Episode 062: Russian Winchester 1895
Added 2017-10-24 02:18:44 +0000 UTCOh man, I'm exhausted already and estimate some 250-300 hours work needed before November 10th to be ready for a big machine gun filming segment.
PLEASE let it all go smoothly for once!
Thanks everyone for making the effort worth it.
Comments
One would hope! =8-o
Bruce Brodnax
2017-11-04 01:42:57 +0000 UTCThere was some limited use of Berdan rifles by finnish army during winter war. 3100 Berdans were still in finnish army inventory at the beging of winter war but i think those were used by very rear echeclon troops...
eRahja
2017-10-30 11:17:16 +0000 UTCBruce, while I think your reasoning is going in what what could have been an interesting direction, I think one of the major deficiencies for martial use of the Savage platform was the 99 was designed for wha5 would be termed, oddly enough, .308 sized cartridges. I don’t know if the 95 was large enough to accommodate the considerable longer cartridges of the turn of the century. It’s an interesting point of history, that later 19th and first half of the 20th Century occurred an explosion of experimentation in cartridge design. While the 250 Savage was renamed the 250-3000 Savage to denote its achievement of being the worlds first factory chambered cartridge to achieve 3000 FPS, to achieve this feat in the early 20th Century, it had to be loaded with I believe, a relatively light bullet of 87 gr. I don’t know how suitable this would be for martial use. Oddly, the 250-300 was predated by what would be considered an odd for the day, dual purpose round, the to our eyes, odd appearing 22 High Power. To the best of my memory, it was suitable for loading light weight bullets fir small game, another light weight bullet at considerably more velocity to “varmint hunt” and a heavy long bullet considered by some of the time suitable for hunting small deer and antelope. I was lucky enough to know someone who had Savage 99 rifles in both the 250-300 and 22 High-Power. Shooting either one was a pretty enjoyable experience. It’s somewhat amusing that the to some degree, the interest in varmint hunting with archaic cartridges such as the High Power, the 218 bee, prompted interest to develop such rounds as the 22-250 (a 22 caliber round based upon the 250-3000, I’ve been told) to the super fast and flat shooting 220 Swift that exceeded 4000 FPS. My friend who owned the Savages and various varmint rifles, was also a benchrest shooter, who told me that the search for a mild-shooting, accurate varmint round lead to the .222 Remington, Which seems to have also lead to the .223 Remington, Which, in turn has lead to the .556 NATO.
Charles Adams
2017-10-29 23:22:14 +0000 UTCI think I remember reading that some Savages were issued to lumber guards in the Pacific NorthWet during WW1? [Wood was a vulnerable and critical war material during both world wars...] Savage was too busy with martial orders to make up any new 99s during the war years, they were from inventory or assembled from parts on hand, I should think.
Bruce Brodnax
2017-10-29 22:30:59 +0000 UTCStaggering to think that the Russian Berdan rifles got dragged out of storage and used in WW1, when they were obsolescent at the time of their original adoption 40 years previously!
Bruce Brodnax
2017-10-29 22:27:24 +0000 UTCRegrettably, U.S. Ordnance was committed to the .30" bore when NATO was attempting to decide upon a unified cartridge, so they started with the 300 Savage & stretched it slightly to make the 308Win/7.62NATO, instead of just beginning & ending with the 250 Savage, which is what they woulda/coulda/shoulda done. We could have been saved the whole "5.56 vs. 7.62" debate and all the wasted ammo & resources in the intervening years. C'est la guerre! ;-)
Bruce Brodnax
2017-10-29 22:24:32 +0000 UTCI hope you can get an opportunity to go over one of the Savage rifles. I’ve seen pics of the musket model, but I have always heard they were quite rare. As far as a sporting arm, they made a very light and trim Featherweight model, the one I handled and shot was in 250-000, which was a revolutionary cartridge when it was introduced.
Charles Adams
2017-10-25 17:02:39 +0000 UTCThank you for this episode it's great. Now finaly there is "russian" weapons. Hopefully there will be berdan episode.
eRahja
2017-10-25 09:28:04 +0000 UTCThe Savage did see some home guard use in Canada, but that's about it I'm afraid. I wish I could find otherwise because it would be fun to take out for this series.
C&Rsenal
2017-10-25 03:40:45 +0000 UTCI get nervous when I have 0 downtime before an event. Makes me think I'm going to miss something.
C&Rsenal
2017-10-25 03:39:27 +0000 UTCCertainly better than any of the other second standard guns.
C&Rsenal
2017-10-25 03:38:27 +0000 UTCno thank you
C&Rsenal
2017-10-25 03:38:08 +0000 UTCGlad you're pleased
C&Rsenal
2017-10-25 03:38:01 +0000 UTCAnother excellent video. Glad you covered this rifle, as I wanted to hear your evaluation of the rifle. Unlike many, I don’t know the reference to the video game, as I don’t play video games, however, I was around in the 70’s, 80’s and even into the 90’s when you’d think it’d be possible to find one of these, but alas, they were rare as hens teeth. I guess it’d be sacrilegious to C&R types, but it was for the reason to convert it to shoot the 405 Winchester. Even though it’s not military use, I knew some fisheries biologists who worked summers in Alaska, and related to me that Alaskans were crazy for Winchester 1896 in the 405 caliber. Supposedly it was pretty resistant to being tossed around and the rigors of Alaskan life and duties such as moose and caribou hunting, but in that caliber, it was considered a pretty good rifle for near defense. I wasn’t living in Alaska, but I liked big bore lever actions, and my friends 1895 Win was a lot lighter than my 1886 Win, Which was a heavy beast. One other thing, the 1895 Win May have been the “best” lever action, in 1895, but from the specimens I’ve handled and shot, the 1899 Savage is the better than the Winchester, for a sporting arm. I don’t think you could consider it a martial rifle, except very limited and special circumstances. Still, the scope of this show in NOT sporting arms, and I defer to y’all’s definitively greater and more studied judgement. Your work makes me glad that I’m a Patreon supporter. Thanks for all your efforts and labors. I can’t
Charles Adams
2017-10-25 02:47:59 +0000 UTCOthais you should be coming around to the notion that work virtually never goes easily or smoothly! However, we will pray for you as you slip ever further down that dark tunnel of stress induced insanity. LUCK in November may you be granted a one time exemption!
Mustafa's Fleas
2017-10-24 22:46:17 +0000 UTCSuspect Mae meant *millimeters* when she was talking about the trigger pull... ;-)
Bruce Brodnax
2017-10-24 17:30:51 +0000 UTCThe Win95 is surprisingly resilient: IRtv mud test -- <a href="https://www.full30.com/video/2084c0d03050c244adabe84e2fc0e685" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.full30.com/video/2084c0d03050c244adabe84e2fc0e685</a>
Bruce Brodnax
2017-10-24 17:26:04 +0000 UTCI’m a Russian soldier in 1916....Hmmmm a brand new lever gun in main line ammo or an old black powder slugger....I will take the 95 and learn to clean it....even over a mn91
Ben Clayton
2017-10-24 10:47:05 +0000 UTCThanks again!
Spencer R
2017-10-24 06:32:28 +0000 UTCOMG C&R SANTA CAME EARLY THIS WEEK! MY DAY IS 100x BETTER NOW!
SteelN’Anchor
2017-10-24 02:21:15 +0000 UTC
