Home Forums Hunting & Shooting BPCR Taylor's Reproduction Spencer Rifle in 56-50 Centerfire

Recently discovered my GG Uncle was a sniper in the Civil War and he used a "7 shooter" Spencer. He was infantry with the 100th Pennsylvania Roundheads from late summer 1861 until his capture in the Fall of 1864 in South Carolina. He writes in a letter home after the "Battle of the Crater" at Petersburg that he fired 100 rounds of ammunition that day and "I took my time to it".
Now I have been bitten by the urge to acquire a Spencer. After doing a little research , I was pleased to find that Taylor's is having repros made in carbine and rifle , albeit centerfire.
I am hungry for any and all info on loads for this cartridge , both black and smokeless. Anyone reading this that owns or has shot the Spencer repro , please respond. Thanks in advance!

Trapper, You're not going to get a great deal of response on this, if for no other reason there be few if any here who have had this little beauty in hand and heard the boom.

I know bupkis about the Spencer Rifle but appreciate your interest in such things. I do know a little about BP cartridges and the good news is that they are not terribly cranky about loading for general applications. Cartridges of the BP era were typically named by caliber and charge weight. EX: .25-20 Single Shot, .32-40, .38-55, .45-70 etc. The last number is where you focus for load data,assuming you are using a bullet of appropriate design and weight. So, given the .56-50 Spencer...
you might start looking here . Or here.

Not terribly complicate this. Somewhere around 350 grains of soft lead, properly fitted your chamber/bore, add somewhere around 40-50 grains of 2F or 3F BP and rock on.

Smokeless loads, well, you're on your own with that most likely. No matter, you'll have more fun with BP anyway.

Best to you,

Dan

PS: If you click on the individual images in the second link they will present in larger format. Click again and you will often be forwarded to a web page wherein the picture originated and find yourself in the middle of a gun looney discussion on the topic.

Never understood why it is called a .56-50. It's bullet is .50 caliber, not .56. The .56 was the diameter of the case at the base.

Might just depend on whose book a fella has been reading?

You might want to look up the CAS City Forums, they have a separate Spencer section.
It sort of sounds like as with many of Taylors stuff quality is hit and miss..

http://www.cascity.com/forumhall/index.php?board=35.0

There are some Spencer repros out on GB right now in .44-40 and .45 Colt. I also recall Chiappa sold some in .44 Russian, which combined with a #3 S&W would be a unique combo

I've never heard of a .56-50 centerfire in a revolver, so you lose a bit of the flexibility of a combo rifle/revo in the same caliber

The intrigue me, but they are not cheap rifles. I've no idea how strong the new ones are, so I'd be nervous about a "Ruger only" .45 Colt load getting aboard.

I had a Cimarron .56-50 carbine (made by the same people who make the Taylor's) that I got a year ago. A friend was settling an estate of a gun collector and gave it to me for a good price. It was unfired and came with a box of Black Dog cartridges.

I got some brass and dies from TOTW and some bullets from Buffalo Arms. I didn't load any BP as my plan was to become familiar with it and them sell it. It was fun: The trigger pull was heavy (about 7 pounds) but crisp and I was happy with the accuracy, especially with the 1860-era sights and the cartridge ballistics. You had to work the lever with authority to ensure reliable ejection and feeding.

The CAS City forums that Ranch13 mentioned has a lot of useful information and got me started. Cartridge OAL is important, but I didn't run into any problems with the Starline brass and BA 350-grain bullets.

I sold the carbine this summer, but I'm sure glad we spent some time together.

Thank you folks!
I just took a peek at the CAS City site and can't wait to dive in and check that one out! Many thanks!

C.W. spencers were 56-56 the 56-50 came out to late to see much if any C.W. service.