Caliber for Remington Hepburn

[Jedman]

Looking at your first choices mentioned I like the idea of the 35/30-30. Simple rebore, no need to modify the extractor and a million bullet choices.

Jedman

[GARD72977]

38-55 or reline/ re barrel to 32-40 . I would want a much lighter rifle to go to a pistol caliber . Have you actually shot it as a 32-40 ?

I have not shot it. The bore is so large I don't have a mold for it

[Gunlaker]

I have not shot it. The bore is so large I don't have a mold for it

How large? Is there any chance that it was rebored to be a .33-47? That was done to some of the old barrels. It still uses a .32-40 case, but the rifling is more like 0.338"

Chris.

[dave roelle]

Chill Wills has a nice approach, and it fits you 200 yr desire

sweety fun piece, in a classic cartridge


Dave

[Bigslug]

I have not shot it. The bore is so large I don't have a mold for it

Gard,

Link to the thread for my Dad's Miroku High Wall: http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...pro-High-Wall)

Much info there regarding the dimensions we pegged out for bore, groove, and chamber neck leading to the print specs we ended up with for the mold, as well as the groups we turned out. We encountered with this and a Miroku 71 .348 that the Japanese are VERY precise about cloning Winchester's nominal specs from back in the day. Obviously, mileage may vary on a Remington, but it was such a popular target round back in the day that one would expect/hope for the major dimensions to be fairly well standardized. It's worth noting that these .32-40's were NOT the .312"-.314" diameter we call .32's today - as I recall, we ended up casting .324, sizing .323".

At any rate, if it's shootable as is, I'd invest some time in figuring out what its bore wants. Unaltered Hepburns ain't cheap.

[ascast]

my 2 cents, if it was rebored to 33 40, it should be marked as such. Anyway, 33-40 was a common enough fix for a shot out, never cleaned 32-40. I had Stevens 44 that had been fixed in that manner. I oddly found a recut Winchester mold for it. It was a good shooting combo-sadly it went down the road.

[GARD72977]

The bore is .327 if I remember right. There seems to be a good number of Hepburn's with large bores. It is thought they they were special order for breech seating. The bore is good but not perfect. I'm just not interested in breech seating for this rifle.

I have a Schuetzen rifle 32-40 on order that will be breech seated.

I'm just wanting to do something with the gun that makes me want to shoot it.

[dig-um]

interesting thread on 40-50 or 40-70
I'm one to read and not post -so here it goes
I'm a Maynard guy and started with 40-70 1873 thick rim and make it from 405 win also have 40-60 1873 that uses 30-40 Krag well
have an original mold for both conical and cylindrical

now just picked up a Remington Hepburn 40-2.5 with slug .403 grooves and shallow rifling
will stay with Sr4759 and use my 41 mag mold

A good choice for all to consider would be 38 Ballard extra long as it uses 357 max brass-just happened to get a 1882 barrel in that caliber -uses 357 pills and adds to one of my other frame sets

hope this adds something and hope to start a new thread on the Maynard!

ART

[Shawrco]

I think .357 Max. might have all the attributes you are looking for except nostalgia. Straight wall pistol case for ease of progressive loading. Manageable recoil, flat trajectory for a pistol cartridge. Brass is not as plentiful as 45 Colt but it will not use lead as fast. Could always use .38 special or .357 mag ammo if need be. Maybe call it .38 Straight and pretend it is an old time cartridge. Or, maybe .38-44, there have been a couple of those in the past.

Tim

I put an octagon barrel on a Win Low Wall for my daughter to shoot our reduced range silhouette matches. Chambered with 357 Max reamer and called it a 38 Ballard XL. Agree with 40-50 Sharps Straight as a good candidate

[Reverend Al]

I have an original Remington Hepburn in .40-50 Sharps Straight and it is a joy to shoot, plus shooter brass is easily made from .303 British cases. I shorten the cases, anneal the mouths, prime them, then load with 8.5 grains of fast shotgun powder, 1/4 sheet of toilet tissue, bulk yellow cornmeal to the case mouth, held in place with another 1/4 sheet of toilet tissue. Fire-form and then trim to final length. Easy peasy. It is a cartridge that I would highly recommend. Just my 2 cents worth ...

[John Boy]

Part of me just wants something easy in a pistol caliber that's easy to reload.

32-20