question??

[bigdog454]

The 45-70 takes a 45 cal bullet and 70 gr bp, the 44-40 takes a 44 cal bullet and 40? gr bp. So what about the 38-40? that takes a 40 cal bullet huh?
how dis thaey come up with that?
BD

[Walks]

Wouldn't a .40WCF sound strange to you?
Maybe Winchester thought there would be confusion with .44WCF. There were many more pronounced regional accents back then there are today.

[toallmy]

Good question . I have a Winchester 38-40 mold a fellow gave me one day saying he had a 38 mold if i wanted it , because he doesn't cast . I graciously excepted his offer without mentioning the difference , later to find he had his wife's grandfather's 38-40 . I occasionally cast him up a hundred or so boolits to load .
Couldn't they have just made a 40-40 & kept it simple ?

[John Boy]

Some history reading about the 38-40 …. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.38-40_Winchester

[1Hawkeye]

Yep its goofy .40 cal bullet with 38 grains of powder.

[sharps4590]

And sense can be made of how many cartridge names? 219 Zipper? 218 Bee? 30-06? ONLY if you know their history can they sometimes make sense.

[toot]

mabie it is a 38 case holding 40 grs. of powder?

[Dave T]

No more confusing than the venerated 44-40 actually being a .43 caliber just like the 44 Russian, 44 Special, and the 44 Magnum. At least the 44-40 (that was Marlin's name for the 44 WCF) was loaded with 40g of black powder, and I think the 38-40 (38 WCF) was, at least originally. Of course we shouldn't forget the 41 Long Colt, which was actually a 38 caliber. (smile)

Dave

[indian joe]

Yep its goofy .40 cal bullet with 38 grains of powder.

good one!

[JSnover]

The 45-70 takes a 45 cal bullet and 70 gr bp,
BD

And it's actually a .46 caliber bullet.

[Outpost75]

The old balloon-head .38-40 cases would hold 40 grains of black, but modern solid-head cases won't hold more than 34-35 grains of Goex 3F unless you use a compression die whic lets you squeeze about another grain or so in there.

In older .38-40 revolvers I load 5 grains of Bullseye with 180-grain cast bullet which closely approximates factory loads and shoots to the fixed sights of old Colt revolvers.

Accurate 40-182H is modern wide flat-nosed design which works well for smokeless loads in .38-40, .40 S&W and 10mm Auto.

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