Reloading 44-40

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The_Champ

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I am setting up to reload 44-40 for my Spencer rifle reproduction. Will likely be adding a Winchester 1973 in the future.

Any recommendations or tips for this caliber? I've read that the thin brass as the neck can be a little tricky.

Also looking for bullet recommendations. A quick search showed me some lead bullets from Rusty Wood and Western Metal. Winchester jacketed bullets at X-Reload(a little pricey). Also found jacketed Campro bullets at Tesro. Does anyone have any experience with these, they seem like a good deal? I'm just looking to make cheap plinking ammo.
 
The_Champ said:
I am setting up to reload 44-40 for my Spencer rifle reproduction. Will likely be adding a Winchester 1973 in the future.

Any recommendations or tips for this caliber? I've read that the thin brass as the neck can be a little tricky.

Also looking for bullet recommendations. A quick search showed me some lead bullets from Rusty Wood and Western Metal. Winchester jacketed bullets at X-Reload(a little pricey). Also found jacketed Campro bullets at Tesro. Does anyone have any experience with these, they seem like a good deal? I'm just looking to make cheap plinking ammo.
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For decades I have loaded this cal. for original Winchesters which normally have a groove diam. of .431 so lead bullets sized to that.
Most new .44-40 repo. rifles have a groove dia. of .427 , so size them to that . I cast with a 200 gr. Saeco Mould # 420 / F6A using
lead alloy ( old ones) wheel balance weights . I load with 7 gr. of Unique & a Federal # 150 primer . This is a light Cowboy load
for which it is loaded for . Use in Win. 1873 & 1892 models .
 
I've heard the Spencer is quite picky about overall length and getting reliable feeding can be tricky. You might want to find others who have loaded for one and see if some bullet shapes work better than others.
 
vagrantviking said:
I've heard the Spencer is quite picky about overall length and getting reliable feeding can be tricky. You might want to find others who have loaded for one and see if some bullet shapes work better than others.
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Yeah the Chiappa manual with the gun mentions this, and recommends bullets are the standard COAL. I've only fired Winchester factory ammo so far, and it fed without a hitch. Measured a bunch of them, and they were roughly COAL with a surprising amount of variety in length. I'm guessing I should be able to get most any flat point bullet to work.

I should note that I have no experience loading lead bullets.
 
Can't think of too much special about the 44-40. Careful sizing and not to overdo the sizing lube.

Chafer and bell the mouths so that the lead bullets entirely start in without catching. The bullet will peel on one side or crunch the case when seated.
 
I just spent some time researching the .44-40 cartridge for black powder and smokeless powder.

If you would like the information, PM me with yore email address, but it is a lot of information.

You may have to down load LibreOffice, a free word program, to read the files.
 
I don't load 44-40 but have a lot of buddies that do and they all use a .429 RNFP that is offered by any of the commercial casters with an "ammo-caster" outfit, the molds all throw the same slug, just some use different lube than others. Don't know where you are situated at but a couple that come to mind in the west are Cactus Plains from Sask or Bullet Barn , now from north Ab.. There is another vendor that has started up From Stettler Ab. but don't know the name (someone on here will know it). They all use molds from the same manufacturer and work excellent in any lever guns that I know of... They will be the most economical option to you as they are basically local so no U.S. exchange rate to suffer.
 
I am loading 44-40's for 9 revolvers ( all uberti made) and 5 rifles (one old marlin the rest are uberti's) I started out a lot of years ago loading unique but found it quite dirty. My unique is probably 40 years old, I am told the modern stuff is much cleaner burning. Tried american select for a little while it worked OK , but when trail boss came along it became my powder of choice. When trail boss was hard to get a few years back , to stretch out my meager supply, I cut the load back to 4.6 gr . It worked fine , never had any hang fire's some folks talk about with reduced loads. Now with trail boss available again I have gone back up to 6gr. again. I found .429,s to give hard chambering the revolvers, sizing to .427 cured that. The uberti 1860 that I initially started with and the magma mold bullet was sensitive about overall length so now I trim the cases 8 or 10 thou short that aloughs me to put a good crimp on the bullet I am using. I found a good crimp was required to keep the bullets from pushing down into the case in a tube magazine . This did not happen often , but when it did it would sure ruin a stage at a cowboy match. I now check case length before every reload, so I can get a proper crimp. I use a Lee factory crimp die. Because the cases are kind of thin I spend a bit of time getting the flare die set up . If the flare is not enough you can fold the side of the case when you seat your bullet. You can pull the bullet out but with the low pressure of a 44-40 you will never get the wrinkles out good enough to use the case again. Because of the extra flare I use ,I will eventually start to get cracked necks. If the crack is quite short I will still load it until the crack grows to about maybe .08 I run every cartridge through a chamber checker before they go to a match. The few that do not get past the checker will still usually function in the rifles. My step son who actually will sometimes practice before a match will use them for that. Some of those 44-40 guns are his . He is pretty smart though ,get the same caliber guns the old guy uses and have a ready supply of ammo. I picked the 44-40 for cowboy because it was one of a very few cartridges that were historically used in both rifles and revolvers.
 
vagrantviking said:
Can't think of too much special about the 44-40. Careful sizing and not to overdo the sizing lube.

