What is a 40.2 1/2?

[EOChief66]

Is it a 40-65 or a 40-70?
Thanks

[Mk42gunner]

I don't know for sure, but I would bet money it is not the .40-65. The .40-65 is basically a necked down .45-70 which has a 2.1" long case.

The best answer, if you are trying to identify a rifle in your possession is to do a chamber cast. Who knows what has happened in the century and a half since it left the factory.

Robert

[Shawlerbrook]

Could this be what you are talking about ?

https://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?400852-What-is-a-40-2-1-10

[Abert Rim]

Think we are talking about the .40 2 1/2 Sharps Straight here, fellas. Sharps chambered the .40 2 1/4 Sharps Bottleneck real early in the game, but there began to develop a consensus among rifle shooters in the mid-1870s that bottleneck cartridges gave more throat fouling than straight cases, so Sharps dropped its bottleneck cartridges and replaced them with straight cases that held about the same amount of powder; they introduced the .40 2 1/2 in March of 1876, according to Frank Sellers.

[Randy Bohannon]

40-70 Sharps Straight

[Sgt H]

My vote is for 2.5" Sharps straight.

[EOChief66]

I guess I should have added to my original post that it is on the bbl. of an early Remington Hepburn.

[Don McDowell]

It's the 40-70

[marlinman93]

My vote is for 2.5" Sharps straight.

Yes. That's the way Sharps marked their guns. Ballard .40-70 is basically the same case.

[EOChief66]

I just got back from looking at that rifle again!
The chamber appears to be straight, no shoulder.

Marlinman93, do the Remington Hepburn's have a half cock, this one does not! The hammer is extremally hard to cock, like it has a very stiff spring.

[marlinman93]

I just got back from looking at that rifle again!
The chamber appears to be straight, no shoulder.

Marlinman93, do the Remington Hepburn's have a half cock, this one does not! The hammer is extremally hard to cock, like it has a very stiff spring.

Yes, they have a half cock, but it can be barely off the hammer's fully down position. Sometimes you have to carefully feel the click as you draw the hammer back. A replacement mainspring will usually be a lot heavier, but can be lighter.

[John Taylor]

There's a hole bunch of 40-70s out there. 40-70 Ballard, sharps, Winchester, Peabody, Remington, 40-72 Winchester and a few others I can't think of right now. The Sharps has a 2.5" case length.

[EOChief66]

Thanks everyone for the help!