The Best from Contemporary Sources “The .405”

Arms & the man, vol 68, No. 9, Dec 15 1922. Pages 10, 16, 17

The .405

By John Lynn (Rod and Gun in Canada)

WE had chased a wounded buck “clean out of God's knowledge," over across Benner Creek and out on the rough points at the head of Rock Creek. Brush and timber covered the slopes so high we could not see out. It was new country to us. Crossings were unknown. There we met another hunting party and decided to join forces in an effort to prevent this buck from leading farther away. Things looked as though he might have stopped on a hill just ahead.

“It's good-by to Mr. Buck if he is not killed before leaving this hill,” announced old Flick. No chance to head him off after he starts in this wilderness. You fellows better spread out about 50 yards apart and comb the hill. The wind is in our faces."

“About one shot is all he will give us." one of the newcomers said. "One flash of his tail and he will be gone."

Old Flick agreed gloomily, “Yes, and it is pretty hard to do business ‘with a single shot, when he jumps up, in this thick brush. If I could get four or five bullets after him we would stand a better chance." He partly opened the lever of his 30-30, assured himself there was a shell in the barrel and closed it. “We have just the man to go along with the tracker," exclaimed the other, and turned to call:

“Powell! Come over here." A rather small young man with leathery face and squinting eyes of a forester of years outdoors, plowed his way through the brush to where they were standing, and was introduced.

“This is John Powell—‘One Shot Powell,’ we've been calling him at our camp, because of his habit of knocking ’em cold the first crack. That shiny old crowbar he is carrying is sure good medicine."

That was how Powell came to be in this story. He walked in beside the tracker. When the buck jumped, bound for the north pole probably this time, the tracker fired two shots quickly and wildly without effect, and Powell aimed rather deliberately before he cut loose at it. An inch sapling broke off and fell over just where the deer had been.

“I missed and you hit a tree," wailed the tracker. “We'll never see that buck again."

But he was mistaken. Fifty feet beyond the buck had collapsed. Powell's one bullet had sped true after going through the sapling. The buck was bored clean through from left flank to right side of neck, well in front of shoulder. The hole was almost round, about an inch in diameter, with none of the exploded mess such as is made by an ultra-high velocity bullet, yet it was open, and it bled at both ends.

"What are you using, anyhow—a 45-90?" asked Flick, noting that Powell's gun was old, or at least was worn shiny from much carrying and handling.

“A .405 Winchester," Powell replied briefly.

“Well," Flick objected, “the .405 is a regular cannon. You don't use it for all your shooting do you?"

"Yes," was the reply. “I have no other rifle. I use it for squirrels and trapped stuff, as well as deer. And naturally it goes along for bear and moose." Powell smiled ~dryly.

“Who ever heard of .405 Winchester as an all round rifle?" exclaimed Flick.

Later we got the “dope" from Powell. He had been disgusted with wounding of game by 30-30's, 44-40's and the like, and had some unsatisfactory experience with the .303. He wanted to knock game down with one bullet.

Game was getting scarce, he said. There was no longer any to waste. It seemed to him a shame to go into the woods with a light rifle with which he might put bullets into two or three deer before getting one. Besides that, the country where he mostly hunted was getting settled, and hunting parties had become more numerous, so that it was important to kill quickly, without a long chase, or someone else would often get a wounded animal. Heart and other vital shots were increasingly harder to secure, owing to brushy nature of cover.

Reflection showed that a high power rifle was desirable, owing to flatness of trajectory (little fall) and high speed of bullet which made running shots surer. But Powell felt friendly toward big bore. Small bullets that opened well yet held together did their work well, but he looked back on several shots where it was a fair question whether his .30 calibre bullets had acted that way.

Unerringly the conclusion pointed to use of the .405, although at that time Powell, as did most other hunters, thought the .405 was a cannon, with a horrible kick and questionable accuracy in the average man's hands.

When he bought his .405 Winchester Model 1895, he made a mental reservation that he also would buy a model 1892 carbine, 38-40 calibre, such as Ashley Haines likes, for all his shooting except moose, bear and deer.

During the first two months the .405 had not been taken out at all. In six months it had been fired only a dozen times, and that was to get the sights lined up, although Powell was in a country where a-rifle could be used on something, game or varmints, almost every day of the year. It still looked like a new gun.

