44-40 Winchester Reloading Advice

[Henry45]

Hey guys, i have a chance to get a nice 1873 Winchester replica, but it's in 44-40. Most of my pistols and rifles are 45colt from that era in replica's. Wasn't the 44-40 originally, a 44 caliber bullet with 40 grains of black powder? I know Starline is the brass to get, but what about bullets? Should I wait and check the bore to figure out if it's .427, 28, 29 or even the modern .430? What powders are the best? Ever tried TrailBoss in 44-40?

Where to buy bullets in the correct diameter? Not sure if I want to undertake this or not. What are the pitfalls of 44-40, other than the necks being thin? Advice is much appreciated! Just don't know if I want to take on this caliber with all the other calibers I load already.

 

[Don McDowell]

Probably the best brass to get is the Winchester.
Bullets should be .426, but in modern rifles probably not so much.
You'll need to slug that barrel, and or make a chamber cast, as some of those rifles have the proper sized chamber but, have a 430 diameter bore.
Check with Montana Bullet works .com for bullets when you figure out what size you need.
Best powder is likely going to be 2f Olde Eynsford, or possibly 3f KIK, but I imagine your more interested in bludot,unigue or 2400.
Trailboss is pitifully slow velocity but runs firewall pressures

 

[bubba15301]

get starline brass. i use unique or universal clays for a velocity of around 1350 fps . with a .427 bullet . for a fun plinking load try about 9 grains of unique or universal clays and a .433 rb . in a 73 replica you have to watch the cartridge overall length, or it will jam up on you

 

[peacemaker45]

As for the bullet diameter, you'll want to slug it. It'll probably be .429, as are most modern .44-40s, but it's good to be sure. Most bullet casters sell lots of bullets to cowboy shooters, so the old standby 200 grain RNFP is plentiful, and often in a variety of sizes. Maybe buy a baggie of each of .428, .429, and .430, and see which your rifle prefers before you stock up?

I can't give you much advice on powder, as all I generally use is Goex FF. Only time I ever loaded it in smokeless, I used Unique. It worked pretty well, like it always does, and was only a little dirtier than the Goex.

But as for whether it's worth it, the answer, as usual, is a resounding maybe. Its cardinal virtue is as a black powder cartridge. A rifle in .45 Colt will blow all kinds of fouling back into the action. Thanks to its slight bottleneck and thin case, the .44-40 won't do that. As a smokeless case, though, there's no real reason to choose it over .45 Colt or .44 Special. But, in a '73, there's no real reason not to, either, as there would be in a Marlin or '92, as of you were to push beyond the limits of the thin brass, you'd be beyond the limits of the toggle link action, too.

Oh, one other thing: when you stuff .44-40s in the loading gate, it actually works. You get a feeling that just maybe, they were designed to work together. A feeling that's noticeably lacking with, say, <>>{=|<¥%{{ .38 Special.



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