1873 french reloading info

[lone ranger]

I am going to be reloading 11mm for the 1873 French revolver. I am using cut-down 44-40 brass.
Question 1- what SHELL HOLDER do you use ? the one that came with the 44 Russian dies is to small. Is a #9shell holder correct ?
Question 2- what primmer do I use ? rifle,..pistol ? some articles say "use large regular pistol primer" is this correct ?
question 3- how many grains of Trail Boss powder ?
thanks in advance.

 

[vagrantviking]

If you are using 44-40 brass find a shell holder for that case. Not sure the number offhand but easily looked up.

You are also likely to find that the rims are too thick and need to be thinned. Best is to take material from the front rather than the headstamp which might make deepening the primer pocket necessary.

Large pistol primers are what I use but tougher rifle primers is sn option if you are getting punctures.

Powder charge will depend on the bullet and how dangerously you want to live. I'm not near my loading data just now but if you search back a year or so there are recommendations in past discussions.

Great guns! Good luck with the project.

 

[sunray]

Something about using .44-40's ain't right. Hard to come by and pricey anyway, but the .44-40 isn't a straight walled case. The 11mm French Ordnance is straight walled. And you'd have to turn the rim by more than there is rim to turn.
I know nothing about this except that you can export it. Looks like a home made Lee Classic to me. No W's.
hlebooks.com/11mm73/cham00.htm

 

[Clotho]

First of all I would like to congratulate you on deciding to shoot this wonderful antique in its original caliber. It is only a bit more difficult than most but the rewards are very worthwhile.

The first thing you will want to do is slug the bore of course if you haven't already done so.

I use a Lee #14 shell holder on my modified 44-40 brass. I use a modified Lee case length tool in my drill press to make these. I have also purchased some from Fig33 and I can recommend him with confidence.

You can also use 44 spl (or magnum) brass. I think the 44-40 is better to use as it fits a bit better but it is a little more work than the 44 spl.

I have 2 different bullets that I shoot. One is 165grn LRN and the other is 215grn LRN. These are cast from a mould I purchased from Bernie at Old West Bullet Molds. Both of these bullets are of the heeled type. I also purchased a crimping tool from Bernie and I recommend it as well.

I use 2.5grn of Trail Boss in mine but yours may be different with a different bullet depth / type etc.

I prefer to use FFF black powder as this recreates the original cartridge and therefore the original experience. Black powder is a wonderful thing with the flash, the smoke and the smell. A very tactile experience. Not sure how many grains of black powder but it is a filled case, barely compressed when the bullet is seated.

Trail Boss is a very unique powder in that you can figure out a good load based on the volume of the case. More information here: http://www.imrpowder.com/PDF/Trail-Boss-data.pdf

Also there is a handy chart for shellholders here: http://www.handloads.com/misc/shellholders.asp

 

[lone ranger]

thanks to all that chimed in. I did modify the seating tool so it fits the healed pointed round that I am using. There seems to be several different ways to reload for this calibre. I will get a #14 shell holder.