Case length aside, did you guys miss the part where I mentioned the longer throat of the '03 chamber to accommodate 220 gr bullets? Shooting a .30-'06 rd in an '03 chamber results in poor accuracy due to the long throat, at least according to the 'sperts on the net. Makes you wonder why the long throated Weatherby chambers shoot so well .....
A friend had a Farmingdale Sharps '74 45-70 with a long throated chamber, allegedly for paper patched bullets. Being recoil shy, he shot 405 gr bullets almost exclusivley. He was quite happy with the results.
I suppose one could seat bullets out in '06 brass, especially if they were 220 grs. Sounds like a good use for 220 gr cast bullets. It isn't a question of "re-inventing the wheel", so much as getting an old rifle back in the game.
A while back I took a look at the specs of .44 Russian brass compared to 44-40. Up to the first shoulder of the 44-40 case, the dimensions are a few thou over .44 Russian at the case mouth and close elsewhere. Considering the low power of the round, I thought - what the hell, and tried some in a Uberti 44-40 revolver.
The mavens on CasCity assured me that babies would die, cows would stop giving milk and I'd have case blow by and case splits. Yeah, right .....
Results - excellent accuracy with nil recoil. Slight case deformation and primer hits a little off centre. The fired .44 Russian rds resized perfectly.
Would I do this on a regular basis? No, but it was good to know that in a pinch, it could work.