And then one August he got to wearing off some of the finish. A big bitch hound had gone to the woods and raised a couple of litters of pups, the first of them now a couple of years old. This colony of wild dogs was cleaning out the game. The .405 balanced so well, in spite of its weight, and its sights were so clear, that he took it out after them. And when during the next three of four evenings he pulled down on five of the dogs and saw every one of them tumbled with hardly aquiver, he began to fall in love with its accuracy—its practical woods accuracy. The rifle had an excellent trigger pull. It's stock balance made it handle well.

Shortly afterward he got reloading tools, including an Ideal mold, and prepared reduced loads. The day he killed the buck he had along only factory ammunition and very light reloads, the latter for killing rabbits and grouse, but he said that he also used medium power reloads which were as successful on deer and larger game as many ordinary cartridges. Reloads with east bullets were very accurate, he said, and to prove it he shot a dozen cones in succession off a hemlock tree. A hemlock cone is only half an inch long. This shooting he did without changing sight from full power ammunition adjustment.

Powell's idea of a .405 as an all-round rifle had its effect among our own party, within a few weeks two of us had bought .405 Winchester rifles with the intention of using them practically to the exclusion of other rifles for business shooting. Our men were ripe for the change, as they had been passing through the adverse experience with light rifles which is needed to bring a hunter to the state of mind that understands and appreciates actual facts of killing power. They had an inkling of the truth then, that the .405 is not so over-powered as popular impression has it, that its recoil is over-estimated and over-feared and one of them put a truth into words when he said that none of us really knew the nature of wounds a .405 would make. We were only surmising that its bullet was too destructive for deer.

The fact seems to be that the factory bullet mushrooms rather late after striking, but when it starts to mushroom in an animal it opens out well, that it holds together in game, and that it passes through. It has little of that exploding effect of the .250 and other 3,000 foot velocity bullets. Rabbits may be shot without taking an end off them. Groundhogs (woodchucks) shot with the .405 full power ammunition have that same clean-cut hole about an inch in diameter. Shot with a 38-40 or 32-40, they have the same sort of hole about half the diameter. Shot with a .280 Ross or a .250-3000, a groundhog usually lacks one-third its body when you go to pick it up—the front, the middle or rear third. Deer and bear shot with the .405 are punched through in a straight line, nearly always through and always in a line with the aim. A 38-40 or 44-40 bullet, and often a 38-55, will stop in a deer frequently and almost always in a bear. A light, ultra-high velocity bullet goes to pieces within a few inches of striking, and usually penetrates off from line of aim. We have had them enter square sideways and come out almost straight downward when they come out at all. The .405 wound can be compared to nothing else as well as to the path a piece of three-quarter-inch or inch pipe might make if sledged through the body of your game. This would destroy less meat than many other rifles, but is deadly enough on small game and much more deadly on larger game just because of its depth of penetration. It goes through, and it lets out blood.

Let no one be deceived into thinking that all the power the .405 has is never needed on our American moose or black bear. There are certain ham and brisket or shoulder shots which absorb even this tremendous energy, and on which a 30-06 or .303 British are not effective, while a 30-30 and its like are ridiculous. Even small bear and deer often get away from lighter rifles carrying wounds which if made by the .405 would put them down. It is discouraging to plant bullet after bullet into a bear, for instance (as has been done in my observation repeatedly with .30 calibre rifles and with 38-40's), without apparent effect. You buy less .405 ammunition, because with it you wait for the one good opportunity to hit game, knowing you can depend on putting the game down when you do hit. The .405 rifle is a 5-shot repeater, but it is essentially a 1-shot gun for all that because that second hit is seldom needed.

Before telling of various experiences and experiments, let it be said that the .405 Winchester is practically the old 40-72 black powder cartridge in size. Diameter of .405 barrel, however, is .412-inch, hence these two cartridges cannot be interchanged. Owners of certain old .40 calibre Bullard molds will find that their bullets cast .415 and .418 can be sized down for the .405 Winchester satisfactorily.

If ever a scarcity of factory ammunition blights our land, users of the .405 have only to cast some lead bullets and load up with a suitable charge of powder, black or smoke less, and they still have a thoroughly effective hunting rifle. In its day the 40-72 was considered one of the best. The "mid-range charge” of 65 to 70 grains of FG black powder gives a velocity to the 300-grain Ideal bullet about equal to that of the 40-72. But better midrange charges are Hercules smokeless powder, No. 305 or Lightning, or DuPont No. 18. About 30 grains of Lightning or 37 grains of No. 18 make comfortable loads.

Short range loads in the .405, it was found by these two men who began to make all round rifles of their big Winchester, could be loaded to shoot with extreme accuracy. A target is shown here that is one of the best secured, although a number of other loads will do as well. Properly loaded cartridges of this type would group just about as small as reduced loads in any high power rifle.

