Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Single Shots Any Lightweight High Walls?

I have an 1885 Browning .45-70. Very well made and accurate but way heavier than I prefer for hunting.

Does anyone know of any lightweight ones?

Does anyone rebarrel them?

Thanks,

Gary

Gary,

If you could find one of the older B-78's in .45/70, I'd think they'd be a bit lighter. They only had 24" barrels. Downside is that cresent butt...

GH

H&R Handi Rifle.

What weight is"light weight"?

I had an original that was fairly light. It was chambered for .30-40 Krag and had a fairly small diameter, round, 24" barrel. I never shot it 'cause it came to me with a busted firing pin I was unable to locate a replacement for. Rumor was that with the crescent butt plate it kicked pretty badly. Today, seein' how the .30-40 is not much more than a .30-30, I don't imagine it was really all that bad, just a lot of trash talk before trash talk was "in."

Cabela's gun library still has a few Miroku-made High Walls. I see you're in Portland. Last time I was in, the Springfield store had the carbines in .30-40, .38-55, and .45-70. I considered picking up a .30-40, tossing the 16-1/4" barrel, and having my gunsmith install something between 22 and 26 inches long.

Tom

Had one.....briefly. That buttplate, off the bench with 405gr. Rem. factory loads was absolute murder; like being tomahawked.

I was thinking a rebarrel to an '06 based cartridge. The current .45-70 chambering might limit me from doing so.

I do have a friend with a B-78 in .30-06. Not a lightweight and he has big glass on it but it has a regular buttpad on it.

7.5 lbs without a scope would probably be as heavy as I would go for.

Winchester themselves made the High Wall in a "lightweight" version, just not very many of them. I've had two original 1885s that had the High Wall "scalloped" receiver fitted with a 28" #1 sized barrel that was generally fitted to Low Wall receivers. One was in .22 WCF (black powder grandfather of the .22 Hornet); the other was in .38-40.

Neither of these appeared to be special order, at least they didn't have any other special features besides the lightweight barrel. But of course you could order just about anything in those days. Still have the .38-40; killed a nice fork whitetail with it about ten years ago in upstate NYS.

I found this gun abandoned in a collapsed line shack in the Ruby Mtns. in NV back in the mid-1950s. It had been "stored" by covering it with heavy grease and wrapping it in a burlap sack, then stuffing it along a rafter under the eaves. When I took off all the hardened grease, it was nearly new, and still is.

Thanks for the info. I would like more manufacturers to have reasonably priced custom shops like Savage.

Odd you should mention the .22 WCF. I have a reloading tool for one I got from my FIL. It has the bullet mold and all.

His FIL had a bunch of older stuff but most of the better ones went to other relatives as my FIL wasn't much of a hunter.
He did keep a 4 shot Sharps Derringer that his oldest boy has.
I got a .410 bolt and a .22 tuber feed semi aut both Coast to Coast brand.

.22 WCF was more popular in Europe than here; they called it "5.35 Vierling" in German because it was used as the fourth barrel in some of their 4-barrel guns ("Vierlings").

But it was much more common in single shot rifles and combination rifle/shotguns. When they referred to it in English in their catalogs, they called it ".22 Winchester." The black powder and equivalent smokeless loads were equivalent to a .22 WRM in power.

Most .22 WCFs made by Winchester were 1885 Low Walls, but there were also High Walls made, both with the lightweight #1 barrels mentioned above and the regular heavy #3 barrels (and some #2 barrels!). As far as I know, no repeating .22 WCFs were ever made, by anyone. But who REALLY knows?

The barrels are usually ruined by corrosive primers and "hunt hard and put away wet" with black powder; very rare to find one with a decent bore (but you can reline them with a .22 Hornet liner just fine).

I was actually going to start a similar post. A fellow gave me a 1885 7mm rem mag which shoots well enough. It sports a 28 inch barrel. I have never much favored the 7 mag and I know nothing about the 1885s yet so I don't claim any knowledge. From the little I have read, the 7mm mag doesn't need more than about 24 inches of barrel which would make it lighter and better balanced - but maybe a bit noisier? Because I don't need long shots, I was going to hand-load 139 grain interlocks in the range of speedy 7x57 velocity which should cut down noise. I am not recoil sensitive, but would like to keep some hearing. Should I have the barrel cut and crowned or not?

This old custom high wall sports a 22" half octagon barrel, in .45-90. It weighs about 7.5 lbs, as you see it.

Recoil with 500gr blackpowder loads are authoritative, but not bad.



A while back on GB was a thin side High Wall, in .38-40 IIRC, that had the action ground down so it was the same thickness across the whole length. Interesting looking rifle, but I'm not sure I'd try it with a powerful caliber.

Less than 9 pounds bare.

That is a cool story. I never get that lucky. I once found a Zebco 33 in the middle of the woods. Never have figured that out. Wasn't any water around within 5 miles.

Have C.Sharps build you a custom on their action..

http://csharpsarms.com/catalog.php

Or buy just their action or barreled action and have someone else build it..

Not cheap though..

Really "not cheap," but the cheapest way to get a new High Wall that is really close to an original Winchester.

The foreign copies work fine but are all slightly to very different from the originals. C. Sharps is very close to an original coiled-mainspring Winchester. Their receivers are like the original flatsided early models, which are very rare with original coiled mainsprings, tho. Not unknown, but rare.

I bought this heavy barrel 30-30 Uberti 1885 high wall clone new in 2005 and never fired it.
In 2012 I pulled the barrel and put on a Shilen Stainless select match #3 taper 257 barrel and cut a 257 Roberts Ackley Improved rimmed chamber. I made a for stock. I made a scope mount/ bipod mount tube.

It pushes a 115 gr 257 Ballistic tip a 3050 fps.
With scope, sling, bipod, cheekrest, rear bag, and ammo it is still under 10 pounds.

It shoots great. I shot a few deer in 2012 with it, out to 400 yards. I could use new stocks. I would like to go to an AR15 tube type for stock.

When you cut the extractor relief on the breech of an 1885 barrel it will test your skill on the mill.

Love to see a picture of that one.....