I have become a bit of a nut in the past few years of the Model 1895 Winchester and Browning versions thereof. I have a great shooting Browning in .30-40 Krag, a Winchester in .405 Win, my 3rd!
Been thinking of getting one of the newer made Miroku rifles in .30-06 which are making the rounds again finally. Had also been sort of keen on getting one in .35 Winchester but ammo is old, scarce and very costly, :eek:brass the same. About the only way to get brass is roll your own either from also scarce .405 Win brass, or form it from .30-40 Krag, which works but the cases will be short.
But then I saw this pop up the other day on Gunbroker. Its a Browning version that had been rebarreled by Harry McGowen to .35 Whelen. Pad added with LOP of 14", about right. Also has a Williams Peep sight added, another plus as Browning versions, at least grade 1 were not drilled for sights.
I plan to load this to more or less .35 Win ballistics which are about on par with the .358 Winchester. Believe the rifle would handle Whelen factory loads allright and will probably shoot some that I have with 200 gr bullets (Remington) for the brass, but no plan to try to shoot full house Whelen loads in it, certainly nothing like some of our Whelen brothers from Down Under.
Nice thing about the Browning versions is no tang safety or rebounding hammer as the Miroku Win versions all have. I sent a picture of the barrel markings to McGowen and they verified by those markings that it was done by Harry McGowen himself and not a later job by the current company. Harry died in 2014.
Here is a pic of it and will repost when I have the rifle in hand. Should be a funner!
My max bid held by $5!
