44 Russian vs 44 Special Brass

[Fox]

I am making some 44 Webley rounds and I notice that there is a decent enough taper inside the case on the 44 Special that causes a bit of a bulge.

Does anyone know if the 44 Russian has any taper at the base or less?

 

[vagrantviking]

I'm not sure what length you are trimming to.

My 44Russian cases are .960" long and the wall thickness is about 0.012" for the first half inch or a little more. It thickens up fairly quickly after that.

 

[Fox]

I'm not sure what length you are trimming to.

My 44Russian cases are .960" long and the wall thickness is about 0.012" for the first half inch or a little more. It thickens up fairly quickly after that.

Do you know if there is anywhere that would give internal case dimensions to compare?

The case length on the 44 Webley is 0.657in

 

[Ganderite]

How is the chamber reamed? Straight through, or does it have a lip in it?

If straight through, you don't have to cut the brass down as much.

I have a 360 Webley that will take 38SPl brass, even though the brass is almost twice the length of the correct brass.

 

[jethunter]

Do you know if there is anywhere that would give internal case dimensions to compare?

The case length on the 44 Webley is 0.657in

Just eyeballing it looks like my 44 Russian brass is already thickened up at .7". I think you'd have to ream it.

 

[Fox]

How is the chamber reamed? Straight through, or does it have a lip in it?

If straight through, you don't have to cut the brass down as much.

I have a 360 Webley that will take 38SPl brass, even though the brass is almost twice the length of the correct brass.

This is not really doable with black powder, using a compressed load I cannot leave the case long unless I am increasing the powder and that is not happening in my case. On this gun there is a lip anyway, the cylinder is a lot longer than needed as it is the same length as a 38 rimfire long but a longer case is an issue.

Just eyeballing it looks like my 44 Russian brass is already thickened up at .7". I think you'd have to ream it.

I can still seat the cases in the 44 Special cases cut down but I was wondering if the 44 Russian case has less taper, if they have less taper I would go out and find some 44 Russian brass to trim down and make seating a lot easier.

 

[jethunter]

This is not really doable with black powder, using a compressed load I cannot leave the case long unless I am increasing the powder and that is not happening in my case. On this gun there is a lip anyway, the cylinder is a lot longer than needed as it is the same length as a 38 rimfire long but a longer case is an issue.



I can still seat the cases in the 44 Special cases cut down but I was wondering if the 44 Russian case has less taper, if they have less taper I would go out and find some 44 Russian brass to trim down and make seating a lot easier.

it looks like the taper is finished and the wall thickness is full size at .7" is what I was trying to say, so there wouldn't be any advantage.

 

[Fox]

it looks like the taper is finished and the wall thickness is full size at .7" is what I was trying to say, so there wouldn't be any advantage.

So both are pretty much the same case down at the base. This Webley is an inside lubricated and takes a .429, makes life easy for me there but I wish there was still a source of some of the weaker brass cases.

I did some searching and found pictures of a cut away of a UMC 44-40 and new manufactured 44-40, the difference is crazy.

My intended load is 10gr of FFFg behind a 200gr .429 bullet with a CCI large pistol primer, I can just seat the lube groove into the case but I don't really want to drop the powder all that much more.

I will check my case length, if I have the room I may have to make slightly longer cases just to make sure that the lube groove is seated properly. I only trimmed 10 cases to start so I have lots to play with.