I had originally purchased both guns with the idea that I wanted to use the second cylinders chambered for the 44 special round only. Knowing the 44 special could in modern guns be loaded to much higher ballistics than the old 44-40. Since most modern 44-40 barrels are .428/9 bore like these Uberties, I felt the 44 special ammo would perform well. And it did. But I just can’t own a gun chambered for any round and not test it to it’s fullest...and certainly I put the pair with the 44-40 cylinders thru their paces.

The 44-40 like it’s brother cartridge the 38-40...suffers an image problem. Expressed best by an incident I had back in Virginia in the early 1970s when we lived in the wild back country. A young man and neighbor who acquired a beautiful Colt S/A in 44-40 was complaining about it’s "PUNY" ballistics. He brought the gun to me to see if he could re-barrel and chamber it to 45 colt.

That part of Virginia in those days was dense with oak trees. Oak is very dense wood...tough stuff. I had hundreds of trees on my property, and we were standing 10 feet away from one that was young and about 4 to 5 inches thick. With Winchester-Western commercial ammo I started shooting at the base of the tree on the left edge drawing my shots across the to right edge in a straight line. At the fourth or fifth shot the tree came down. My young friend was happily surprised. Using a reload of a Keith 240 grain cast bullet over 15.5 grains of 2400, my young friend went on to harvest many deer with that gun in the years that followed...That’s the image that the 44-40 has, that it is somehow puny...and of course it’s not true. It’s just that we live in a time when some handguns give the ballistics of some rifles...and the 44-40 seems modest to the extreme.

I don’t think I have ever read that the 45 ACP hardball round from a 1911 was puny. If fact it is thought of as fairly substantial...in law enforcement it is considered still today as one of the ultimate rounds for defense...even compared to the hot shot 40 S&Ws and hyper Nines. Yet any sound and modern 44-40 will give better ballistics than the old 45 ACP.

And since Starline has now been manufacturing it’s strong brass in 44-40 even the old argument that the brass is weak and doesn’t last is not standing the test of time. When I was going thru my period of buying, rebuilding, re-barreling, re-chambering, and generally raising hell with Rossi lever guns...from 1977/8 thru 1989 or so...one of the nicer Rossi carbines I got a hold of was chambered for 44-40. Using Starline brass and a Keith cast bullet over 2400 powder, I get 1500 plus fps from those 250 grainers....and almost 1250 ft.lbs of muzzle energy. And the brass lasts and lasts. That’s 44 magnum handgun power, from this 20 inch carbine. Everyone should have at least one short handy rifle and a accurate load that is powerful and shoots right to the point of aim out to around 100 plus yards, and a handgun that will handle the same load. And it sure does harvest deer well. Of course as always shot placement and bullet type are very important.

I have killed a half dozen feral dogs with this round from handguns. Keith shaped slugs along with LBT shapes are excellent but we must take care with jacketed bullets that are designed for the 44 magnum. Like the 265 grain jacketed soft point. From a 44-40 revolver expansion is going to be minimal on small game like dogs and coyotes. Certainly penetration will be excellent, and the good sized meplat on this bullet will disrupt bone and flesh well.

But for small game, wide flat nosed cast is better...for vermin and varmints the very light 180 grain jacketed hollow points loaded warm make good sense. Using both Sierra and Speer 180 grain jacketed hollow points over 19 grains of 2400 gave both slugs within 20 fps of each other and at 1147 fps average for ten shoots...five of each bullet...we are talking 520+ ft. lbs of muzzle energy for the 44 WCF. Consider this a P+ load, only tight and modern Colt and Colt clone single actions should be used. Probably running around 18000 to 19000 psi...which is above the industry standard of 14000 cup.

The Lyman Reloading Book #47 page 344 gives a load of 20 grains of 2400 under a 200 grain jacketed bullet generating 19,000 cup and 1638 fps from a 24 inch pressure barrel. But ammo manufacturing industry has to worry over black powder guns....I personally would not use these loads in even a modern clone 1873 rifle. And with 19/2400/180 JHC giving 1515 fps from the Rossi levergun, I feel that’s a top load...coyotes beware.

I found ReL #7 much better than anything else in the rifle. But with all the slow powders, pistol and rifle...the primers were critical. I found the standard pistol primers were not warm enough. Because the case of the 44-40 is so weak, you can’t put a heavy crimp on it, the case will buckle...at least they did it to me. So ignition wasn’t consistent with the slower powders...I went to Winchester’s standard/magnum handgun primers and velocity and accuracy became much better.

The 200 grain bullet seems to be the standard...and they are good. But the 180s give much better ballistics, especially cast bullets. Which will give 50 to 75 fps more velocity with the same load as jacketed. Besides wide flat nose cast slugs for years have proven they are game killers.

A friend complained that his medium loads from the 44 WCF and the 44 Spc. were leading badly, and he had hardened up his alloy but it got worse....Of course it did. His medium loads were around 800 to 900 fps. Hard lead needs pressure to slug up into the bore...if it doesn’t then gas cutting occurs and leads the bore. So I got him to soften his alloy and the fouling disappeared. 11 grains of Unique under a 180 grain cast bullet gives 1104 fps from my handguns (average five shots from each gun), and if it were a load for the handgun only, this old standby powder would do the job as good as any, and better than some. But as a rifle load it reaches it’s peak too quickly for excellent velocities...running only 1318 fps from the Rossi. Blue Dot was a surprising powder in the 44-40...not giving the highest velocities but close and excellent accuracy from both handguns...and I will take accuracy over velocity every time. 14.5/BlueDot/180 cast went 1157 fps and went into an 1 and a 1/4 at 25 yards. At 75 yards the rifle put these 180s into 1 and 3/4ths inches and that is with my older eyes. With muzzle velocity of 1520 fps.

Blue Dot under a good 200 grain cast bullet is also very good. 13/Blue Dot/200 LBT went 1110 fps from the handguns and near 1500 from the rifle. Either of these loads would take deer very cleanly to 100 or so yards. Any good reloading book will give you the standard loads using fast powders like Bullseye, WW231, Red Dot and such. And for loads in the 700 to 800 fps range they are very good. But for higher velocities even in short barreled sixguns...2400 and Blue Dot are hard to beat. I bet Winchester in 1873 and Colt in 1878 when chambering the Rifle ‘73 and the handgun Mod.P never would have thought 120 plus years later we would still be reloading this cartridge. Even with all it’s failings..like weak brass...and a real dislike for some powders...it’s a good cartridge.

PACO45@worldnet.att.net