Winchester-Lee Navy

C&H Die has the dies but they are pricey ($78.25) and Buffalo Arms carries brass made from 25/06 cases at $34.00 per twenty.
As to safe reloading, I've not seen any current data so its kinda feel your way. Best of luck with this fine old soldier




Welcome to CH Tool & Die / 4D Custom Die
6mm Lee Navy Cases-Obsolete Cases-Obsolete Brass

Art

PS... by the way Phil at S&S is a top flight guy. You can't go wrong there. Also, Check out the premier book on the rifle "The Winchester-Lee Rifle" by Eugene Myszkowski (GeneM) another great guy and a wonderful source of information.

You can do it by reforming .220 Swift brass. Dies are available by special order from RCBS.

N-Frame;
I'd really like to see photos when you have completed your project.

I've read that some Winchester Lee rifles were cut down while still in service, due to warped fore ends beyond the lower band.
These were used as range rifles I think.

If that story is correct some Winchester Lees that appear Bubba'ed may in fact be historically correct modifications.

Any body ever shoot one of these? Seems like every one I've looked at is either broken, missing parts, or just too rough to mess with!

I had one that was restored including re-blued. I had no choice because the whole affair was so thrashed to begin with. The parts were all there but the stock had to be made new. I sent it to a man called Harvey Trace in Edmonton Ab. and he pantographed me one. I have heard that he handed the business to his son some years ago. I did have some finishing wood work to do but it wasn't bad. I shot it, it was a sporter, using ammo I loaded by neck re-sizing in 220 Swift dies. I used the original bullets until I ran out. Then I used 223 bullets. I used original brass bought where ever I could find it. I used 3031 dupont (at the time), 30 grains. Some of the bullets vaporised on the way to the target with a black puff of smoke and I think this was from their construction and the velocity. That would be the old round nose soft point. The ones that struck target at 200 yards were authoritative.(steel plate) I eventually sold the rifle to a collector who needed it far worse than I did.

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Originally Posted by jmoore

Any body ever shoot one of these? Seems like every one I've looked at is either broken, missing parts, or just too rough to mess with!

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According to the Marines who used them in the Spanish American War, the Lee was a great rifle as long as you didn't pull out the bolt, something that you apparently could do in the heat of battle. Then what happened is you lost the extractor in the grass/dirt/sand.

The Spanish Commander at Guantanamo said in his report, one of the reasons he abandoned his position was that the Americans had machine guns!

jn

Looked at one yesterday that's in nice shape except the extractor juts flops about when the bolt is pulled back, apparently some little leaf sring is gone from the rear of the extractor. Anyway, its the best built design disaster I've seen in a military rifle accected for service! Yikes!!! Its so bad that its intriguing. Don't know price yet, though, enthusiasm may evaporate quickly if its too many "monies".

I just got one a couple of weeks ago. Complete and original but not as nice as I was expecting from the sellers description. It is cleaning up pretty nice though, the bore is not melted at all but it is dirty. Still have to pull the action out of the stock and detail that, took me a few hours to figure out how to get the bolt out and back in and also to strip it down and clean and lubricate it. Sort of reminds me of cleaning up my frist CMP Garand, just dirty and grungy from storage.

Just got the book from Amazon and leafed through it. Talked to Buffalo and all of thier 6mm Lee Navy reloading/ammo items are in stock. This is fun! :rofl:

The one I'm lusting after has a great bore, except for the last 3/8" or so. Ran the bore scope in from the muzzle- no fouling, sharp riflling, only the teenest bit of pitting. Eyeballed the breech end as the locking surface is above bore centerline; don't want to bend ste scope! Dunno if I'll end up w/ it- plenty of things on my plate already.