Ian and Karl from In-Range TV give a Winchester M1895 a good mud bath to test its ability to survive the muck and misery of the trenches.
Winchester’s box magazine M1895 was a hit with hunters around the turn of the century and, as far-fetched as it may seem, a good many of them were bought for military service.
The long-barreled 1895 “Musket” was bought in small numbers (10,000) by the U.S Army in .30 U.S (.30-40 Krag) to equip soldiers in the 1898 war with Spain– though most were sold as surplus soon after. They were also tested by the New York National Guard and a few hundred were bought by the Colorado Guard in the early 1900s.
Then in 1914 when WWI kicked off, the Tsar of Russia had 15 million men for the Imperial Army but was about 13 million rifles short, so purchasing agents scoured the globe looking for guns and made a deal with Winchester for no less than 300,000 M1895s in 7.62x54R complete with stripper clip loading guides and bayonet lugs.
With that in mind, Karl and Ian whistle up the goop to see just how the action fared in the mud of that Great War.
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