Slugged my 137 year old 1873

[northmn]

Mike, I find your results interesting. There is an individual on the Marlin Forum that tested his 44-40 with BP. He had read that Winchester claimed the original 44-40's could be shot accurately 30 times without cleaning. His load was Swiss 2f but 3f would burn cleaner also. I have been getting the bug to get a 73 Clone in 44-40 and have thought about BP loads for the rifle. I already have the Lyman 44 mold that was intended for the caliber and various sizing dies. I had one once in a pistol. Those older rifles intrigue me. The 44-40 was more popular than it should have been.

DEP

[Ithaca Gunner]

As for the rifling grooves, Winchester made barrels with both 5 and 6 groove rifling. My 1894 Sporting rifle in .30WCF made in 1898 has 6 groove rifling. My 1894 SRC in .38-55 also made in 1898 has 5 groove rifling.

[w30wcf]

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...Powder-Journey

[missionary5155]

Greetings w30wcf
Remember reading that time back and thank you for linking it ! Have looked at those Big Lubes. Would be a ticket for our rifle length barreled 44 WCF.
Mike in Peru

[northmn]

OK you 30WCF you did it here. Started looking for that posting on the Marlin site and could not find it, but I sure remembered it. Great posting. I have shot BP in 45-70 Single shots and went through the lube issues. Been looking at new made 44-40's and that article made the itch worse.

DP

[w30wcf]

northmn,
On the MarlinOwners site it is in the team .44-40 section of the 1894 forum. Hope you find your 44-40 in the near future.

Having some 44-40 black powder fun at a Lever Action Jubilee a few years ago


w30wcf

[northmn]

My memory is not as bad as I thought then, which is kind of a relief when you get older. I have a bit of money I can spend coming up and keep thinking I should splurge a bit and spend a little of it on something like that. The LGS has Winchester 73's in stock but in either 357 or 45 Colt, not in 44-40. If I am going to spend that much I want the real combination. I have a Rossi in 357 which is fine, but a 73 screams either 44-40 or 38-40. While it seems nit picking the 73 was a BP rifle and the 44-40 is designed around BP use. I am not so concerned about getting 30 shots without cleaning but it would be nice to be able to shoot a few rounds in a row. I had a 44-40 pistol once many years ago and still have the Lyman bullet mold for it. It would be a fun cartridge to play with.

DEP

[missionary5155]

Greetings northmn
Just did a search at GB and there are no less than 85 NIB 1873 44 WCF's for sale. One ends in 22 hours at $900 with no bidders.
Mike in Peru

[NorthMoccasin]

Interesting thread! I have an original Marlin 44/40 that I use a duplex load of 3gr AA5744 and 27gr FFg capped with a cork wad ( press the case mouth on 1/8 sheet cork) and the Lyman 429 or the RCBS 44-200, lubed with Lyman Gold. You can shoot it all day with 1" -2" accuracy @ 50 yd. and in makes nice blue clouds of smoke. Old time target shooters in the 1890 to 1930 time period used similar loads all the time. Several duplex loads are listed in the original Lyman cast bullet handbook. IIRC, Ned Roberts spoke of them in his writings.

[w30wcf]

NorthMoccasin,
Nice! I have used duplex loads in the past and will to some degree in the future. When one owns a vintage rifle that has a rough bore, and wants to shoot black powder, they will find that accuracy will degrade as the black powder fouling builds up in the pits and valleys.

Using bullets that carry more lube and using the less fouling powders like Olde E. and Swiss will help maintain accuracy longer, but eventually (after about 25 rounds in my '73) accuracy will begin to go south.

If one wants to shoot a box of 50 rounds without cleaning, in a vintage rifle with a rough bore, then duplex loading is the way to go. (Either that, or use one of the B.P subs.)

I use RL7 because a capacity load is plenty safe in a '73, based on pressure testing done by Hercules / Alliant. I use 6 grs. followed by 30 grs. of black powder. Works great in my '73's rough bore.

w30wcf

[w30wcf]

Babbott213,
Here is a bullet that can be ordered at .433" diameter that would fit your barrel.
It is a bit heavy at 230 grs., but should work very well slower burning powders.

https://www.montanabulletworks.com/p...-230gr-swc-gc/



I think I may order some and try them in my oversized '73.......

w30wcf

[Babbott213]

Thanks w30wcf! I'll have to check them out. Still haven't gotten to fire any of the bullets that you sent to me yet. Been traveling a lot. Just got back from a U.K. trip and heading to Seattle for two weeks on Tuesday. Hope to get back on it after April. Work travel should be slowing down a bit by then.


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[w30wcf]

babott213,
I did order the bullets and have some rounds loaded with RL-7 to test in my oversized 73when the weather gets nicer. I did find that I needed to trim the cases to 1.28" to keep the oal to 1.59".

travel safe.

w30wcf

[Babbott213]

Thanks for the info w30wcf. I'm still on the road. Stuck here in South Carolina for a few more days and then on down to New Orleans for a few days before going home for a few days. Past four weeks I've slept in my bed one night between flights. Was looking at a couple 1873's tonight actually. Will be glad to get some time home so I can load up some test loads for the old girl. I'm getting the itch kinda bad now.


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[w30wcf]

If I get a chance next week I'll put a dozen or so in the mail to you.

w30wcf

[w30wcf]

Had a chance to try the https://www.montanabulletworks.com/p...-230gr-swc-gc/ in my oversized 1873.
They worked great!





w30wcf

[Babbott213]

I'll have to check them out. I'm up in Canada now to teach a training class and then I'll have another class in Jersey in two weeks. After that, I should have about a month and a half of work from home. Hope to get back on trying out some loads then. Can't wait, it's been too long.


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[w30wcf]

Howdy
Just wondering how things are progressing..?

[Babbott213]

W30wcf, very slowly right now. I'm still on the road. I was in Kansas City all last week through Sunday and then flew into Houston this morning and will not return home until late Wednesday night and then possibly have to head over to Georgia on Thursday. Then next week I'm in Seattle till the end of June. Right now I'm hoping July might just be me slow travel month, but I'm not holding my breath right now. I have all the bullets that you sent all ready and I'm going to load a few of each and start doing some test with them just as soon as I can.


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