. It was used but in better shape than this one, a little better. He wouldn't part with that rifle for love nor money and killed his first deer and his first hog with it.
I've got a 94 Winchester Classic Model, acquired in 1970 when I was fresh out of the Army and had gotten a job at the Winchester plant in New Haven, CT. Back then, they'd make up a gun for employees, at factory cost--any way the employee wanted. I ended up with probably the only Classic model that left the factory with a black loading gate, and an investment-cast steel cartridge lifter that ended up being a stock item on 94's a year or so later. It's the same gun, basically, as the Buffalo Bill model. Most of my shooting with that rifle is with cast bullets. I've never seen one of those octagon-barrelled commemoratives that didn't shoot well--at least those that have been used instead of just "collected".
My 30-30 works very well with a Lyman 311041 Lyman 173 grain gascheck bullet. I never bought a mold with 30-30 in mind from Ranchdog when he was in the mold business, but from what I can tell, his boolit would also work very well in your Buffalo Bill. Neither the Lyman boolit or a Ranchdog one will bounce off of any deer that I know of, either. For casual plinking, if you can find a Lyman 311316 mold originally intended as a gascheck design for the 32-20, those boolits, sized to fit your 30-30 make nice little plinkers and small game loads--especially for use in an Octagon barrel like yours.
The 38-55 is a lot more finicky to work up a load for, that the 30-30 is. You most likely already have something that will be a great shooter with cast bullets. Remember--cast bullets need to be properly fitted to your particular rifle, and no two rifles are the same. Get your barrel slugged, and size your boolits accordingly.
Warhawk . G,day , man rhat is one sweet rifle. been shopping arounnd for a similar one in australia but not to be had. new one is $1600.00 so finished up with a Rio Grand which surprisingly functions great and is quite accurate. however still saving up for a Winchester.
Grandad
