What happened to 44-40?

[Tak]

I think the title pretty much says everything about it . But anyway, here are the facts.

I have an old 44-40 lever-action rifle back at home but it doesn't shoot any more. So i told myself i would try to find a new,more decent one, that I could say... go deer hunting with and blablabla. Now, you guys might say I'm an ignorant , wich is probably the case, but I couldn't find anything about it on the CGN community forum, nor could I find someone who was selling such a rifle.

I take it that the old winchester ones where replaced by model 94, wich would be available in .44 rem. mag. wich would be the closest thing to 44-40 you could have.

How does 44-40 compares to .44 rem. mag.

How do theses guns shoot, any comments on the caliber? Do you think it's still possible to find a decent one and mount a scope on it for hunting?

Thanks for satisfying my appetite for guns culture

-Tak

 

[Canuck223]

The caliber is fine, but has fallen out of favour. For the non-reloading community, it's just easier to find .44mag ammo. Even for the reloaders, most of the .44-40 barrels are made for a .427 diameter bullet, instead of the now standard .429 for the .44 mag and special. Also, being a bottleneck case means our easy-peasy carbide dies are out the window.

As far as down range performance, the .44-40 is on par with the special.

 

[ben hunchak]

Take a look at the .44Mag. case beside the .44/40 case...the 44/40 case is substantially larger...however it is not loaded anywhere near the .44 mag. because of all the 100+ year old guns out there that could not take anything more than BP levels of pressure. In the past a few companies offered heavier loads in their factory ammo,(Dominion and W-W) but dropped them probably for fear of litigation. In addition 44/40 brass is made very thin and probably does not offer a good safety margin! So I'd suggest you use the old 44/40 for plinking or short range deer hunting and enjoy it for what it is, a wonderful connection with the past,and load it that way! It gives you a good excuse to buy a Marlin '94 in .44 Mag. as well!