I have read that you can put a 44-40 special cylinder on a .44 special New Frontier and shoot 44-40 through it. I own a New Frontier in 44-40 and was wondering if I can put a .44 special cylinder and shoot .44 special thru my 44-40 barrel, any one know anything about this?
Colt New Frontier 44-40
- Thread starter sheepguide
- Start date
Historically, the 44-40 had a .427 bore diameter, while the modern 44's (Special and Magnum) are .429. However - most modern gun manufacturers, rather than creating barrels just for the 44-40, use .429 barrels on their 44-40's. So..... you should be able to swap out to a 44 Special cylinder and fire that ammunition. I'd only use loads that generate pressure equal to or less than a 44-40 would generate though.
Slug your bore on the 44-40 and have a machinist measure the OD. Then, slug each of your cyl. throats. You can measure them yourself. On a third gen. NF like you have, the bore is gunna be .426-.428". Throats, its hard to say. Probably between .429-.430".
Post WW-2 Colt 44spec cyl's had to accom. their 426-428" bores. So, maybe the cyl. throats on the 44spec cyl are at .429-.430" as well!?
In the above case, all is good. Just swap cyl's (Providing the cyl-to-bore lock-up is true) The 44spec cyl MUST be a third generation as well.
If all is good, but the 44spec throats are miking over 4 thou. than the barrel, as always, pick or cast a bullet that fills within 1thou. under or at cyl diam. and start load dev. from modern manual starting charges, looking at pressure signs, carefully.
Most importantly, absolutely no jacketed bullets, only if the above is common knowledge to yourself.
I once had a NF 44-40 at my fingertips and a 44spec cyl waiting to be grabbed a few years ago and had the same intentions you have. I took too long to figure it out and the whole works buggard-off.
I am envious.
Have fun.
PM me if you need to.
Dwayner
Post WW-2 Colt 44spec cyl's had to accom. their 426-428" bores. So, maybe the cyl. throats on the 44spec cyl are at .429-.430" as well!?
In the above case, all is good. Just swap cyl's (Providing the cyl-to-bore lock-up is true) The 44spec cyl MUST be a third generation as well.
If all is good, but the 44spec throats are miking over 4 thou. than the barrel, as always, pick or cast a bullet that fills within 1thou. under or at cyl diam. and start load dev. from modern manual starting charges, looking at pressure signs, carefully.
Most importantly, absolutely no jacketed bullets, only if the above is common knowledge to yourself.
I once had a NF 44-40 at my fingertips and a 44spec cyl waiting to be grabbed a few years ago and had the same intentions you have. I took too long to figure it out and the whole works buggard-off.
I am envious.
Have fun.
PM me if you need to.
Dwayner
