New "original" Henry 44-40 loading

[mckenziedrums]

So yesterday my father in law came across one while we were out and decided he had to have one. Ammo is obviously hard to find but there's plenty of brass out there to be had. Has anyone cast/loaded for this gun specifically? I'm going to try and make up a few hundred rounds for him as Christmas gifts. That means I won't have access to the gun to slug it or test feeding.... not ideal by any means. So info I'm curious about would be suggested bullet profiles and seating depth. I'll handle the powder load, going to go with a fairly light and safe load.

[chuckerbird]

I use 200 grain lrnfp sized either .427 or .428. I seat them to 1.590 over all length.

[mckenziedrums]

That's in one of the new ones correct? Good to know on the sizing... wasn't sure whether these ran tight like older ones or not

[Outpost75]

Proven recipes which are safe and work, are to use soft lead .429" bullets in Starline brass, which will chamber in most guns. Bullets should be seated to as not to exceed 1.59" overall cartridge length. If using smokeless powder be sure to choose a bullet which has a crimp groove. A crimp groove is not needed for black powder because the compressed powder charge supports the bullet base against compression of the magazine spring. If using hard cast commercial bullets it is important to use a larger diameter than the often recommended .427" because you cannot count on getting any bullet upset with light cowboy loads.

Ideally bullets should be plainbased, designed for the .44-40 cartridge and be cast no harder than wheelweights. Softer is better. I use 50-50 wheelweights and plumbers lead with no more tin added than is necessary to get good castings. A BHN of 6-10 gives best results with mild Cowboy loads. For plinking or Cowboy shooting at close range steel targets subsonic rifle loads around 950-1050 fps and 750-800 fps in a revolver are pleasant to shoot and accurate.

For hunting purposes with plainbased bullets velocity should approximate original blackpowder loads, not to exceed about 1300 fps in a rifle and or revolver not over about 900. Use the largest bullet diameter which chambers freely and extracts loaded rounds without resistance. For most MODERN .44-40 rifles correct bullet diameter will probably be closer to .429-.430" than to the usually recommended .427-.428," which is sure to lead if you use commercial hard cast bullets in a modern barrel of nominal ".44 Magnum" dimensions.

If you are allicted with the common curse of large groove diameter greater than .429" and a tight chamber neck, which does not permit using bullets of sufficient diameter to shoot accurately, then when casting your own bullets you should consider the Accurate 43-200Q or 43-200QL bullets, which have an enlarged forepart and smaller shank, to ensure safe neck clearance for bullet release. The enlarged forepart is sized to as large a diameter as needed to fit modern oversized bores or worn throats in older rifles. The shank of the bullet being smaller, is unaffected by the sizing.

The standard 43-200Q has a small lube groove which is adequate for smokeless powder cowboy loads and hunting loads which do not exceed blackpowder velocity. The "QL" has a larger lube groove intended for blackpowder application.

In the toggle-link actions do not exceed the loadss listed for "Group 1" rifles in the Lyman Cast Bullet Handbook, 4th Edition, (2010) p. 208. Good choices are 5.0 to 6.0 grains of TiteGroup or 700-X, 5.5 to 6.5 grains of Bullseye or Red Dot, 6.5 to 8.0 grains of Unique, or PB, 7.0 to 8.0 grains of Green Dot, 8.0 to 9.0 grains of Herco or SR4756, or 22-24 grains of RL7, the latter being intended for rifle use only, because RL7 while permits loading compressed smokeless charges as if you were loading black powder, without exceeding SAAMI pressure limits, it does NOT burn well in revolvers.

These loads are all proven and "work." Work up cautiously from the starting loads as accuracy indicates. .

High velocity loads for the Winchester 92 and Ruger Vaquero revolvers for hunting are a different breed of cat and should be avoided in your Original Henry. Factory .44-40 loads do dot exceed 13,700 psi and you should heed that advice.

Seat bullets and crimp in separate operations. The Lee Die set with the factory crimp die is what you want.

Lots of .44-40 shooters lurk here, so if you have more questions, fire away. These bullets are proven to work. With others your mileage may vary.
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[mckenziedrums]

I've read over some of your other posts actually, great information thanks! The variance in bore sizes, etc is why I'm hoping for first hand experience with this newish rifle :)

[Speedo66]

Confused here. "New" to you, or new rifle? Original Henrys were .44 rimfire.

[mckenziedrums]

Henry released a new 1860 just about a year ago modeled after the original. So the gun is brand new.

[mack1]

i use an accurate. 430-215c sized to .430 with 35gr of ol-e 2f light compression. I think finding comercial cast boolet the right shape and soft enough to slug up to .429 will be hard to find.

[mckenziedrums]

mack: That's in one of these rifles correct? I've got an email out to Henry to get the bore size but thought I'd check. My gut was that they'd use a modern larger size but I want to confirm before I go picking out a mold. I'm a do it yourself kind of guy so I wasn't really planning on going with a commercial bullet unless I absolutely had to.

[mack1]

Yes the new BTH HRA Henry 44-40. Great rifle, made in usa henry maby they will do a 66 next.

[mckenziedrums]

Awesome... thanks for the info. That gives me a place to start and a dent in my wallet as I go hunt down a mold. Hurts twice as bad when the Mihec invoice hit the email this morning. Ouch!

[mckenziedrums]

For anyone else searching this... I received an email back from Henry. The rifles are designed with .422 lands and .428 grooves. Tolerances are held to +/0 .001.

[HABCAN]

Without question my best pick in .44-40 is the 6-cav LEE 429-200-RF as-cast. Works like a charm, casts easy, boolit feeds well, hits hard. Your alloy and load choice.

[mckenziedrums]

Yea that's on my short list... I'd love to get the NOE 44-40 mold but it's out of stock and finding one used is probably quite a long shot. The Lee will get me by until I go spend more money than I should on a fancy mold. Hopefully someone will reply to my wanted thread with some dies and a sizer so I can get this party started and get some ammo done before Christmas.

[rintinglen]

Without question my best pick in .44-40 is the 6-cav LEE 429-200-RF as-cast. Works like a charm, casts easy, boolit feeds well, hits hard. Your alloy and load choice.

+1
I have used this boolit in my S&W 544 extensively and it will work. 7.5 grains of Unique is extremely accurate in my gun. How well it'll work in your 24 inch tube, I can't say, but I'm betting on good things.

[mckenziedrums]

Alrighty... Lee mold ordered along with dies (including crimp die just in case) and now I just need some brass. Hopefully he'll be very happy this Christmas when I show up with ammo in hand. :)

[historicfirearms]

How did the reloading project turn out? What did you size the bullets at and how did they shoot? How did your uncle like the rifle? I'm really wanting one of them myself.

[smokeywolf]

Like Speedo66, I was a bit confused at first. Back in 1950s my dad had a original 1860s Henry and had done a conversion on it to fire and cycle 44-40 center-fire cartridges.

[mckenziedrums]

Ya know it's funny... My father in law JUST shot the loads I made about 3 months ago. He'd not had a chance to get to a rifle range and they just opened up a new one by him that he'd been waiting on them to finish. According to him they shot great and he loves the rifle. Got a request to load some more up. Of course now that it's been almost 2 years AND I moved, the fun part will be finding my notes. I'm fairly certain I used the Lee mold, sized them to .429 and loaded them with Unique but that's about all I recall from memory.