my first experience with a 44/40 revolver

[johnson1942]

got a remington 1875 uberti 44/40 recently. 7 and 1/2 inch barrel. got a box of blackhills 44/40 cowboy loads recently on a trip with 200 grain lead bullets in the cases. the first thing i noticed is the cases dont look bottlenecked. i checked the box, 44/40 it said. they fit the gun when loaded very well and when fired, then they looked bottle necked. is this normal with all store bought 44/40 ammunition? as the remington uberti it is a copy of a military army gun of those days, this gun shoots in perfect alignment but 6 inches high at 20 yards. im not going to mess with that, just get used to it. i also put in a aftermarket spring and now it cocks as smooth as butter. before the spring it cocked very stiff. im new to the 44/40 and have reloaded a lot of 45 long colt . because of the bottle neck is it hard to reload? what is the best set of dies to make reloading perfect every round? i have three other uberti colt open tops and they all shot to a perfect point of aim. they are not military type guns. it would seem that it would take a really tall front sight to make the remington shoot to point of aim? anything anybody can tell me about the 44/40 and maybe even this remington would be interesting and helpful. thanks beforehand.

[Drm50]

I had several Win 92s & Marlin 94s and Colts in 44/40. I have RCBS dies that I bought in 60s.
Never had any trouble loading 44/40 and 99% of my loading was with cast bullets. If you have
loaded 45Colt you will have no problem. I also have no experience with replicas, but I have found
with old originals they usually do better with Factory Duplication loads and cast bullets. The only
exception to this was a Colt DA, made in early 1900s, it liked Jacketed bullets. I have 2 shell
holders for 44/40, either Lyman or RCBS is finicky and very tight on some of the older brass.

[Multigunner]

Civil War era revolvers were sighted to hit dead on at 125 yards , aiming low at closer ranges.
In Calvary use the revolver was an offensive weapon used in the attack. The higher rate of fire was expected to make up for lack of long range performance, but the saber was still considered the primary weapon.

The standard tactic for Federal calvary early in the war when engaging enemy calvary was to fire the carbine from the saddle before charging then empty the revolver at the enemy when closing, going to the saber at close quarters.

This tactic cost them dearly when Mosby and other Confederate calvary leaders chose to issue two or more revolvers to their men and not waste ammo firing at longer ranges while on the move. The Federals found themselves bringing a knife to a gunfight.
Mosby was able to issue captured Federal Remington revolvers to his men, some carrying four to six loaded revolvers and extra preloaded cylinders. Most of his men didn't even carry sabers.
Mosby had wiped out a large force of Federal calvary early on capturing hundreds of sidearms.

[clum553946]

Cowboy RCBS dies work really well for me

[Silver Jack Hammer]

The .44-40 uses steel dies so lube your cases before sizing. I tumble after sizing to remove the lube. The traditional .44-40 boolits don't have a crimping groove. I cast with RCBS 44-200-CM that does have a crimping groove, it is 210 gr with wheel weights. The old .44-40 was stuffed full of Holy Black so it never compressed in tubular magazines hence no need for the crimping groove. Lubing and tumbling is no problem. Be a little more careful seating, .44-40 brass is thinner at the case mouth and more prone to crushing cases. You'll get the hang of it, it's a good cartridge.

[bob208]

I have a old emf Dakoda 5 1/2 " barrel. I use the rcbs mold and rcbs dies. I have loaded about 2 thousand with b-p and a bunch with smokeless. all with cast bullets sized to .429. I only ever crushed 3 cases.

[deepwater]

I have loaded .44-40 with the old American Pioneer synthetic for use in original Colts, original Winchester '83 and a pair of Cimarron SAAs. The synthetic was used in a Dillon 550B with great results. I used normal procedures (slower to baby the seating step) and did not have any problems in the progressive press. I used a standard crimp. A slight smoke from the muzzles was reminiscent of putting oil in the Daisy air rifle (not the BB gun, just the toy one). Every shot made me smirk with the silliness of it!!

