Winchester Model 95 TD

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Back around 1909-10 former President Theodore Roosevelt and his son Kermit made a trip to Africa to hunt the Dark Continent’s vast array of game. Among the rifles TR took were three Winchester Model 95s in .405 Winchester—what he famously referred to as Big Medicine. With these rifles he took Cape buffalo, lion and elephant, among others. A century ago travel to other continents was far more difficult than today, so Big Medicine was a takedown—it came apart at the receiver/barrel junction to make it easier to transport. And this box-magazine Winchester lever action—the last lever action designed by John Browning—is very rare in the takedown version. How rare? Try five figures for a mint specimen.


OK, I can’t even come close to affording one—even a doggy 50-percent “shooter” —in today’s market. But I want one. Davidson’s Gallery of Guns commissioned a limited run of the Model 95 in takedown version—1,001 to be exact—so I called Larry Massimo and pleaded to get one of the first examples. It arrived in early October 2005.
Let’s go ahead and get the “bad” stuff out of the way. Yes, it is a Japanese Winchester, made by Miroku, and yes, it has that damnable safety—though it’s far less obtrusive on the tang than the abominable cross-bolt safeties on other reproduction lever actions. And say what you will, we won’t be seeing any more guns from New Haven. All of the Winchester brand products from Miroku I have seen are as well made as any modern gun, reproduction or otherwise.
The Model 95 was Browning’s answer to those who wanted powerful cartridges in a lever-action platform. Smokeless powder was the rage during the waning decade of the 19th century, and cartridges like the .30-40 Krag and later the .30-03, .30-06 and .303 British became popular for big-game hunters. In 1902 the .405 Winchester was added, featuring a 300-grain bullet at 2,200 feet per second. TR was right; this is Big Medicine, capable of dispatching any critter from 100-pound whitetails to 1-ton Cape buffalo and even, as we have seen, 6-ton elephants.
My plan was to use this rifle on an elk hunt in Colorado. Unfortunately, the elk that lived most of the time on the ranch I had a permit for decided to move to a quieter location off that property after several newbie elk slayers peppered them for a week prior to my arrival.

Left: Pushing the knurled takedown latch forward frees the receiver to be turned 90 degrees with the bolt unlocked. Lockup is accomplished via an interrupted thread on the barrel and is very tight.

Top Right: The semi-buckhorn rear sight may not be the best for precision shooting, but it’s perfectly adequate for hunting. A sliding elevator adjusts elevation, while windage must be altered by drifting the sight within its dovetail.

Bottom Right: Like many modern renditions of traditional lever-action rifles, the Model 95 TD has a manual safety located on the tang. When engaged it prevents the hammer from contacting the inertia firing pin.

A week later I was in my beloved Wyoming where a range near my place includes silhouettes from 500 yards to a 1,000-yard, life-size, steel bison. I had just checked the sights on another rifle, and while my buddy Eric Loloff was putting the finishing touches on his .30-06, I pulled out the .405. “Watch this Eric,” I said and settled onto the bench. I pulled up on the 1,000-yard bison, placing all of the front sight and ramp even with the top of the semi-buckhorn ears and holding a few feet into the stiff morning breeze that’s nearly constant in the Bighorn Basin. About four seconds after the trigger broke, the distinctive tink of lead hitting steel drifted back to our ears. Was it my superior long-range skills? Nah, just luck, but I’ll take it.
I took the Model 95 TD with me for a few days of doe hunting in West Virginia between Christmas and New Years but again was plagued with a lack of targets. So, my Big Medicine gun remains as yet bloodless.
On the range the rifle performed fairly well considering the semi-buckhorn sights aren’t suited for really accurate shooting. With Hornady ammunition, groups averaged 33#8260;4 inches at 100 yards. Shooting conditions that day were less than optimal—a bitterly cold breeze made trying to hold a still sight picture a real challenge—and the rifle’s 6-3#8260;4-pound trigger didn’t help much. One group had four shots into 1-1#8260;2 inches; a fifth shot opened it to 4-1#8260;4 inches. Another problem was that with the rear sight elevator in the lowest position, my groups were some 13 inches above point of aim at 100 yards. No wonder I hit that steel bison on the other end of the county.
The rifle’s reliability was perfect, with no failures to feed or eject. Occasionally, loading the third and fourth cartridges into the magazine became a bit sticky, but this cleared up after about 60 rounds.
Before this gun goes with me next season, I’m going to let Ken Howell of R&D Gunshop go over it and remove the tang safety, and make it look original. While he’s at it, I’ll ask him to shave a couple of pounds off the trigger and replace the front sight bead with a taller one so I don’t have to hold on an elk’s feet to hit it in the chest.
The Hornady ammo was very close to original specs, chronographing the 300-grain, .411-inch bullets at an average velocity of 2,178 feet per second with a standard deviation of just 17. Calculated recoil from the 8-pound rifle with this load was 18.6 foot-pounds, about that of a lightweight .30-06 with 180-grain loads.
Stock work on the Model 95 TD is very good for a factory rifle and features plain but very straight-grained pieces of American walnut. The checkering is sharp, well done and functional.
True, the takedown feature doesn’t serve much of a practical purpose in today’s world where firearms must be packed in a locked hard case, but there remains the “cool” factor and the knowledge I am hunting with a near exact replica of the rifle one of my heroes used so effectively a century ago. I had no problem whatsoever writing the check for this baby.

.....nu OGSÅ ejer af en 243win :-)

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