The starting point for all tests of short range ammunition was the Ideal cast bullet No. 412263, weighing 300 grains. First charge put together was 17 grains of DuPont No. 80 powder. This fired at 50 yards gave a 2-inch group 6 or 7 inches low and 4 inches to the right. Then 20 grains of the same powder were tried. That shot still lower and made a slightly larger group, requiring three or four notches of sight elevations.

After that the charge was dropped to 15 grains, with the result that the group reduced in size to an inch and a half or less, and struck the paper, seven or eight inches higher with same sight adjustment. Further tests, reaching a couple of hundred shots, proved that 15, 14, 13, and down to 12 and 11 grains of No. 80 powder would shoot center at 25 yards with exactly the same elevation as full power factory ammunition required at 50 to 100 yards—and with the almost same windgauge adjustment of sight, the bullets going out to the right not more than half an inch. At 50 yards one notch of elevation was needed. DuPont No. 18 powder in charges of 18 or 20 grains also shot with this same elevation, although the bullets struck two inches to the left. Best full 10-shot group at 50 yards measures just about one inch. This was made with 12 1/2 grains of No. 80 powder. DuPont No. 18 and both Hercules Lightning and No. 305 shot equally well so far as was observed.

One of the men finally settled on the load of 14 grains of No. 80 powder as his standard for short range. It gives a penetration of 8 or 10 inches in pine, and has a rather high trajectory beyond 50 yards. But he likes it because its use requires no change of sight. He can shoot small game, trapped animals and do some practicing with it. Most of such shooting comes within 25 or 30 yards anyhow. The other man settled on 24 grains of DuPont No. 18 or the equivalent charge of Hercules No. 305. This is more powerful ammunition, with penetration of 16 inches in pine. It shoots four or five inches low at 50 yards and about three inches left.

Tight crimping of bullets in shells is very important. A load that will make groups measuring less than an inch at 25 yards when well put together will scatter all over a 6-inch circle when bullets are held only friction tight in the shell. These straight shells are a different reloading proposition all the way round than bottle necked .30 calibre shells with which many of us have had experience. In straight shells it is harder to get powder to burn evenly.

It is rather hard to believe that the more powerful of these loads shoot lower than the lighter ones. It is also hard to understand why one powder throws the bullets to the right and another to the left. But the important fact is that these reduced loads are very accurate when properly put together. With them the rifle is everything one needs for shooting squirrels, for instance, rivaling the old-fashioned muzzle loaders of about this calibre in accuracy and easy holding. The Winchester Company makes an auxillary chamber for .405 to take .41 short Colt's revolver cartridge. For those who like such reduced power ammunition in a rifle, that combination offers still another advantage, yet it must not be expected to give accuracy such as has been mentioned.

Accuracy with full power ammunition is astonishing after one has entertained the “cannon" idea. At 100 yards bullet after bullet has been observed to strike inside a 2-inch circle, although a 10-shot group usually has one or two holes out of five or six inches from the others. Col. Whelen says that the rifle will make about 7-inch groups at 200 yards. The group pictured here, fired at 150 yards, measures just 7 inches.

All three of these "all-around" .405 Winchesters are sighted with Lyman No. 38 Windgauge receiver sights. Two of them have Ivory bead front sights and the other a V-M Although these front sights are slightly more easily broken than the piece of scrap iron that sticks up above the muzzle of the rifles as they come from the factory, one can see where he is shooting in very bright light and in dim light, which he cannot with the piece of iron. Easy adjustment of both elevation and windage is essential where two or more kinds of ammunition are used in any rifle.

Fit and balance of this eight pound rifle are so good that one finds them a help in accurate holding. The rifle carries well on the shoulder yet you are not tempted to cast a lump of lead round the muzzle to make it hold steadier. Drop of stock is two and three quarter inches. It ought to be half an inch or three quarters of an inch more. Length of stock is only 13 inches, which is not enough. But that fault is remedied by putting a rubber pad between butt-plate and wood, adding an inch to the length. It is put on with screws that have heads countersunk nearly half an inch by means of metal cups with flanges. When the rubber is compressed, butt-plate, cups and all simply slide down on the screws which are tight in the wood. The only time a 13-inch stock is long enough is when a hunter has on two suits of heavy wool underwear, two wool shirts, a sheep-skin jacket with sleeves, a sweater and a mackinaw coat. A steel butt-plate could replace the hard rubber one supplied by factory, which always gets broken shortly after you start using the rifle.

