Winchester’s Model 1886 and the .33 WCF Cartridge

by Shane Jahn

The Model 1886 Winchester was the first John Browning-designed repeating rifle to be manufactured by Winchester. The classic lines and stout makeup of the 86 make it widely recognizable. The sliding vertical locks of the 86’s action work exceptionally well and were employed in Browning’s other famous lever guns that followed. The big action of 1886 is strong and housed powerful black powder cartridges of the time. That same soundness enabled it to make the transition to smokeless powder cartridges as well, when it was chambered in the good .33 WCF, aka .33 Winchester. The .33 Winchester was developed by necking down the big .45-70 Government cartridge to .338 caliber and was the first U.S. cartridge to be offered in that caliber. Its 200 grain bullet ran about 2,200 fps and is quite sufficient for medium-sized game at common sense ranges. Meaning if you can reliably hit it with open sights, the .33 WCF will surely get the job done. This is a fine cartridge for the rifle hunter who stalks within a respectable distance of the animal he’s hunting.

At practical ranges the 1886 is quite capable of getting the job done. This rifle is chambered in .33 WCF.

I killed an old whitetail buck quite dead at 57 long steps with my Model 86 in .33 WCF. I can’t imagine another cartridge killing him any better, the buck dropped in his tracks at the shot. My 86 wears Skinner Sights good receiver sight and a Lyman white bead front. It’s in short rifle configuration with a crescent butt plate, 24-inch round barrel and a full-length magazine tube. George Madis’ good book, The Winchester Handbook, states that .33 WCF’s with full length mag tubes are rather rare. If you are interested in old Winchesters, you need his book. It is choked full of information and photos and is an interesting and valuable reference. Someone did a nice job re-bluing my rifle and the wood appears to be original. The bore is good, and the action is tight. This rifle, that is now 117 years old, has produced groups from under 1.5 to around 4-inches at 50 yards, depending on which ammunition is used. For the most part it will keep most of the shots in between those two numbers. For me, that’s perfectly acceptable for any hunting I will do with the gun and the distances within my personal shot limits.

A quick search on GunBroker shows there are 15 Winchester Model 86’s in .33 Winchester that are up for grabs right now. Periodically I’ll check and usually find some in this caliber listed there, and that’s just one internet site. The hard part is finding factory ammunition for the old .33 WCF. There is only a small handful of specialty shops that load the old cartridge and they do not always have them in stock, so when they do you might want to get a couple of extra boxes! Hendershots Extreme Custom Ammunition offers a couple of loads for the .33 WCF, a 180-grain load at 2350 fps and a 200-grain load at 2200 fps. I have used their ammunition in the past and it is good stuff. Currently their website shows these two loads to be out of stock. The same goes for Buffalo Arms Co. who have offered a load using the 200-grain Hornady FTX bullet in the past. For the time being it looks like Old South Ammo shows to have some ammunition on hand firing a 250-grain Hornady RNSP at 2050 fps. The handloader will have less issues fueling their .33 WCF lever gun these days. Occasionally you can find .33 WCF stamped brass. You might have to make your own by resizing .45-70 brass to .33 WCF. Redding makes the dies for this and while I have not done it a lot, I have had no issues in sizing my own brass. I think the last cast bullets I bought were from Rim Rock Bullets in Montana.

The robust action of the Winchester 1886 and good ammunition from companies like Hendershot's Extreme Custom Ammunition work well together.

I’ve read that 49.5% of all 86’s manufactured after serial number 120,795 were chambered in .33 Winchester. The original ‘86 ran from the years 1886 to 1935, ending at serial number 159,337. My math tells me that there are over 19K rifles out there that are chambered in the old cartridge. I’d sure like to think that it would be cost effective for an ammo company to make limited runs of .33 Winchester ammunition from time to time to keep these old guns running. I just asked one ammunition manufacturer if they had considered it. If their answer is promising, I will let y’all know.

Everyone ought to own at least one good 1886 lever gun!

Like so many of Winchester’s lever-action rifles, the Model 86 has been made in various configurations over the years. Short rifles, long rifles, carbines, lightweights, muskets, deluxe models, takedown models, full mag tubes, half mag tubes, octagonal barrels, round barrels, heavy barrels, straight levers, pistol grip levers, crescent butt plates, shotgun butt plates, carbine butt plates, the list is long. Other special-order configurations of the Model 1886 are out there as well. During its run it was chambered in at least nine cartridges. They were as follows; .33 WCF, .38-56, .38-70, .40-65, .40-70, .40-82, .45-70, .45-90, .50-110. An interesting note is by the end of the 86’s run, it was only chambered in .33 WCF and .45-70. Today you can get a newly manufactured Model 1886 lever gun chambered in .45-70 and .45-90 and some replica 1886/71’s are chambered in .348 Winchester. The 1886 lever-action rifle is just one of those guns that everyone needs to own. They are a classic American firearm, and they are just as relevant today as they were almost 140 years ago. If an original is out of price range, you need not fret. Companies like Cimarron Firearms, Pedersoli, Taylors & Company, Uberti and, of course, Winchester still offer some fine guns that are worth owning and shooting.