About three or so years ago my best friend and I saw a Monthly Shooting magazine with an article about a new Uberti made 1876 "Big Bore" centennial rifle that had just hit the retail gun shops. My friend and I both owned reproduction Henry and 1866 Yellowboys as well as 1873 Winchester rifles. We also reloaded a few pet loads for these 44-40 and 45 Long Colt Cowboy era long guns. From photos in the article,we expected these new Uberti lever action big boys to be a great new addition to our ever growing Cowboy and Saddle Rifle collections...after all, can a fella ever have too many cowboy rifles? No! Our many years shooting Uberti and other Italian made Lever actions hundreds and hundreds of rounds had shown us that these were well constructed and reliable guns to own and shoot. Well we both thought that in a year or so that we would try a couple of these new rifles and buy them in the venerable bad boy 45-75 Teddy Roosevelt Grizzly Bear caliber. After all if T.R. as well as Tom Selleck liked these Centennials, how could we go wrong! Keeping all that good junk in mind about a year ago my reenactment Buddie and I both ordered 45-75 Caliber 1876 Centennial Rifles. I ordered one from Taylor Arms Co. in Va. and my friend obtained his from Cimarron Firearms of Tex. We received our rifles a few weeks apart and for the large picture the two 28 inch BBL. 45-75s were alike...only diff. was on the Cimarron model the caliber 45-75 was engraved upon the bottom side of the solid brass elevator block and was not show on the Taylor's rifle. I won't go into the History of the 45-75 76 Winchester as if you're reading this I'll bet you're fairly informed already...if not, there are many web sites that give informative historical back grounds on the 45-75 Win. 76s...find one,sit down and enjoy! If you are gonna buy a 76 Win. you may get them in 45-60,45-75,40-60 and 50-95 calibers...all nice - what do ya like? Our 45-75 rifles as with the other three old western caliber offerings are hard hitting hunting rifles,to be sure and for certain! One thing you won't do with your 45-75 is shoot on over to Wally World and pick up a few boxes of ammo for around $60.00 or so...these cartridges sure ain't 30-30 Win. in price or availability! A true pain in the tuccus etc. buying ammo. You can find some to buy at Buffalo Arms co. also from Taylors as well as Cimarron and from a few other major gun supply joints on the web..! Your delivered to your house price will be around $46.00 to $55.00 for only a 20 or 25 round box. If you're not Bill Gates or getting Obama Bail Out checks; you'll likely be reloading the 45-75WCF Cartridge. My friend and I both reload these together while we suck down ridiculous amounts of coffee and yak yak about the Old West together for endless hours at the loading bench on a Saturday! The 45-75WCF is an old Black Powder Cartridge. Lots of reloaders are reloading with Smokeless Modern Powders in what is called Black Powder Equivalent loads! What's wrong with that? Nothing Nothing...If you don't like to use or shoot black powder in old time central fire brass - use Smokeless Powders! If you do like the old authentic loads in your rifles; here is how we do them...and they're shooting fine! Step one. - you will need some 45-75 brass to reload. It's available at several web site shooter's supply stores..IE; Graff & Son - Buffalo Arms Co. - Midway U.S.A. as well as a few others. This bass isn't cheap. You'll pay well over a dollar per hull for nice hulls made by Starline Co. I think I ordered about 140 rounds for about $220.00 or so from Graff & Son Co. up in Missouri. Step Two. - You will need a couple of pounds of GOI or some other powder you like to load with. We load rifle cartridges with FFG granulation...pistol cartridges with FFFG granulation. You may also obtain a foreign brand or two that make a Cartridge Granulated black powder. I have not used these, however ; I'm told they are good powders by a couple of friends that do reload them for use in Sharp's Cartridges. Note; use large rifle primers in 45-75 brass. Step Three.- We load soft type lead -pre lubed .458-459 at 350 and or 300 grain F.N. conical ball - IE; .458-459 Cast Performance Bullet Co. 300 grain and other ball at 350 grain weights. Silver State Co. has good pre lube and sized Cowboy Cast balls also...Step Four. - you'll need 45-75 loading dies - we use RCBS 3 die set #19904 Legacy..with shell holder #31..you will have to lube brass. Step Five - obtain a good adjustable black powder -powder measure...I guess you could be anal enough to weigh each load too...or take your meds and you'll just need the adjustable measure - get one from Dixie Gun Works or Track of the Wolf Co. or Buffalo Arms or your local gun dealer usually has good brass hand held powder measures. about a $6.00 to $12.00 investment that should last you till the next century and beyond! Nice original American or English made graduated Brass/Bronze powder measures are often found at the local Gun Show - nice to have....You can also get a BLACK POWDER TRICKLER unit - around $100.00 and more ..also nice to have!
