I have a hankering for an 1873 in .45 Colt and the new Mirokou Winchester 1873s look to be pretty nice. Anybody here have experience with them?

I have a Miroku 1873 in .357 magnum and a Miroku 1866 in .44-40. They are both well-made rifles.
My .45 Colt rifles are a Winchester (Miroku) 1892 and an Uberti 1866.

If you want to shoot +P or +P+ rounds you are going to want an 1892 or 1894 rifle. The others are fine for standard loads.

Can't recall, but does Miroku put a tang safety on the 73?

On the receiver’s right, a blued steel loading gate allows loading 10 rounds of .357 Mag. or 11 rounds of .38 Spl. into the under-barrel tubular magazine. At present, that is the only chambering. The tang is pre-drilled and tapped for an optional aperture rear sight. You will not find one of those obnoxious thumb safeties on this model; it has the original Winchester lever disconnect safety as well as a new firing pin block with a striker that prevents the firing pin from moving forward unless the trigger is pulled. The new ’73 maintains the classic lines and features of the original.

I have a Miroku '73 in .44-40. After looking at a Uberti in the store I ordered a Miroku. I firmly believe they make the best factory made levergun today.
My 1873 was slick out of the box. I pulled it apart and there really wasnt anything that needed tuned or tweaked, it was ready to go. The Miroku 73's do not have a manual safety.

I also have a Miroku 92 in .45 Colt, it's great but has a generous sized chamber. Sooty cases unless I'm shooting full power loads.

I'm positive that Winchester had them make the 7.62x54R Russian military contract rifle in the 1895 they'd sell a ton of them. Wonder if anyone whispers that in their ears?

Loud-n-boomer,

I have a Miroku Winchester 1873 in 357. Really like it. I have the full length rifle with the straight-grip stock and octagon barrel, and the .357 feels like shooting a .22, but it shoots much flatter. No tang safety. Beautiful gun.

HTH
Steve

The Miroku '73 short rifle in .44-40 that I have is very nice, I'd say a small notch better than the Uberti ones, which are also very good. The Ubertis tend to have better wood while the inside metal finishing is a bit better on the Miroku. Both have worked flawlessly for me in either black or smokeless. No tang or button safety on either one.

One other comment: currently made .45 Colt brass is pretty thick and with the kind of pressures you want to run in a '73 they don't seal the chamber well on firing; thinner .44-40 brass seals very well and that probably has a lot to do with the .44-40 generally being quite a bit more accurate. Just my completely biased opinion, of course.

quote:

Originally posted by bpesteve:

One other comment: currently made .45 Colt brass is pretty thick and with the kind of pressures you want to run in a '73 they don't seal the chamber well on firing; thinner .44-40 brass seals very well and that probably has a lot to do with the .44-40 generally being quite a bit more accurate. Just my completely biased opinion, of course.

Agree completely on the brass in 45 Colt being thicker and requiring higher pressure to seal. My Miroku 92 in 45 has a tight chamber and at low velocity "Cowboy" type loads, the cases come out sooty. Run the pressures up to "Normal" pressures and the soot decreases greatly. Accuracy with either type load is exceptional. My '73 is chambered in .44-40 and yes, the much thinner brass seals better at lower pressures. That said, I like my 92 much more than the '73!

I was going to also say, your sooty cases are not due to large chamber, but thick brass.
I use mostly 38-40 in 66s and 73s.
I like Ubertis too. Just do a light action job on them.

I have a Winchester Model 94 Trapper in 45 Colt that is an early one with no manual safeties. It would be the ultimate 45 Colt rifle except for one thing. It has this humongous way oversized giant chamber. Keep the pressures low and the case is fine and accuracy very good, but pump it just a little and wow does it get a web bulge. The Marlin 45 Cowboy I have on the other hand has a very tight chamber. I've heard about these fast Winchester chambers from various friends that have them too.

My only complaint about the 73 is the weight. They are noticeably heavier than a Marlin 1894 or Winchester 92. My stable of pistol round lever guns include a JM Marlin 1894 44 Magnum, a Uberti 1866 saddle ring carbine in 44-40 and a Turnbull delux takedown Winchester 92 in 44-40.
I shoot smokeless in 44 magnum and black powder in the 66. I shoot both in the 92. I find the Marlin the lightest and most handy, followed by the 92 and the 66 is heavy. A 73 would be even heavier.

For what it is worth, Winchester shows its current 20-inch carbine model in .357 coming in at 7 pounds, 4 ounces.

quote:

Originally posted by loud-n-boomer:
I have a hankering for an 1873 in .45 Colt and the new Mirokou Winchester 1873s look to be pretty nice. Anybody here have experience with them?

I have the Miroku of Japan built Winchester model 73 Deluxe with 24 inch half octagonal barrel chambered for 45 Colt.

