Just Got My Remington Hepborn Back

[old turtle]

i have by grandfathers Remington Hepburn back. I am 85 and it was his hunting rifle. The barrel was changed along the way. It is a long story. anyway the new old barrel was not in good shape internally. I sent it to have a liner put in. It shoots minute of angle even with my first handloads. I am so happy I don't know what to do. Actually I do, it is bullet casting and reloading time. I do not know if the Forum will allow me to post the Gunsmith who did it but anyone interested can send me a PM.

[marlinman93]

i have by grandfathers Remington Hepburn back. I am 85 and it was his hunting rifle. The barrel was changed along the way. It is a long story. anyway the new old barrel was not in good shape internally. I sent it to have a liner put in. It shoots minute of angle even with my first handloads. I am so happy I don't know what to do. Actually I do, it is bullet casting and reloading time. I do not know if the Forum will allow me to post the Gunsmith who did it but anyone interested can send me a PM.

As far as I know there's no problem naming a gunsmith who works on rifles?
I have a lot of love for any Remington old single shot rifle, and especially the Hepburns! I've got 4 of them, and I'd have a lot more if they weren't so expensive!

[EOChief66]

You are a lucky man to have such a nice rifle from your grandfather. To me family heirlooms are very important to the family structure!
On a side note I have been trying to purchase a Remington Hepburn from a local gun shop for over 6 months. My offers keep getting a no! I think he paid to much for it and does not want to loose money.
Good luck shooting you grandfathers rifle!

[Bazoo]

That's a cool old gun. I'd like to see pics of the gun, hear about the loads, and hear some of your grandfather's stories. Pretty awesome stuff, thanks for sharing!

[Chill Wills]

i have by grandfathers Remington Hepburn back. I am 85 and it was his hunting rifle. The barrel was changed along the way. It is a long story. anyway the new old barrel was not in good shape internally. I sent it to have a liner put in. It shoots minute of angle even with my first handloads. I am so happy I don't know what to do. Actually I do, it is bullet casting and reloading time. I do not know if the Forum will allow me to post the Gunsmith who did it but anyone interested can send me a PM.
How about some more details and maybe pictures for us Hepburn fans? I am sure I am not the only one that would enjoy knowing about the rifle and Yes, the gunsmith too!

[EOChief66]

I will third that thought, how about some pictures!

[old turtle]

I am not very high tech, I will get my son to help attach photos.

[uscra112]

And you can certainly tell us who did the work.

[old turtle]

I am happy to say the work was done by John Taylor, Taylor Machine. Excellent work. I have had trouble attaching the photos so my son is going send me a link which I will post

[Hannibal]

I am happy to say the work was done by John Taylor, Taylor Machine. Excellent work. I have had trouble attaching the photos so my son is going send me a link which I will post

I've never met him but John is a very nice guy based on conversations. I'm not surprised that you're happy with his work. He's definitely one of the Good Guys on the forum.

[Shawlerbrook]

John does great work and is a valuable member of the group here. Would also love to see some pictures.

[old turtle]

Here are the pics:click to enlarge
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[corbinace]

Very nice!

[Bazoo]

Oh wow, that's awesome! Thank you for sharing.

[marlinman93]

Love Hepburns, and that's a very nice one! Glad you got it back!

[EOChief66]

A very nice looking Hepburn! I would not mind having that one in my safe!

[Bazoo]

It is a classy looking old gun that's for sure. Love that buttplate.

[Chill Wills]

Thanks for taking the time to post the pictures. Very nice classic sporting Hepburn. I can't remember for sure but the schnabel forend may be common to the later Hepburn production. Does that sound right?

[old turtle]

Yes that forearm is on the later ones. This rifle was originally in 32-40 Remington which is much different from 32-40 Winchester. The original barrel was replaced and I ask my brother to save it but it appears lost. I understand the there several members of a hunting camp and they got together and all ordered the same rifle. I hope the others have survived. I don't understand why the Hepburn's were not more popular. This setup is ideal for shooting offhand. it is not as smooth looking as the Winchester's but like the overall look of the Hepburns.

[marlinman93]

Yes that forearm is on the later ones. This rifle was originally in 32-40 Remington which is much different from 32-40 Winchester. The original barrel was replaced and I ask my brother to save it but it appears lost. I understand the there several members of a hunting camp and they got together and all ordered the same rifle. I hope the others have survived. I don't understand why the Hepburn's were not more popular. This setup is ideal for shooting offhand. it is not as smooth looking as the Winchester's but like the overall look of the Hepburns.

Few reasons I think for the Hepburns not being as many produced as others. First being they came out not that many years before Remington went bankrupt. Second being the side lever doesn't give a lot of leverage to extract a stuck case. And finally compared to the Rolling Block the Hepburn was a fair amount higher priced.
They're certainly a huge improvement over the Rolling Block, and as strong as any 1800's other single shots made.

