Winchester-Lee Navy

[rayg]

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. ".

S&S firearms has remake extractors with the spring for the Win Lee. Ray
http://www.ssfirearms.com/download%20catalog.htm

[jmoore]

Pic of Winchester Lee on SMLE forum under remington Lees

[oldhoodoo1]

Just out of interest, does anyone make dies and brass for these? Is safe reloading info available for the .236?

Phil Seiss at S&S is a great guy. He helped me with "The Winchester-Lee Rifle" book. He has reproduced many of the impossible to find W-L parts.

I have seen Mike Kokolus (Michael M. Kokolus Custom Gun Stock Duplicating) repro Winchester-Lee stock at the Syracuse, NY Gunshow and it is also top notch. I have ordered one from him to restock my first Winchester-Lee. The wood has been cut down and sanded to a sporter - sort of. It is the rifle that started me on my quest for Winchester-Lees so after almost 50 years it will be restored.

GeneM
The Winchester-Lee Rifle
The Remington-Lee Rifle

GeneM:
I think I may have ordered your book the other day from Amazon. I just rec'd today (I know it is four months from your post) an 1895 Winchester Lee second contract....but no extractor or spring. The bolt just fell out!
However, I looked up your reference to S and S and they have a reproduction part. I have written my own book and know exactly how
folks can help (and how hard it is).
I am a bit curious if the second contract, ordered on February 7, 1898, just a week before the Maine blew up (odds are it wasn't a mine or a coal fire--think I have it figured out), saw delivery before the end of the war (but I guess I can wait for the book to come in).
My stock seems like very good quality wood and is old, but is awful rough, not sure if it because it has dried out or maybe Banner replaced the stocks...fit seems good. I bought the rifle because I have never gotten to even handle one and am about to finish a book on the USS Texas (1898ish Texas) which includes significant support of the Marines at Guantanamo. Have written an article on the Colt Automatic Machine Gun (used by the Navy/Marines with the Lee) at the spanish american war centennial site.
My published book is Battleflags of Texans in the Confederacy, Eakin Press, 1995 (yeah I am from Texas ya'll). Thanks for the referral on the parts. Interestingly I found an 1898 Article on the Lee which I contributed to the SpanAmWar website that mentions that it was easy to allow the bolt to fall out and when it did the extractor would fall out and get lost! Here I go and buy a rifle with just that problem...and I can see how easy it is to drop the bolt, just as described in the article! Look forward to your book...maybe it's in the mailbox now, going to go check! I always get a book after I buy a gun...sometimes wish though that I had bought the book BEFORE buying the gun.

Al Sumrall
alsumrall2001@yahoo.com

[KenK]

Try S&S firearms parts. They have lots of Win Lee Navy repro parts. Download the catalog and look for the Win Lee parts on pg 26, Ray

Download Catalog

A frrind just bought a Lee Navy cut down. Third shot the firing pin broke. The above link provided us with two new origional pins. We were very pleased. I did weld up the one that broke but now he has a couple of spares. His rifle Serial # 16708 has a star on most parts. Anyone know what the star was for?

[rayg]

I believe the star is a Winchester proof mark. Ray

[KenK]

I believe the star is a Winchester proof mark. Ray

Thanks.

[rayg]

I finally had some fairly good weather and went to the range to fire my Win Lee Navy to try out 20, 6mm rds from Buffalo and 20 rds from Obsolete ammo. Both lots being made from reworked 25/06 cases. A very generous gentleman had purchased twenty loaded rds from Buffalo Arms and also twenty from Obsolete Ammo and had them sent them to me in appreciation for finding a upper forearm for his Win. Lee Navy. I can't say enough of that generousity.
Anyway, I first fired two rds from the buffalo ones and both of them had split necks so I stopped shooting them imediately. The primers did not show any excessive pressure.
I then fired the twenty rds from obsolete Ammo and they performed nicely. As good as my old eyes could see the front sight. The groups weren't too bad from the bench with the forearm resting on a sand bag and you can see the lower shots were my sighting errors in not having the same high/low sight picture. I believe if I had a sled or a rear bag the groups would have really closed up. No split necks on those.

I pulled the Buffalo bullets and anealed the necks on the Buffalo ones as the only thing I can think of is when they resized the cases to 6mm, they didn't aneal the necks and the brass had gotten too hard from being reworked.
After which, I examined them and about 90% of the cases, even though unfired, had fine hair line cracks in the necks. The cracks were either there before I annealed them or the heat from the annealing them brought out the cracks the same as if you fired them.
Some of the cracks are hard to see in the photo but they are there. I will toss all the cases as I don't want to take a chance shooting any of them.
I advised the gentleman who purchased the cartridges from Buffalo arms to contact them and let them know of the problem and seek a refund or credit from them as the cartridgs were not cheap.

Also I had purchased a extractor from S&S a while ago as the one that was in the rifle had apparently broke and was repaired so I wanted one that didn't show repairs. The S&S one was in the rifle when I was shooting and it was extracting the cases but was not kicking the cases out of the rifle. I put the original one back in and it kicked the cases out real good about two feet out.
The spring on the repro is not strong enough to throw the cases out and it is made different in that the spring is located on the rear of the extractor were as the spring on the original is on the front of the extractor and is a much stronger spring.

[jon_norstog]

ray,

looks like the rifle is shooting pretty well. Those groups would be OK at 100 yds from any military rifle, and yours will probably tighten up after 50-100 rounds. Supposedly you can make 6mm Lee cases by expanding the neck on .220 Swift. You might give it a try?

Bet you were the only shooter on the raNGE with one of those!

jn

[rayg]

jon that is only 50yrs and they measured 2-1/4" . That would'nt be that great if you doubled it for 100yrds. But then, we're not talking 3 or 5 shot groups but 9 and 10 shots. Considering that many rds were fired per group, that wouldn't be too bad.
I'm sure someone with younger eyes could really close up the shot groups.
I have 50, 220 cases that the same gentleman sent me also and I shot a few of them to see how they work before I shot the Buffalo and Obsolete ones. The 220 cases worked real well. I use just .243 dies for neck sizing for both the 25/06 cases and the 220 ones, Ray

[jon_norstog]

Ray,

here's a tip for "old eyes." Go to the drugstore and get some weak reading glasses, strong enough to sharpen up your close-up vision, not strong enough to make your distance vision too blurry. I use the 1s.

Use a match to blacken up the front sight.

I'll bet that will help you get the best out of that old rifle!


jn