I did get black fouling on the outside of my cartridge cases using GOEX 2fg black powder.
The load was Starline cases, CCI 350 Magnum primer, 35 gr 2 fg GOEX and a cast 20:1 SAECO #955 RNFP 264 grs.
The average 10 shot MV was 1084 fps when the outside temperature was 8*C and 1092 fps when it was 18*c.
Old Eynsford 3 fg made 1230 fps on a hot summer day, and the 2 fg granulation made 1239 fps.
Hodgdon’s CFE-Pistol at max book charge weight of 9.2 grs makes 1192 fps at 8*C.
I tried 9.3 grs one tenth gr over book max and got 1244 fps average of 40 shots across my chrono.
I saw the 9.3 gr load published in Handloader Magazine.

I found that if I anneal my 45 Colt brass I no longer get fouling blacking the sides of my cases.
Annealed cases eject with only a lube slimed feel but no black fouling is present. I figure the annealed cases stop more than 95 percent of the blow back that I was getting with Starline brass before the annealing process.

The Starline brass being thicker and or tougher so I have relegated all my Starline brass to be used just with smokeless powder even after annealing which did stop the blow back fouling.

My annealed Hornady & Winchester brass is reserved for Black Powder loads as it seems thinner.
Some 45 Colt shooter use expanded 44-40 brass because it’s thinner. But I wanted brass with a head stamp to the match my rifle.

The M73 is easy to disassemble for cleaning after BP shooting. If shooing smokeless I just clean the barrel and wipe around the breach with the elevator lowered.

This is a fun rifle to shoot there is a recoil present but it is mild due to the heavy weight of the rifle.

I have added the tang mounted Marbles brand peep sight.
I use this peep sight the most as my 65 year old eyes are aging.

Inside the receiver I slathered a heavy coat of grease on everything. If BP fouling should ever blow back into the receiver it would just be sitting on top of a layer of grease. So far I haven’t found any fouling on the greased interior of the receiver after many shots fired. Fouling stays in the barrel and after many shots fouling can be found in the front and sides of the brass elevator and the shaft it slides up and down in.

I don’t know if my rifle qualifies as having an excessively large chamber but it is larger than all 12 chambers in my SASS set of Ruger New Vaqueros 45 Colt revolvers. A cartridge fired in my M73 will only insert half way into all the chambers of the New Vaquero set.

So far my only complaint with the M73 is the smallness of the front sight brass bead.
Depending on the lighting conditions I sometimes must acquire the view of the front bead by aiming a the white area of the target paper then move it over to the bullseye.

I ended up with the .357 version with the color cased receiver, 24-inch octagon barrel, and pistol grip. I added a Marbles tang sight and Lyman No. 17 globe front sight. I have only shot it a little. With .38 Special it is like shooting a .22. I did find that the design is critical of cartridge length for feeding with .38s. It will jam using .38 wadcutter loads with the bullets seated deep. The .357 rounds are not an issue for feeding and have little felt recoil. I am going to try some .38 loads with a 200-grain lead round nose bullet.

quote:

Originally posted by loud-n-boomer:
I have a hankering for an 1873 in .45 Colt and the new Mirokou Winchester 1873s look to be pretty nice. Anybody here have experience with them?

Hi there have a Uberti 1873 in .44mag having Lyman Tang sight fitted a the moment but trying to work up a load for a 240gn hard cast tc head or rnfp.tred UNIQUE at 10.2gns with reasonable results but would really appreciate any load data on .44mag rifles

I just purchased a Winchester Model 1873 in 45 long colt. Color case hardened, octagonal barrel. Can't wait to get it and shoot it.

You're gonna have a lot of fun with that!

Well, the rifle came home today. It is beautiful beyond words. The color case hardening is fantastic. The gentleman at the gun store where I picked it up couldn't believe the beauty. Sorry that the pictures don't do it justice. I am a happy man today.

Very nice.

A little late to the party, but today I picked up a Winchester 1873 trapper in .45 Colt. It has a 16” octagonal barrel, beautiful CCH action, butt plate, forend cap and maple wood. It’s number 157 of 300 from a run for CDNN. The fit and finish are first rate.

Use enough gun
That is one gorgeous gun and a sweet caliber. Mirokou makes a great looking rifle.
I know Mirokou makes rifles for Winchester but when did Winchester themselves stop making the 1873 rifles?

Steve.........

1929

Why is the 45LC +P ammo better out of the 1892/1894 over the 1873?

I really like how the 1873 looks...and I love the .45 LC. It would go great with some of my revolvers.

I think it has to do with the locking of the actions.

The Model 73 is a simple toggle link action just like the 1866 and similar to the Henry.


The Model 92 is a shrunken 1886 with the two big locking blocks coming up behind the bolt.

The Model 1984 or 94 uses a rather large block that comes behind the bolt.

The real heavy long flat nosed bullets may have a hard time feeding in a lever.