40-50 Sharps Straight- Marlin 336- Win 94

[beechbum444]

Ive been thinking about putting a 40-50 Sharps Straight round into either a Marlin 336 action or a Win 94 action....Thoughts.....appreciated...…..Psi....35, 000-40,000 PSI....OAL within a 0.1 (tenth)…..rim diameter.....very close maybe a little trimming (thousandths)……..the ability for a 350- 400 grain lead booolit…….

[Chill Wills]

444 Marlin is the action I would look into. The case head is in the ballpark. I have no idea how easy or hard this could turn out to be.

-OR-

Maybe just barrel or line a 444 to a faster twist and shoot those 350-400 grain bullets in it?

Any number of mold makers can produce the molds.

[Chill Wills]

An other thought is to get a reproduction 1895 Winchester - 405 Win

out of the box, ready to go.

[Boz330]

There are some issues with 40-50SS. I got a Shiloh last year in that caliber but you have to jump through some hoops to make brass for it. With the .408 barrels and using either 30-40 Krag or .303 Brit brass as the parent case you will need to ream the case neck in order to get the loaded rounds to chamber with a groove size GG boolit. The case walls are too thick after you cut the brass to length.
Having said that it is a fun round after you get past the brass forming stage. I have used mine for mid-range, silhouette, and deer hunting. It is a little light for the 500M rams but easy on powder, lead, and recoil.

Bob

[Reverend Al]

With the .408 barrels and using either 30-40 Krag or .303 Brit brass as the parent case you will need to ream the case neck in order to get the loaded rounds to chamber with a groove size GG boolit. The case walls are too thick after you cut the brass to length.

Hmmm ... interesting comment. One of my ongoing projects (and I have far too many all going on at once!) is a Remington Hepburn in .40-50 SS. I've fire-formed about 100 + rounds of shortened .303 British brass with blank charges and cornmeal filler, but haven't had a chance to seat a .410" bullet in a case yet to see if it will chamber comfortably or not. I have a batch of 300 grain RCBS bullets cast, but haven't lubed and sized them at this point, so I haven't test loaded a dummy round yet to check chamber fit. Now you have me wondering if I'll have to neck ream or neck turn ...

[beechbum444]

Good looking Hepburn...….I thought about the 405 in and 1895......I keep getting drawn back to a Marlin 336 action......Oddly enough I like the idea of making the brass from 303 brass...… I don't forsee any pressure issues but Im not sure about feeding?

[Reverend Al]

I shortened up my .303 brass with my Forster drill press trimmer at slightly longer than 1 7/8" and then annealed them, primed them, loaded 8.5 grains of Nitro Trap 100 (since I have lots of it), pressed in a 1/4 sheet of toilet tissue with a wooden dowel, filled with bulk yellow cornmeal to the case mouth, and pressed in another 1/4 sheet of toilet tissue to hold it all in place. I fire form at the range and they snap right out. Now I need to lube and size some of those 300 grain RCBS boolits and try loading a dummy round to see if it will chamber with a .410" bullet seated in the shortened cases.

[kootne]

Did a check with uncle "google",
1894 Winchester uses a .809 dia, 20 pitch vee thread, indicating minor thread diameter ~.750"
Marlin 336 is a 12 pitch square thread with a minor diameter of .720"
So looks like a little more meat on the Winchester shank.
Big Bore '94s used a .875 od thread.

[beechbum444]

Great info.... that's why I posted this question here

[beechbum444]

Even crossed my mind if I could get by the 0.1 issue with short brass and seating a little deeper for COL.....definitely wouldn't hot rod it

[Deadeye Bly]

I'm a fan of the 40-50 SS and have thought of such a conversion but thought I might run into feeding issues. You should look into the 405 JES. It's about .175 longer than the 40-50 and uses cut down 444 Marlin cases. JES rebores your existing barrel for it and opens up the ejection port for a reasonable price. Check it out.

[ascast]

Rev Al - few things make me jealous anymore, your rifle is one of them. What power Unertl? I have a 20x on my 38-55. Thanks for posting pics

[Reverend Al]

Rev Al - few things make me jealous anymore, your rifle is one of them. What power Unertl? I have a 20x on my 38-55. Thanks for posting pics

Thanks ... it's a 15 power and I have two of them which get switched back and forth between several different rifles. (Such as that 28" heavy barrel 98 Mauser in .30-06 in the photo.) I had a 24 power several years back and foolishly let myself be talked out of it by a friend. Got a decent price for it at the time, which is about 1/2 of what it would take to replace it today!

[Boz330]

Hmmm ... interesting comment. One of my ongoing projects (and I have far too many all going on at once!) is a Remington Hepburn in .40-50 SS. I've fire-formed about 100 + rounds of shortened .303 British brass with blank charges and cornmeal filler, but haven't had a chance to seat a .410" bullet in a case yet to see if it will chamber comfortably or not. I have a batch of 300 grain RCBS bullets cast, but haven't lubed and sized them at this point, so I haven't test loaded a dummy round yet to check chamber fit. Now you have me wondering if I'll have to neck ream or neck turn ...

I went with reaming since that seemed to be the cheapest way to go and the turning seemed like it is more for a bottleneck case. Of course a lot depends on the reamer used for your chamber. I believe that Shiloh uses the PTG reamer.
If you find that you need to ream the cases I made an adapter for both the Lyman and RCBS trimmers that fit the Forster .410 reamer. You are welcome to borrow either. I tried using my RCBS power trimmer but it was too big a cut for that motor and had to ream them by hand, a real PIA. I have 200 cases now so that should keep me busy.

Bob

[Reverend Al]

My Hepburn was factory chambered for the .40-50 SS and for paper patched bullets, so if I'm lucky the chamber might be a bit generous and accept a shortened .303 case with a full diameter .410" boolit. I'll just have to try seating a dummy round and see what happens ...