Forehand & Wadsworth .44

oldiron

oldiron

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central Alberta
This F&W is a first model Army, built in the early 1870's. There was less than 1000 made, but this SN is in the 1200's?? The action and cylinder are fine, but a lot of lead in the bore.
F&W's claim to fame, was you could use either .44 Russian, or .44 American. The chamber fits a Russian well. American is a bit loose. The bore measures .424, approx.
It's a nice big old gal, with 7 & 1/2 in. barrel. All matching. I could use some tips on the barrel lead cleaning before trying it out tho. Thanks.
 
Nice old gun measure the bore it should be about .428 to .430 botom of grove to bottom of grove if its 44 russian . if your measureing the land to grove you could get that .424 reading. it should have a bigger dia bore than that try slugging it.
it should shoot really nice.
If all you got is lead in the bore Hoppes No 9 works good and lotsa scrubing with a 44 caliber copper wire bore brush get it really wet with the no 9 then let it sit for a few hours then hit it with wire brush again then patchs.
Hoppes will remove the lead.
Very nice old gun its a rare gun as well.
 
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Beautiful gun Bill, I have always been impressed by the quality of the small calibre F&W's, looks like the large bore models have an even superior build, very nice!

That is an awefully tight bore for 44American, interesting.
 
So I have the bore cleaned up, it came out looking good. It's not pitted, but the rifling is quite light. It doesn't seem that worn, as it's the same end to end, and fairly sharp. I measured the bore, and slugged it, and the most I can get is .427. Is this still a bit tight for a Russian?
 
.427 would be fine with soft lead bullets and as Dingus said, likely be a nice shooter. Not uncommon to see interchanged barrels for 44-40 (.427) and 44 Russian (.429)
 
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