Home Forums Lever Action Central Lever Actions - General Winchester 1895

Who hunts with theirs? Ive got a hankering for one in 30-06 for some reason. Looking hard at a browning.

I’ve had success with mine, a .405 variant. Has shot well out of the box. I added a pachmayer Old English pad which helped with the lop and softened the recoil a bit. I have a Williams FP receiver sight coming to add. Great rifle for most things I’ll use it for, with a great history to go with it.

Plenty of folks here that use one as well, see this discussion:

https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/topics/12143771/winchester-1895-new-pic

I read through that thread a good bit, sad thing is most of the pics didn't show up since I guess everyone used Photobucket. Figured if I go with a browning id have to get drilled and tapped for a Williams. The Williams work well on my other levers. Been thinking hard about a W71 but the 95 might be a little cheaper and easier to feed.

I see plain Brownings go for reasonable prices on GB. kaywoodie says they're good ones, and he should know.

Not that it's a complete deal breaker but Browning's biggest mistake on those was not drilling and tapping the receivers for common peep sights. You can't scope them unless you use some kludgy offset mount or scout scope and open sights are a bit hard for anything but young eyes to deal with. I know it's not a big deal but it's just extra expense and hopefully the gunsmith doesn't mess it up - and some folks with "Gunsmith" on their shingle just might. There are some modern ones made by Winchester or Browning (both are Miroku) that are d&t but I haven't figured out which ones, you just have to look at the pictures.

Other than that they're neat rifles. I had a 1927 .30 Gov't '06 for a while and it was a good shooter. Even with the crescent buttplate it didn't kick that bad.

There are two nice Browning 30-06's on GB right now with starting bids of $799 and $875 but neither is d&t.

https://www.gunbroker.com/item/775070822

https://www.gunbroker.com/item/775491025

Hunt with a Winchester 1895? Surely you jest!

See rifle in pic to your left.

I was looking at those two. The 799 one looks to be a good canditate to chop barrel to 20-22" and get drilled for peep. im not a fan of the tang safeties on the new ones. See what those 2 bring toward the end. If one works out ill have to pick yalls brain on who to do the work. I used to not have trouble with irons but hard to focus on 3 things now. All my rifles either wear irons or have QD rings with backup irons. I have a sweet 1B in 243 that is sightless but its my dedicated field hunting rifle so thats fine.

I have a 30-40 that I hunted with as a young man. The action is all orig but it has been rebarreled. The smith that did the work put a Readfield peep on it .

I used it as a primary big game rifle until I started hunting Elk . I then moved to a 06 bolt rifle. I have from time to time still hunted dear with it .

You can get a 1904 made 30/40 for $900

If you're gonna get a Japchester, you oughta at least make it look the part. This is the sight you need. http://www.peabodyrifle.com/sights.html

I mounted this Providence Tool Co. #21 copy on my 80’s Vintage Browning.



Now!!!!! If you decide to do this you will and I say again, YOU WILL need to fabricate a front sight blade that is this high,



In order to get it to sight in.

This is because the manufacturer made the aperture base high enough to use one of the Marbles 3/4” screw in apertures. And you have to tap their aperture yourself if you want to use a screw in. They do not provide the screw in aperture. And if you want to use a screw in aperture you best use a Marbles as they are 10x32 thread. Lyman is a real bastid of a thread.



Now the quality of the Brownings and Japchesters to me is top notch. But what do I know?

.35 WCF

South Texas hunting weekend. ( just ignore the other guns).

Fine specimens sir. Im a fan of model 12 myself. Have a 1958 duck gun and a 62 16ga. The krag and the remington in .35 have always been on my bucket list

Thanks phoneman! Thats a 1923 vintage 12 and the model 81 and 94 are young son’s. That 12 is my fav quail gun.

95 SRC is 1915 vintage and in .30 US Army ctg.

I took my 16 to arkansas 2 years ago and shot ducks on the side of the Cache. Those little green $1.50 bismuth shells added up quickly. They dont make em like that anymore

Interesting - I have a Winchester repro in 405 Win with the Providence Tool #21 sight and it sighted in fine for me with the factory front sight.

I don't know how old you are or how your eyes are so this may be completely irrelevant, if so then never mind...

That said, I'm 65 and definitely have presbyopia (old eyes) but have been doing a lot of shooting with peep sights the last few years. They work great as long as the front sight is far enough away from my eyes to be in focus, which in general terms means a barrel/receiver combo about 29" long - that's what a bolt action with a 22" barrel or an 1885 single shot with a 28" barrel runs. A small target aperture allows a shorter length but then that's not well suited for field work.

Which is a long way of getting to the point that if you shorten the barrel it will produce a much handier rifle but may be counter-productive to the sight picture. I looked hard at the Browning/Miroku 1895's for peep sight shooting precisely because they have a longish receiver with a 24" barrel that gets that front sight out there far enough for a really good focus. Not trying to say "do it my way" since again, this may not apply to you at all.

Either way, let us know if you get one. Those Brownings are nice rifles, I personally don't have a thing against rifles made in Japan. My 1885 is made by Miroku and and the fit, finish and accuracy is top notch. I've put both of those auctions on "watch" to see what those 1895's will bring these days.

It may depend on the rifle. I'm used to hunting with shorter rifles but there is a happy medium. My guide gun is handy, but sometimes I wish it had a 22" barrel like the full size. Id deffinitly like a peep on the 95. I guess it would depend how it feels when I got it in my hands. I have found that I can shoot a sourdough type sight more accurately with a peep than a bead type. I prefer a bead with a reg barrel sight though. I do fine with irons as long as I have good light, but prime time here in SC is dusk or dawn and it makes seeing those irons mighty tough. I had a Williams on my guide gun but decided to go with a 1.5-5 leupy with QD rings and reg barrel sights. I can raise and lower easier if I wanna shoot farther. I figured with the 30-06 and a 95, I could sight 1.5 high at 100 and be good for as far as I could see to shoot anyway. Put it on the shoulder and squeeze.

Does the 95's tend to shoot heavy bullets well? Id like to try some 220's. I like heavy for caliber bullets.

Yeah! I understand that the manufacturer changed the aperture holder thingy on their sights not long back. Mebbe a year or so? Because I took a pair of their sights off of a pair of a customers Japchesters about 4 ot 5 years ago and the old sights were a bit different (more Lyman-ish) than the pair I received back in February. Below is a shot of the manufacturer’s “caveat” card that came with the sights.