[turtlezx]

32 40 winchester and remington shells are different ???

from turtlezx to old turtle funny

[marlinman93]

32 40 winchester and remington shells are different ???

from turtlezx to old turtle funny

Yes. But there is no such cartridge as ".32-40 Winchester" The .32-40 we know so well, and is most common is the .32-40 Ballard or Marlin. Winchester chambered it later after Marlin introduced this cartridge in their Ballard rifles.
Remington actually chambered their rifles in their own .32-40 Remington, and also in .32-40 Marlin and Ballard. My Hepburn is stamped ".32-40 B & M" bottom side of the barrel in front of the forearm tip.
My Match B Hepburn in .32-40 B&M, with 34" half octagon barrel:

https://i.imgur.com/7XraAfCl.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/zkzcBKbl.jpg

[Gunlaker]

I imagine brass is hard to find for the 32-40 Remington. I recently noticed that one of the shops up here in Canada has 40 rounds of loaded 32-40 Remington ammunition for sale. Not original, they seem to be commercial reloads. Probably pretty old. Not too many people know about the cartridge, other than dedicated single shot guys.

Chris.

[marlinman93]

I imagine brass is hard to find for the 32-40 Remington. I recently noticed that one of the shops up here in Canada has 40 rounds of loaded 32-40 Remington ammunition for sale. Not original, they seem to be commercial reloads. Probably pretty old. Not too many people know about the cartridge, other than dedicated single shot guys.

Chris.

Yes, and no donor brass is going to be found either that could be reworked. But a .32 Remington chamber can be easily reamed to the common .32-40 if one wants to shoot it.

[turtlezx]

93 do you have apicture the 2 32 40s side by side??

[marlinman93]

93 do you have apicture the 2 32 40s side by side??

No, I don't own any .32 Remingtons, or any cartridges. The length is almost identical of the two cartridges, but the .32-40 B&M is a .506" rim diameter, while the .32 Remington is a .421" rim that's rebated like a .30-06, or other modern cartridges. The .32 Rem. is also a bottleneck cartridge, and now that I think about it, a reamer for .32-40 B&M might not clean up the shoulder of the chamber on a .32 Remington?
I honestly have never heard of the .32 Remington being called a ".32-40 Rem." until this thread? It's always just been .32 Remington.

[old turtle]

The 32-40 Remington is actually a 308 bore. the brass can be made from 303 Enfield or 30-40 Kreg. You can see it in Cartilages of the World. My guns original barrel was chambered in this round some mistakes were made with the barrel and it was change to the 32-40 Winchester

[dtknowles]

I guess it is time to share a picture of mine again. Mine is a little different animal. It is a custom rifle made on an original action. The picture does not do justice to the wood or case colors. It is chambered in 25 Krag AI.320563
Tim

[Bazoo]

dtknowles, wow, that is cool. Got any pics of the full gun?

[dtknowles]

I did not find any when I went looking for pictures. I need to get it out of storage and take some. I was thinking of showing it off to a friend anyway. Go to his place and shoot it. I will make sure and get a picture of the markings too, it has the gunsmiths name on it. 25 Krag AI is ballistically similar to 25-06. It will reach out there pretty good.

Tim

[marlinman93]

The 32-40 Remington is actually a 308 bore. the brass can be made from 303 Enfield or 30-40 Kreg. You can see it in Cartilages of the World. My guns original barrel was chambered in this round some mistakes were made with the barrel and it was change to the 32-40 Winchester

Thanks! Looks like both of those donor cases would be very close with just 3-4 thousandths larger base and rim diameter. Might not be an issue at all if chamber is a little generous. And they're certainly very inexpensive brass too! I use both to form my .40-50 Sharps Straight brass and find it for .50-.60 cents a piece often.

[beltfed]

I use the CH-4D dies in 32-40 Rem for my match chambered BRG BPCR rifle.
The Rem 303 Brit brass works perfectly. I still have the Dan Theodore tight neck
reamer that was used and is dimensioned for this brass. Brass only needs to be neck turned just enough to make it concentric neck thickness after forming so as to use
0.309" diameter bullets to fit the groove dia
beltfed/arnie

[Rockindaddy]

Nice Hepburn! Take it out and bang Bambi with it! The venison always tastes better when you use your own handloads!!!!!

[beltfed]

Interesting to note that the 32-40 Remington preceded the 32-40 BMW (Ballard/Marlin/Win) by something like a dozen years- 1871-1872 for the Rem, and 1884 for the 32-40BMW.

Also, I find, in my handloading it, the 32-40 rem case capacity is Very close to that of the 30-30. I can pretty much use any safe 30-30 load in the 32-40 Rem, for cast or for jacketed if I choose--so far, I have only shot cast BP or smokeless loads in it. My favorite load in my Rem, is 15.5 gr IMR 4227 under the Lyman 311299, 200 gr bullet for Schuetzen matches.
beltfed/arnie

[dtknowles]

dtknowles, wow, that is cool. Got any pics of the full gun?

Ok, I finally dug it out of the closet.

321769
Tim

[Bazoo]

Nice, thanks for going to the trouble of sharing.