GUNS Magazine .405 Winchester Model 1895

Specs

Winchester devised their .405 and introduced it in 1904. It uses a straight case 2.58″ long with bullets of 0.411″. Nominal factory load velocity was 2,200 fps. The .405 case is almost the same as the old .40-70 Sharps Straight from the mid-1870s which had a 2.50″ case length with nominal 0.403″ bullets. It’s obvious Winchester made its .405 case a mite longer and bullets much larger in diameter to preclude someone getting them chambered in Sharps, Remington or Ballard single shots.

From the very beginning I was disappointed in my .405’s 100-yard groups. With my own handloads or factory loads, most five shots clustered into 4″ or more. This is despite the fine Lyman No. 38 peep sight my ’95 wears. Originally, I assumed blame, thinking I was probably flinching due to heavy recoil. No matter how hard I concentrated on making a decent trigger pull, groups were never tight — then I got my hands on one of the Japanese-made ’95 .405s.

Even with its open sights, the rifle gave groups in the 2″ to 3″ range. Cast bullets measuring 0.411″ were tried in both rifles. They shot decently in the Miroku but still nothing improved with my .405. In fact, some of those cast bullets keyholed (tumbled), a sure sign of undersize bullets.

That spurred me into slugging the barrel groove diameter. The first slug came out at 0.413″. I tried again. This slug was 0.413″. One more time — the third slug was 0.413″. No wonder my rifle delivered only mediocre groups; jacketed bullets were 0.002″ undersize. So in my infinite wisdom, I called my friends over at Buffalo Arms who make custom bullet molds. My request was for a 300/310-grain flat nose bullet dropping from the mold with a minimum diameter of 0.413″. Those bullets were loaded over various charges of 5744 and instantly, good groups began happening. I settled on a charge of 26 grains for a velocity of about 1,400 fps that makes for very comfortable shooting. I finally began to like my .405.

BuffaloArms.com

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