Chafer and bell the mouths so that the lead bullets entirely start in without catching. The bullet will peel on one side or crunch the case when seated.
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This, and don't be ham fisted.
I use a separate crip die.
 
If you get a miroku 73 it will need .429 not .427. I started with .427 but got bad leading. Don’t buy nickle cases they will split at the mouth after a few loads. I find minor splits don’t affect accuracy. I don’t use case lube or carbide dies and have no trouble. Case lube is a waste of time you wont get more case life or less problems with it. I use the tesro 427 copper bullets in my old marlin but they might not be suitable for a modern 429 bore. In my win. 73 use jet 200gr.429 cowboy bullets they shoot better than the 220. 7.7 gr. Tinstar for 1050
 
Besides bullet size ..........brass thickness is paramount Rem the thickest,then Win followed by Starline.I use RE#7/220gr Jet bullets GC/Starline brass and a Win pistol primer in my 1892.Cloverleaves at 50 yards.
 
Just in case this information is useful to anyone, thought I'd pass it along.

I started with a light load of IMR 4227. Light because I want one round to work not only in my Spencer, but potentially a 1873 or others in the future. The latest Lyman manual quite handily divides its 44-40 loads into 1873 safe, and hotter loads for more modern rifles.

I picked 4227 because I have it on hand for another oddball cartridge, .351 WSL. BTW 4227 has worked great in that caliber.

All rounds fired great, however left behind large chunks of burnt powder. Learned later 4227 is notoriously dirty, especially a lower pressures. Left enough residue in fact that after only a few rounds the Spencer action wouldn't lock up properly due to this residue. Loaded up some "max 1873" pressure loads, and got the same result.

Next gave a shot with some Alliant 2400. Reasoning was that if it worked, it would again be compatible with my .351 WSL, even though research showed might be just a dirty as 4227. Results turned out to be much worse. Best I can tell I was failing to get any ignition at all, with only the primer firing. This was surprisingly enough to have the bullet clear 30 inches of barrel. After the 1st shot was only a primer pop, made sure to inspect the bore with each shot. Both min and max "1873" level loads failed to ignite. This was rather surprising. I guess maybe a change in primer might be something worth looking at? But I'm not very keen to pursue this load any further after such dismal performance. Kind of surprised Lyman lists the load. Or maybe I'm missing something here? I'm sure I'll find good use for this stuff in my .351 WSL.

I also liked the idea of avoiding a pistol powder for that extra safety cushion of being unable to double a load of powder, but looks like I'll need to go the pistol powder route. Next stop is 5 grains of TiteGroup, which advertises itself as having very consistent ignition, clean burning, and not being position sensitive in the case. This all sounds great to me after my failed attempts. I'll report the results in case its useful to anyone here!
 
porpoise said:
If you get a miroku 73 it will need .429 not .427. I started with .427 but got bad leading. Don’t buy nickle cases they will split at the mouth after a few loads. I find minor splits don’t affect accuracy. I don’t use case lube or carbide dies and have no trouble. Case lube is a waste of time you wont get more case life or less problems with it. I use the tesro 427 copper bullets in my old marlin but they might not be suitable for a modern 429 bore. In my win. 73 use jet 200gr.429 cowboy bullets they shoot better than the 220. 7.7 gr. Tinstar for 1050
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That does not mirror my experience. I've used my own 1873 for about a year and a bit with .427 size bullets. Accuracy is good and no leading. At least nothing more than a few flecks that would be consistent with an amount peeled off for each shot.

I'm not one to use mouse fart loads though. I load 5.5 gns of Titegroup behind a 200gn bullet so I meet the power factor needs for the Wild Bunch events. So perhaps the power is enough to obturate the bullet out for a good fit? Either way no leading of any significance.

I also chamfered the inside and outside of the casing mouths. And I use a light spray of case lube over the outsides. And a light to moderate crimp.

Perhaps more importantly my loading press has four die positions and I seat in one and crimp in another. As a result of the case prep, lube and slowing down just a touch on the lever so I can feel if anything is going bad I think I've only butchered a couple of casings out of about 2500 to 3K reloads I've done over the past couple of years since I got into 44-40.

Oh, and one reason I went with .427's is that the chamber on my Uberti Henry clone was a bit more snug than I wanted with .429's. They went in but with a bit of stickiness. So not a good fit. The Henry came before the 1873. And I just carried on with the .427's in the new 1873 Winchester made by Miroku.

There's no doubt that the thin walls of the 44-40 cases are more fragile. But that just means that proper mouth prep and ensuring there is enough, but not too much, mouth flare is there so the bullets don't drag on the mouth edge.
 
Champ, the issue you're getting with poor ignition is one I've had on some powders when trying to load down even to the minimum noted in the manuals. I've gotten MUCH better results with powders such as Bullseye and Titegroup for reduced power loads. I'm sure there are a few other reduced load tolerant powders as well but those are the two I've personally used with success.

For example the classic HBWC load for .38Spl and the little dusting in the bottom of the case from a charge of 2.8gns of Bullseye.

I know extra care is needed to avoid a double charge though. It's a personal call I guess.
 
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