Here are some loads that worked WELL for US !
Loads we loaded with the 350 Grain Flat Nose Conical solid base Ball.
350 ball - 60 Grains GOI powder FFG. 2 inch group on center 50 yards.
this load is a low pressure low recoil - easy shooting good out to about 130 yds.
A drop of 7 to 9 inches was noted out at 130 yards. Good on White Tails and Coyote shooting. We tested shooting 3 round groups on 6 inch orange bulls eyes.
350 Ball - 65 Grains GOI powder FFG. 1 3/4 - 2 inch groups were common at 50 yds. -this load had basic same feel and flew much like the 60.grain load. about an 8 inch or a little less drop at 130 yards. A capable ball speed for effective Deer or Coyote hunting. Same load at 150 yards- about 12 inch drop-passed through a pine 1inch thick board with ease! Hole was round -no tumble load was still pleasant to shoot-recoil was noticeable -yet not a problem!
350 Ball - 70 Grains GOI Powder FFG. - 2 - 2 1/4 inch groups common at 50 yds about 1-1/12 inches higher on the bull. about a 7 - 8 inch drop at 130 yds. A 5 inch drop at 80 yds. This load is a hard hitter! recoil is w/in a level of comfort to shoot. Plenty of blue smoke - passes through two 1 inch pine boards with ease at 80 yards as well as 100 yards. A very capable load for Deer or Hogs or Elk hunting at over 100 yards...Good round hole at 100 yards - no tumble noted.
Deer Hunting at a little over 150 yards would be reasonable with this load.
350 Ball - 76 Grains GOI Powder FFG. - a 1 3/4 - 3 inch group at 50 yards common to the load. shot nearly 2 inches high at 50 yards..recoil was not unpleasant to shoot! Most other results were about the same as the 70 grain load. Would hit hard out to 200 yds. and very likely a little more! Passes through 2 1inch thick pine boards with ease at 130 yards, nice round hole! Easily would be Deer-Elk-Hog or Bear capable at 150 yards .... and would easily take a Bison at 225 yards or so..A big Bore Buffalo Hunting lever rifle.
A few notes about Pyrodex and Triple Seven!
The same tests were made by us loading Pyrodex as well as Triple Seven - both products are Black Powder Replicant propellant. Our results were fairly good with these "Fake" black powders - they do a good job too! We did experience a little faster flying ball with these powders about 80-110 fps faster at 65 Grain load with 350 Grain Ball loaded. The replicant powders do shoot a little cleaner and will make end of the shooting clean up a little easier! The replicant powders are noticeably higher cost then the real black powder (GOI) we used. Our groups did strike a little higher on our 6 inch bright orange stick on bulls eyes. We did notice a little higher degree recoil at 70 and 76 Grain Loads then we had with the real Black Powder loadings.
Testing the 300 Grain Ball Loads- Black Powder.
We tested the 300 Grain flat nose Conical Ball loaded with 70 grains as well as 76 grains of Black Powder. Groups when using the 350 Grain Ball were not quite as tight...However; the groups at all ranges we tested didn't stray greatly from the results we had with the 350 Grain Balls. Certainly the 300 Grain is a Fast flyer and had two 1 inch thick pine boards clean through shots at 130 as well as 150 yards! A Big Game capable load well out to 200 plus yards to be sure! A little more recoil was noticed for the 300 grain ball when fired with Pyrodex or Triple Seven loads! As with the 350 grain loads - the replicant Black powders did again clean up quicker/easier!
During all test shooting- we did run a wet patch and dry patch several times through the 28 inch rifle bbls. Done every other shot.
To sum up our testing results.... As you can see, we didn't bore you to death with alot of FPS as well as Breech pressures per load...WHY? Because our tests were made with newly made and mechanically sound modern steel rifles using only Black Rifle Power as well as Black Powder Replicants in Brass Cartridge hulls as designed by/for original use by Winchester in 1876 Rifles. NONE of the loads we used came near to being "Too Hot" or in any way a danger to you...that being said; start out with our lowest load and see how it works for you! Never Never use a black powder measure when loading smokeless modern powders - you'll blow your Fkn. head off - be smart act smart! Do not use these loads in an original 1876 Win. Rifle - not safe for you to use these in old original guns.
The 1876 Uberti Centennial 45-75 rifle is a great target and big game hunting rifle. The 76 Winchesters were not tack drivers off the sand bags at 200 yards as many of our modern rifles are today. The new 76 rifle reproductions aren't tack drivers either...but; they can be an effective long range (200 plus yards) hunting rifle with safe well made ammo and lots of practice shooting. The 76 45-75 is well made and a ton of fun to own and shoot. They also look great across a saddle in the western reenactors camp site! Be safe and enjoy.....
