Whitney Kennedy Lever Rifle

[mazperks]

Hi, I recently acquired this 1880's rifle in obsolete cal 40-60 winchester, and I'm looking for any cartridge that will do for display purposes that will load and cycle in the action.
Obviously if I could get some 40-60 cases that wold be Ideal, but as I said anything would do that fits.
So if anyone has any experience of this cartridge I would love to hear from you.
Out of interest Whitney was a competitor of Winchester and built a more robust action for rifle cal ammo, and was considered a better design, so Winchester bought them out and closed the Whitneyville factory.
Thanks Ian

 

[salukiwhippet]

Tried Bertram brass? Kranks and Spud both sell it and they do all sorts of obsolete and unusual cartridges

 

[Smellydog]

We need pictures .
Winchester had so many chamberings it is difficult to keep up...be good if you got it up and running again.

 

[mazperks]

Thanks for that bud, I'll give them a look.

We need pictures .
Winchester had so many chamberings it is difficult to keep up...be good if you got it up and running again.

I've got it stripped down for a good clean and woodwork oiling, but I'll post some pics as soon as its done.
I wont be shooting it but it seems to be in excellent mechanical order. I would like to see it load and eject though.

 

[alberta boy]

Hi, I recently acquired this 1880's rifle in obsolete cal 40-60 winchester, and I'm looking for any cartridge that will do for display purposes that will load and cycle in the action.
Obviously if I could get some 40-60 cases that wold be Ideal, but as I said anything would do that fits.
So if anyone has any experience of this cartridge I would love to hear from you.
Out of interest Whitney was a competitor of Winchester and built a more robust action for rifle cal ammo, and was considered a better design, so Winchester bought them out and closed the Whitneyville factory.
Thanks Ian

You don't see too many Whitneys , they didn't make many in comparison to winchester and marlins production numbers . I'll have a poke around and see if I can come up with some cases for you . It might take a bit , they aren't exactly common either lol .

AB

 

[mazperks]

Thanks AB, Apparently there were only 23000 made, till the factoty was closed down. Nothing compared to the millions of Winchester & Marlins.

 

[hybridfiat]

Go the 'Barnes Book of Cartridges', it will tell you the dimensions of the cartridge and you can search for one that is close.
Thats how I made 6.5x55 swedish cases; with rims from 7.62 Russian cases for a Martini action rifle and .223 rimmed from 5.56 RWS Magnum cases.

 

[Muir]

Hi, I recently acquired this 1880's rifle in obsolete cal 40-60 winchester, and I'm looking for any cartridge that will do for display purposes that will load and cycle in the action.
Obviously if I could get some 40-60 cases that wold be Ideal, but as I said anything would do that fits.
So if anyone has any experience of this cartridge I would love to hear from you.
Out of interest Whitney was a competitor of Winchester and built a more robust action for rifle cal ammo, and was considered a better design, so Winchester bought them out and closed the Whitneyville factory.
Thanks Ian

Try making the brass from 45-70. The 40-60 has a thinner rim but it might work in your gun. The 40-60 was a miserable cartridge to reload for. It wasn't until a got a set of old RCBS dies that put a pronounced neck onto an otherwise (pretty much) straight taper case that I got any accuracy. ~Muir

 

[mazperks]

Well I've finally got it back together after a good clean and oiling so I shall now attempt to upload some photos.
I'm a techno dinosaur so this may fail mserably.

 

[mazperks]

Thats the problem with hi def photos they show every mark and blemish.
It actually looks much tidier in real life.