Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Safe Loads for 33 WCF

I'm getting setup to load for a 1886 winchester in 33 WCF. A local gunsmith recommended starting with 32 grs. of IMR3031 with a RCBS 338-200 bullet.Does this sound like good advice?Has anyone had any experiance loading the 33 WCF? I want to keep the loads light the rifle is one that was made in the mid 1890's and rebarrelled sometime in the early 1900's with a modern steel barrel.Any information is greatly appreciated.

GMTHunter-

There's a pretty good discussion of the 33 Winchester and 1886 rifle in Handloader No.65 from 1977.

Recent Hornady manuals list several loads with their jacketed flat nose bullet made especially for the .33 Winchester.

Some cast-bullet experts may come along and help with your RCBS 200-grain bullets.

--Bob

Mike Venturino recommended 22.0 grains of Accurate XMP 5744 powder under the RCBS #33-200 gas checked bullet. This produced 1635 fps with 14 fps variation. 5 shot groups @ 100 yards were 2.75 inches and 3.38 inches.

For Hornady's discontinued #3315 .338 cal. flat nose 200 grain jacketed bullet, he recommended 48.0 grains Hodgdon H4350. This produced 1957 fps and 36 fps variation. 5 shot groups @ 100 yards were 2.13 and 2.75 inches.

Both loads used Winchester Large Rifle Primers.

Cases used were Federal .45-70 brass reformed to .33 WCF

Above was taken from page 184 of Shooting Lever Guns of the Old West by Mike Venturino.

You might also want to try Paco Kelly's Leverguns Forums as well as Cast Boolits Forums for more load information.