Sorry to hear this. Prayers for his family and friends.
On a separate note, this thread really does need to be a sticky.
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Sorry to hear this. Prayers for his family and friends.
On a separate note, this thread really does need to be a sticky.
Make this a sticky.
Bob
Yes, please make this a sticky.
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I have come along to this thread ver late, I am loading for both a Uberti '73 carbine and a Henry , both in .44-40 WCF, I would like to thank the late Jack Christian for his wonderful work which has set me up to achieve the mythical 40 grains of FFFg that I was always told was not possible in the modern case which is not balloon headed like the originals. I have just loaded 20 compressed loads using an original Winchester .44 mould, pure lead bullet, but will later correct that. I normally only ever loaded 31 grains of FFFg as that was all I thought could be fitted into the modern case.
My sincere condolences to Jacks' family and friends, an obvious great loss to the Cast Boolit brotherhood as well.
Kindest regards
Gordon
Great Info, thanks!
John Kort (as I knew him) helped me turn a cantankerous 1873 Uberti in 44WCF into one of the most accurate and fun rifles that I ever shot.
One of the few regrets that I have is never looking him in the eye and shaking his hand. Swiss 2F and the 44WCF are a marriage made in heaven.
That Mav Dutchman in 9-10 brinell with 24 gns. 3F Swiss, CCI primers, SPG, sized 430 in a steel frame Henry will put one right behind the other at 50y. Caution. Pure lead will not work.
good morning. I'm have having a beautiful Colorado snow day. I have a question loading bp for 44 40 reloads for my 73 winchester 24", built in 1886. I have had the rifle inspected by my master gunsmith and she is good to shot. I have years of reloading all kinds of antique ammo using modern powders and substitute powders. Reloading Specs: Star brass, Schuetzen FFG, 200 grn lead, greased with crisco. After doing a few months of research I have found a variety of load suggestions. 2.2 dipper or 39 grain recommended by Goetz (specs found on their website), or my smith recommended 35.
Should I use a lighter load of bp topped off with creme of wheat to protect the rifle. Thank you for all your responses.
Full charge BP load will be quite satisfactory.
The Lee 2.2cc dipper throws about 35 grains of black powder. I use that for full-power loads under a 219 grain bullet. From the 24" barrel of my Uberti 1873 Sporting Rifle, it averages a bit over 1300 FPS when using Swiss. Goex is less energetic so it will deliver lower velocities.
Enjoy your "new" rifle!
Back in the 1980s through the mid 1990s I owned a beat-up on the outside but fully functional on the inside 1873 Winchester made in 1887. It was a special order rifle with a round 28" barrel. Originally a 38 WCF the inside of the barrel looked like the proverbial sewer pipe. I had Clifford LaBounty re-bore and re-line it to a .428" 44 WCF. I used Rem or Win brass and loaded 36g of FFFg behind Lyman's 200g RNFP bullet. Alloy was 1-20 and I lubed them with SPG. The memory fades but as I recall they chronographed at a something over 1300 fps.
Shot it for close to 10 years in CAS matches. Back then they expected you to actually be able to shoot so rifle targets would go out to 60 or 70 yards on occasion. That rifle never missed one of those longer shots, even after firing 8 or 9 rounds at closer targets. On a clear still day at the range I shot a 7" five shot group from a sandbag rest at 200 yards with the original barrel mounted sights. And yes, my eyes were much better back then. (smile)
My $.02 would be, don't down load it. Learn what it was like to shoot it in the old days, with BP ammo performing at the same level as the original. But, that's me and what I did with my rifle. Your gun, your choice at your comfort level.
Dave
^^^^This^^^^[
Again I wish to thank everyone for your input. Yesterday to be safe, I took some test shots with my new winchester golden boy. It became clear how much lower the pressures are using BP over modern powders, I than shot 73 using a full BP load as recommended above. Now that i have some BP experience, I understand why there is no need to cut any BP loads in the future. Easy peasy
Fun aint it?
Don't let the "low" BP pressures fool you. Full load BP pressures today are not the same as they were yesteryear. While modern BP pressures are between 6,000psi and 10,000psi pending which powders and components are used and how much, original BP loads in original brass produced a bit more pressures, based on my amature tests, between 13,000psi to 14,000psi. Those higher pressure BP loads did not have the same impact on the arms as did the same pressures as with the later faster burning smokeless powders. Winchester didn't use pistol powders in their factory 44-40 loads until about 1950 when they switched from a lower pressure rifle powder to faster burning, higher pressure ball powders. By 1978, they started using flake powders that resemble Unique.
If you are really bored, check out the 44-40 smokeless powder transition years
https://sites.google.com/view/44winc...ansition-years