405 WINCHESTER

After many years of customer requests, here is the cats whiskers in 405 Winchester ammunition.

Item # 405 Win 350 SOLID features a true solid flat nose CEB homogonous brass bullet. CEB’s design is nothing short of awesome. I could not design a non-expanding bullet any better. Not only does this bullet penetrate very straight, but very deep and has very little bearing surface on your riflings, which keeps pressures super low. Due to modern propellants and modern bullet designs, we are making very powerful loads, all within SAAMI pressure specs.. You’ll note I am using a 107-year-old 1895 (I wrote this in 2024) as one of my test guns, so yes, pressures are low, and yes, I gave this rifle a thorough “going over” before I fired it with any ammo. The 1917 rifle was made with a “nickel steel” barrel for use with smokeless powder. Please see the below picture of such. Shooting smokeless full-power ammo in old steel made for smokeless will destroy the rifle and probably harm the shooter.

This solid/penetrator load for 405 Winchester is one of a kind. No 405 Win. ammo has ever been offered commercially like this one. With this load, you can now take your 405 Winchester dangerous game hunting in Africa. This solid load will penetrate several feet in living mammalian tissue. You will get around 30 inches of penetration on an elephant skull/brain.

Both test rifles have rudimentary factory sights and even with those sights, I was able to get excellent accuracy. The new Winchester shot slightly better than the circa 1917 Winchester, but not enough to matter. If I were to hunt with one of these, I would definitely install a Skinner aperture sight on the bolt or even forward on the receiver. With the longer sight radius this will give you, plus the precision of aperture sights, I would hunt Africa or anywhere with one of these 1895’s and this ammunition.

See my real-world velocities from real-world rifles below.

>  2,210 fps-350 gr. - Winchester model 1895, circa 1917, 24-inch barrel
>  2,164 fps-350 gr. - Winchester Miroku model 1895, 24-inch barrel

Friends, be mindful of the age/condition of your rifle. A lot of these model 1895 Winchester’s are well over 100 years old. By itself, this antiquity means little, but when firearms get this old, more than just their age can come into play. Unknown history, such as has the rifle been abused over the decades? In fact, just how much has this rifle been fired and with what ammo?.......etc.,etc.,etc. Metal fatigue is invisible to the naked eye, but happens in the real world. All I am saying is to be mindful of the worthy firing condition of your rifle, especially when shooting antiques. There are tons of “hack” gunsmiths out there, but if you know of a competent one, (there are lots of those too) have your rifle checked before firing if you question its condition.

Good shooting, and God bless,

Tim Sundles