[Der Gebirgsjager]

I only began loading for .44-40 about 5 years ago, so am probably not the world's greatest authority. To try and answer some of your observations and questions--the .44-40 isn't really very bottlenecked--just a little. Noticeable when compared to a .45 Colt, but not at all when compared to a .30-06, so the term "bottleneck" is relevant. I'd describe it more as being slightly tapered. I've wondered about why they made it that way, and I think it was a design feature for easy functioning in lever action rifles, and chambering it in a handgun came shortly after as a convenience. Otherwise I'm at a loss as to why they designed it that way, as the .45 Colt is hard to beat. You are correct that the factory loads usually don't appear as tapered as the fired brass does, which has fire formed to the chamber. The brass is unusually thin in the neck area and when in the "first time learning mode" it's unusual not to crush a few when first handling them for reloading. You have to be sure that the bullet is the proper diameter and the case mouth flared/expanded. My experience I that it is best to expand the necks, seat the boolit, and crimp as separate operations. Trying to seat and crimp in one operation can get you the crushed case mouth and ruined piece of brass. I used Lee dies for reloading this cartridge, and do the crimp with a Lee Factory Crimp Die. The best thing you could do right off is to measure the mouths of the cylinder chambers and determine if your individual revolver will prefer .427, .428, or .429 diameter cast boolits for best accuracy. I have a 5 1/2" Uberti 1873 and it also shoots high. There really is no practical cure for elevation problems other than to build up or replace the front sight blade or file the blade lower as needed, and metal removed is hard to replace. Hotter loads tend to shoot lower, and also different boolit weights and different charges will shoot to different points of impact, so it's best to experiment around until you find what comes closest to the bullseye and then make that your official load. I bought my initial 200 pieces of Starline brass from Midway, but since then have picked up some more on this forum. Here's some of mine:
175613

[Outpost75]

Filing the front sight blade will make the revolver shoot higher still. You need a higher front sight to lower point of impact.

[Der Gebirgsjager]

You are correct.

[Der Gebirgsjager]

I have a old emf Dakoda 5 1/2 " barrel. I use the rcbs mold and rcbs dies. I have loaded about 2 thousand with b-p and a bunch with smokeless. all with cast bullets sized to .429. I only ever crushed 3 cases.

I've got a .44-40 Dakota also! A 4 3/4", purchased in the late 1970s. What a tack driver! Not as nicely finished as a Uberti, but an under-rated gun for sure. I read up on them a while back, and it seems that Armi Jager went out of business because of a lack of skilled labor. Maybe Uberti hired their workers away from them.

[9.3X62AL]

I have a vintage 1897 Win '73 carbine and a vintage 2012 Uberti Cattleman Pasta Colta in 44/40 WCF. Good info on reloading above--the only thing I would add is to use Starline brass in place of the WW and RP "usual suspects". The SL seems to be made of sterner stuff, and seems not as weak as the other makes. It expands sufficiently to seal the chambers at firing, though--even with the tame 1873-era pressures.

Hopefully, "W30WCF" will amble in here and re-describe his loading regimen with Lyman #427098 and RL-7. I have used this method in both 32/20 (with Lyman #311008) and 44/40 rifles and revolvers, and it works very well. I now have a nice plain-base 200 grain 44 caliber bullet--SAECO #446--that has a pronounced crimp groove. This enables more flexibility with load selection, but there are no flies on the W30WCF method--full 1873 ballistics and full support to seated bullets on the powder column. Things get a little bit gritty after 40-50 rounds, but nothing like the black powder fouling you get with Goex Flaming Potting Soil.

[Outpost75]

With RL7 or 4198 the loading technique is the same as for black powder. Use enough powder to fill the case to provide 1/8" compression with bullet seated. About 24 grains with 215 grain bullet, 26 grains with 200 grain bullet. Velocity in same range as equal volume of Swiss black. Safe in 1873 and revolvers, but you will get some unburned powder in the wheelgun. Blow out chambers when you reload.