Well I think this is my first post outside of the Introduction page.
There are a lot familiar names here that I seem to recognize from other boards. I have used other monikers elsewhere, Lance Boyle, SteelonSteel, Short Round. I am a retired fellow now who likes to solve puzzles, gun shooting reloading puzzles. I have begun to recognize that I am always looking for a new project. This latest project is a New Production .44-40 Winchester Short rifle. The last project was a Marlin 1894C in .357 magnum. I actually wanted the 1892 in .357 but couldn’t quite get one out of the dealers without paying more than suggested retail. I had a short run in with a .357 Cimarron 1873 US Marshall but ended up sending it back for some issues they didn’t fix.
Well my FFL buddy called me up and said he got an email from his distributor rep on the short rifle but in .44-40, yep, sure, why not I says. Now I can justify it because I already had a Lyman 0.429 sizer die, all I needed were dies, shellholder, brass and a rifle, a minor investment to flesh out the used 0.429 sizer die. Makes perfect sense.
I picked up the rifle yesterday and coincidentally my Grafs order was on the porch that had my Redding Dies, Starline brass, a shell holder and some ACME 200 gr RNFP sized .430. I tapped one into the throat yesterday and my throat area seems to be .430, I did not run one up farther as it was BRN 15 and was pretty hard push. I have lots of round balls…..of .30 cal and .50 cal. Situation normal!
I got my dies mostly set up. I did not lock the sizer down, In fact i only sized one case that came with a dented and rolled mouth. It’s probably a lost cause but I straightened it with round jaw pliers, sized it then expanded it. I followed the sage advice of setting up the crimp and seat die so that their is a good visible gap above the mouth in a finished round. Spot on a 1.60 +/- 0.001”.
I did venture to size all but a handful of these bullets to 0.429 to make my life easier. It’s not like I’ll be buying bullets forever, it’s literally just a starting point before I select a mold. I’ll shoot these and see what it does, what the loads feel like. I expect to be happiest at less than the full bore High Velocity type loads but more than powder puff cowboy. It’s a range toy, I’m not looking to make this a long range target or hunting gun.
That brings me to this point, there is data for the cowboy stuff and the full,power stuff but maybe a bit missing in the middle with modern powders. There is good data for the old standbys of Red Dot, Bullseye, Unique then RL7 and 4227 and 2400 toward the other end.
I have more powders than data I think! They just don’t quite line up.
I have small amounts of W231, Clays, TrailBoss, and AA5. (and some P-5066 for old timers)
I have decent amounts of AA2, Zip, BE86, Sport Pistol, CFE Pistol, WST, True Blue and Univeral.
I was mostly thinking of using the Trail Boss but not expecting the best accuracy (to get rid of it off the shelf). AA2 I thought of using as a rough substitute for popular Red Dot and Bullseye loads. I have 4 pounds of it so I am happy if that’s a good place to be.
Alternatively I was thinking BE86 or Univeral may be a good place to roughly substitute for Unique.
No pictures of the rifle taken yet. It’s dark and gloomy out. So far my only disappointment so far is the buttstock socket is very proud around the receiver. the wood is 1/8” proud at the side action bolsters and along the top tang, almost like they were shrouding the safety button they use now. It looks like a good fit in the mortise edges, they just left a lot of extra wood.
I have read a lot all over the web in the last week thanks to Bryan Austin, Larry Gibson, Ed Harris and a host of other generous people much smarter than me.
warm regards
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