.44-40 on Dillon or Rock Chucker?

[Silver Jack Hammer]

A fellow shooter was shooting .44-40 at a match yesterday and I asked him if he did those on a Dillon or a Rock Chucker. He said he did them on VISA. What a hoot.

He said bought the factory loaded ammo back in 1995, unknowing what a good deal that that turned out to be. The reason I asked him was because the .44-40 is such a pain to reload on a progressive, I've gone to loading .44-40 on a single stage and now I'm making good .44-40 boolits. The .44 Special just goes through the Dillon without hick up.

Another funny thing I saw at the match was Schofields coming out of the holster, opening and throwing boolits all over the ground. That happened three times before noon to two different shooters.

[btroj]

I load my 32-20 on a Dillon. Sort of.
I size and deprime on a single stage. Brass is then tumbled to remove lube.
They then go on Dillon with a universal decap in station one to remove media from flash hole. Works well and does get ammo done faster as I am not repeating as many steps one at a time.

I call it loading semi-progressively.

[dmize]

I could'nt see loading any of the "dash" cartdidges on a progressive without it being a major and costly PIA.
As far as the Schofields..mine at least has a pretty straightforeward and positive lock. Either the shells werent loaded correctly and not letting the frame fully close or somone was hitting the latch on a holster.

[btroj]

How is my method of loading 32-20 on a Dillon costly? I use a universal decap die, otherwise I am using just the standard die set.
It is also not a PITA as I reduce the number of handle pulls immensely. The dillon does the belling, dropping powder, seating bullets, and crimping all at once. That reduces time and effort immensely.

[Lloyd Smale]

Ive loaded 3220s and 4440s for years. Ive loaded them on square deals and on my 550. All it do is put maybe 200 cases in a shoe box and give the top of the pile a one or two second shot of one shot. mix the cases with my hands and thats all the lube ive ever used and i dont even bother taking it off. For the most part a guy could probably get away without using any lube. I dont see what makes them one bit harder to load progressively then a 44 mag.

[Larry Gibson]

My 44-40 is a Ruger OM Vaquero and RCBS FL dies just size the cases to fit the chambers perfectly. They require the cases to be lubed so I load them on my single stage Pacific press. I've only 300 cases so it's not that big of a deal. I loaded many thousands of handgun cartridges for years on that press and I've developed a technique where it goes pretty quick. However, the Vaquero is shot just for fun and not in CBA shooting where lot's of rounds are needed for practice and competion. Best to get a straight walled cartridge that you can use carbide sizers sans lube on a progressive press for such.

I also saw a couple Schofields dump their loads on draw.....humerous to watch but not so humorous for the shooter while they are shooting. They laughed afterwords though.....great bunch those SASS CBA shooters......

Larry Gibson

[dmize]

Hey if it works for you great.
With the ease that those cases can be trashed on a single stage I never considered using my 550.

[9.3X62AL]

I load both 32-20 and 44-40 on my semi-progressive Ponsness-Warren P-200, which is really a turret-press variant. Gentle and careful insertion of these weak-walled cases into dies is essential to avoid ruining them. If I'm lax, I can ruin these cases on either the Rockchucker or the P-W.

Starline brass in either caliber is an upgrade from the usual WW/RP cases. It isn't foolproof, but has .001"-.0015" thicker case mouth metal. It seems slightly more forgiving than the mainstream makers' products.