The rubber pad may ease up the -idea of recoil. Actual recoil never bothers in the woods. You feel it no more than the kick of a 32-40. For target shooting a .405 jumps more than is pleasant. That is, you must hold the rifle against the shoulder and get your cheek against the stock firmly. If you hold your jaw a little distance away, the rifle after fifteen or twenty shots takes a running start and may land you a pretty fair jolt on a tender spot. But, it may be said again for emphasis, the recoil need not bother anyone, and does not interfere even with target accuracy, let alone game shots in the woods.

A few figures may be excused for the sake of comparison they show. A 45-70-405 bullet requires more than half a second to travel200 yards. A 405 Winchester bullet goes that distance in less than a third of a second (less time than the 30-30). Experienced hunters will recognize what a help this speed is on running shots.

A 45-70 bullet falls about three feet at 200 yards, and upwards of eight feet at 300 yards. A 30-30 falls about one foot at 200 yards and two and a half feet at 300 yards. The .405 Winchester bullet falls ten inches at 200 yards and about two and a quarter feet at 300 yards.

Striking energy of the .405 at 200 yards is greater than that of the 45-70, the .35 Remington Rimless, the .32 Special, the 30-30 and a large number of similar cartridges at the very muzzle of their rifles. At 300 yards the .405 strikes harder than the 40-65 at its muzzle. At 500 yards it strikes harder than 38-40 rifle at its muzzle. Striking energy, however, is deceptive. One must remember that 40 calibre is bigger than 30 calibre. Penetration figures for the soft point bullet are given as 13 inches, and the books give the same penetration for the 220 grain .30 calibre soft point bullet, but anyone who has tried the two bullets on game knows that within 200 yards the .405 plows through much more depth of animal tissue than the 30-220 penetrates.

Big bore rifles are famous for their easy cleaning. The .405 is a dream to keep in order compared to a .25 calibre or even to a .30 calibre. That is a feature of importance in a hunting rifle, for a tired man will neglect the job when a lot of swabbing is required, particularly if it had to be repeated every day.

This big cannon, therefore, makes a pretty good all-round rifle. The “medicine gun for lions" makes a pretty fair grouse or squirrel gun. It is a heavy, business-like piece of ordnance but it carries well on the shoulder and holds exceptionally well in aiming. It is a cartridge that in accuracy takes rank above the average among hunting cartridges. The factory bullets travels faster and takes less head-lead than a 45-70 or even a 30-30 at game-killing ranges. It falls less than a 38-55 by far and even less than a 30-30. And as for killing power, there is no comparison even with the most powerful of small bores, for it will knock game out clean with one shot, drop it on the spot or close by and do this not once in awhile but eight or nine times in ten. This includes the big bear of the north and the tough little black bear of the east and the Great Lakes country, and moose and elk. Reduced loads, which can be charged to equal our old friend the 40-72 black powder cartridge or charged in a whisper for very short range shooting are very accurate. Some of them will shoot at 25 yards without change of sights from adjustment for factory ammunition. Others will make this rifle powerful and effective with nothing except black powder and lead to use, if the need ever arises.

A man owes it to himself and to his companions in a party to kill game when the chance comes, because hunting is expensive and time is precious and opportunities for shots sometimes are not repeated. He owes it to the game to kill his legal limit and then to stop—and that does not mean to take the legal limit out of the woods while leaving behind two or three times as much that died of wounds. The more powerful rifle is more in keeping with game conditions of the times and is more humane.

When the 32-20 Marlin Model 27, handling the high velocity load, was first marketed, a certain gun dealer told his customers that this was the ultimate big game gun for America. “There is less game to shoot than there used to be," he said, “the country is getting settled up so that a long range weapon is dangerous." And he asked them, “What's the use of carrying a big gun built for shooting in virgin country?"

The truth is exactly the opposite. With a light cartridge a hunter sprays the woods full of bullets as long as the game is in sight, hoping to strike a vital spot or to hit it so many times it will fall. We've all heard these volleys as shot alter shot breaks the silence of the woods on a frosty morning of hunting weather. You can tell when he has emptied his magazine, filled it and started shooting again. Many of us have heard the bullets singing or zipping overhead if his game happens to be scurrying along a skyline. Experience shows that a man with a .405 rifle will not indulge in such antics. He fires only when he gets a fair shot, because with the first hit his game goes down. One .405 bullet is surely less dangerous to other hunters than ten small bullets, and easily may be more effective on the game fired at.