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Writer's pictureCoastal Defense

Making .50-95 Winchester cases

By Jim



A while back I bought some cases from Jamison for my reproduction Winchester 1876. Unfortunately the company is now defunct, and finding cases to load for this rifle is like finding teeth in a chicken. So today I decided to make a few to reload.





I started off with a box of MagTech 32 gauge brass shotshells. With a bit of work, they will fit just fine. When you have a firearm that’s basically a paperweight until you make ammo, you do what you have to.




I begin by inserting a metal rod that just slips into the case and I chuck it in my lathe. I remove ten thousandths off the outside of the case so it can fit in the chamber of the rifle.





Here you can see the rough turned case.






After polishing out the machine marks and smoothing the case, I use Dykem blue to set the case length for trimming.





After trimming the case, and removing the Dykem, I run the case through the full length sizing die. Usually I need to anneal the cases first, but the .50-95 doesn’t have much of a shoulder. There’s not a lot of metal displacement.





The unmodified Magtech brass hull next to a modified .50-95 case.






Fortunately for my particular rifle, no modifications needed to be done for the rim thickness or rim diameter. Your mileage may vary depending on your particular rifle. The Jamison brass has a rim thickness of .052” and a diameter of .622”. The Magtech has a rim thickness of .047” and a rim diameter of .625”. Keep in mind that a lever action cartridge such as this headspace’s off the rim thickness. The Magtech brass uses a large pistol primer instead of a rifle primer. There’s enough firing pin protrusion to reliably ignite the pistol primers, as they are not as sensitive as some rifle primers can be.


I don’t know how well these would work in an original 1876, but they’re fine in my reproduction model.


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