I'm an experienced reloader and I'm thinking of reloading the .44-40 Winchester, mostly out of curiosity and nostalgia. I love the old west single actions and have a couple of Colt SAA's, Ruger Blackhawks and Uberti Cattlemans in 45 Colt.
I'd like to get a Uberti Cattleman in .44-40 and load for it.
Does anyone here load the .44-40?
I know I have to use non carbide steel dies and be careful not to collapse the case seating the bullet. Anything else I need to know?
I have loaded the 44-40 for several years. My dies are Lee and I don't use lube and have not needed it. The slight shoulder is simply bumped back at the top, and because it's tapered, there isn't any appreciable sizing issues.
I have a Cattleman for handgun and two rifles. Brass lasts a long time - you'll love it.
I shot a henry in 44-40 for several years when i was doing cas. Rcbs dies, 0.428" lead bullets. Use enough flare or risk crushing the case. I also didnt need case lube, but oneshot wont hurt. Be sure you use the right size expander, too large & not enough neck tension.
I have always wanted the Henry 1860. Mine are 1866 and 1878. Both are nice, but there is a certain romance to not having a grip on the front. Never shot CAS and probably never will, but still like the levers now. I've morphed to them and have essentially given up target rifle.
The 44-40 Lee dies have a powder through expanding die. Since I charge and flare at the same time, I load them on the Turret press just like handgun.
To the OP - don't be afraid of this cartridge, it's fun, cheap and easy to load.
Bullet diameter varies quite a bit through the manufactures,Uberti the producer of the cattleman tends to run .427-.428 for ideal use.
In the distant past when Ruger chambered their Vaqueros with chamber throats at .426-.427 with barrels measuring at .429-.430. SJ 40
The brass is a bit thin at the mouth. Be extra careful when seating the bullet.
Slug your barrel to get the right diameter of cast bullet.
I have a 44 Magnum lever rifle and use a practice load that duplicates the original 44-40 load. No recoil and is a lot of fun to shoot. With a 200 gr cast .433 bullet at 1300 fps I get 1 inch groups at 50 yards, with a scope.
In revolvers, the biggest issue is that modern brass is much thicker at the case mouth than the original cases were. I pulled down some 1890s era black powder ammo and measured it. The case necks were .0055"-.0065" thick, and bullets were .425-.426" in diameter. Current production brass has a neck thickness of .009-.011". On some foreign revolvers, and 1st generation Colt revolvers, the chambers won't accept modern brass with a bullet larger than .426" diameter. Most will accept a .428" diameter bullet, but not all. I measured about 30 different cylinders once upon a time to see what the tolerances were.
The 44-40 rifles I measured, both original Winchesters as well as several modern foreign reproductions, would all accept a .429" diameter bullet in modern brass. I couldn't pin gage the chambers on rifles, but apparently a different reamer is used.
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