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Battle of the Little Bighorn - 1876

Custer's Last Stand

Winchester Rifle

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Benteen
Lt. Colonel

Status: offline

Posted - January 27 2006 : 10:26:35 AM

While reading the Reno Court of Inquiry I came along something that I think is quite interesting. Most accounts on the boards that I have heard say that the range of the Winchester at that time was only about 200 yards. Reno in his testimony before the Court testified otherwise. He stated there that the range was 800 to 1000 yards! And that he personally witnessed in 1873 an antelope killed at a range of 900 yards. Even if this is the maximum effective range of that weapon then surely 1/2 of that range 450 yards or thereabouts would be the effective range. This changes the dynamic of the fighting on and around LSH. The Warriors wouldn't have close to within range of the Springfield. In other words according to Reno, who should know, the Winchester had the capability to be as effective as the Springfield and more so because of its rate of fire.

AZ Ranger
Brigadier General

USA
Status: offline

Posted - January 28 2006 : 01:09:48 AM

Benteen--The Winchester is a brand of rifle you would need to be more specific on the cartridge that the indians were using. A lot of Henry rifle cartridges where fired by the indians but were puny rim fires. At best the Winchester that some of the indians had were in 44-40 pistol cartridge. At 1350 fps and a ballistic coefficient of .134 if the rifle was dead on at 100 yards it would 63 inches low at 250 yards. If they zeroed it for 300 yards it would be 33 inches high at 200 yards and 220 inches low at 500 yards. The maximum might be 800 yards but you could not hit anything in between because it would be shooting to high. The trapdoor Springfield rifle was capable hitting a target at two miles. Again you could not hit anything in between. This means that Reno would have only had to to go half way to to LSH in order to lob in bullets if we go by the maximum range. If Reno was so good at firearms why didn't he know that five quick shots could loosen up the Springfield and cause it to jam as he described after the LBH.

� An officer's first duty is to his horses.�

SEMPER FI