The 44-40 Turns 150

In 1873, big changes were taking place with firearms. The U.S. Army abandoned muzzle-loading infantry rifles for a breech-loading single shot. First in 50-70 Government, the Trapdoor Springfield quickly established itself in 45-70 Government. Winchester announced a new lever rifle, bored not for the 44 rimfire ammunition of its forebears, but for the company’s first centerfire cartridge. Colt introduced its Model P Frontier or Single Action Army revolver in the new, potent 45 Colt.

These developments left a braided trail, their paths meeting and diverging, influenced by people and events unique to the times.

At the century’s midpoint, Sam Colt had blessed citizenry, cavalry and law officers with cap-and-ball revolvers. But hunters and infantry used muzzle-loading rifles. The idea of self-contained cartridges loaded from the breech had inspired a flurry of inventions.

One was the “Volitional Repeater” developed by Walter Hunt in 1848. Hollowbase bullets in a tube under the barrel were fed into the chamber by a lever run by the trigger hand. Triggering the rifle dropped the hammer on an external primer advanced by a pillbox mechanism. Sparks drove through the cork cap on the bullet’s heel to ignite a small charge of black powder. Lacking funds to refine his invention, Hunt peddled patent rights to fellow New Yorker George Arrowsmith, who hired Lewis Jennings to make the balky action more reliable. In turn, Arrowsmith sold the rifle for $100,000 to railroad magnate Courtland Palmer, who asked Gunsmiths Horace Smith and Daniel Wesson to come up with a better “Rocket Ball.” They gave it a copper base with priming inside. Palmer put up $10,000 to form a partnership with Smith and Wesson. Just a year later, in 1855, 40 New York and New Haven investors bought out this trio. They elected shirt merchant Oliver Fisher Winchester (one of their own) to establish a new Volcanic Repeating Arms Company. When weak sales sent Volcanic into receivership in 1857, Winchester bought all assets for $40,000 and founded the New Haven Arms Company, hiring bright young Mechanic Benjamin Tyler Henry to improve the Hunt-Jennings rifle. In 1860, Henry received a patent for a 15-shot repeater.

Winchester promptly hawked it to the Union Army. Few rifles entered the Civil War, but they made an impression.

A soldier recounted his 1864 introduction to the Henry, as he and three other Confederates chased down a Union soldier and ordered him to halt. Instead, he turned and “fired simultaneously with us. One of our group fell dead …. The rest of us proceeded to load, when he again fired twice in quick succession, killing two more of my comrades …. I had my gun loaded and had a cap [ready, but] I dropped both ….”

The Henry’s value lay in fast repeat shots, not in its ballistic acumen. At 1,025 feet per second (fps), the 216-grain bullet caused less damage than a patched ball from an 1858 muzzle-loading Springfield. But Winchester boldly puffed the Henry. As did this testimonial: “It is certain death at 800 yards, and probable at 1,000 …. [I’ll shoot my Henry] against any living man at 1,000 yards with any other gun….” This sunny report was later traced to Winchester’s St. Louis agent!

Still, its firepower endeared the Henry to lawmen. Nevada City Marshal Steve Venard had his in hand when he caught up with three bandits who had robbed a stage. Four shots toppled all of them. Wells Fargo gave Venard a cash reward and an inscribed Henry, apparently without further investigation.

B. Tyler Henry left the New Haven Arms Company in 1866. Successor Nelson King gave the rifle a loading port in the receiver. The resulting Model 1866, with wooden forestock, was the first firearm with the inscription of the Winchester Repeating Arms Company. Its 44-rimfire cartridge burned 28 grains of powder to hurl a 200-grain bullet at 1,150 fps. According to Winchester, “15 cartridges can be fired in 15 seconds [or double-time] at a rate of 120 shots per minute….” The rifle held 17 rounds, the carbine 12. During its first six years, beginning in 1867 after the factory’s move to Bridgeport, Winchester shipped 100,000 Model 1866s. While the ’66 lacked the durability and reliability of muzzle-loading infantry arms, battlefield chaos in the Civil War argued for a breechloader. Re-charging a Springfield in close combat was difficult and exposed the rifleman to balls, bayonets and rifle butts for long, terrifying seconds. Soldiers spilled powder and fumbled caps. Rifles were disabled by charges stuffed down bores backwards. Many recovered rifles held several charges, stacked by soldiers so terrified they’d lost the presence of mind to fire.

Put off by the cost of developing a breechloader, the army asked Erskine Allin, an engineer at Springfield Armory, to modify the existing 1861 rifle for metallic cartridges. Allin designed a conversion comprising a thumb latch that let the block spring up and ahead, like a trapdoor, activating the extractor. More complex than it appeared, Allin’s conversion required 56 machining operations to produce, and cost $5 per rifle. Allin refined it for ’63 Springfields. Barrels reamed to 64-caliber were fitted with iron sleeves drilled for the centerfire 50-70 Musket round.

The Trapdoor Springfield most notably proved itself after Appomattox. On August 2, 1867, near Wyoming’s Fort Kearney, an overwhelming force of Sioux swarmed a detachment of 26 soldiers and six civilians. Feeding Allin’s breech behind overturned wagons, the defenders drove off the attackers. The Wagon Box Fight prompted the Army to convert 55,000 new 1863 Springfields. Soon, it abandoned the 50-70-450 cartridge for the 45-70-405.

Sharps percussion rifles were also converted for metallic cartridges, including the popular 45-70. When Christian Sharps died young of tuberculosis, the Sharps Rifle Manufacturing Co. soldiered on with burly single-shot rifles for proprietary Sharps cartridges: six 40s, three 44s, four 45s and three 50s. The “big 50” used 90 to 110 grains of powder in a 2½-inch case to send a 473-grain, paper-patched bullet at 1,320 fps. The frothier 3¼-inch, 50-140 Sharps was late to the party in 1880, when remnants of the great buffalo herds were widely spaced and not profitable to hunt. Notably, Sharps rifles were often abandoned by hostiles who had killed their owners. Unless cartridges were also at hand, such a rifle was useless. More highly valued: Springfields in the ubiquitous 45-70, and Winchesters in 44-40.

In 1873, Winchester replaced the brass frame and buttplate of the Model 66 with iron (steel after 1884) and added a carrier cover. The resulting Model 1873 was barreled to the company’s first centerfire cartridge. The 44 Winchester Center Fire (W.C.F.) or 44-40, burned 40 grains of powder to send a 200-grain bullet at 1,310 fps. The ’73, later in 38 W.C.F. (38-40, 1880) and 32 W.C.F. (32-20, 1882), held 15 cartridges. It was sold in rifle and carbine form (24- and 20-inch barrels), and for military use, as a full-stock rifled musket.

Anemic by modern standards, and far less powerful than loads favored by buffalo hunters in single shots, the 44-40 made big-game rifles of early repeaters – though reliability remained an early concern. New Hampshire native, William Wright, carried one to the northern Rockies, where he would later guide hunters and study bears for a book. But his first grizzly encounter, as he hunted elk along an alpine creek, was almost his last. The bear was no threat as it trudged by at 40 steps. Wright’s shot changed its attitude. It came for him at speed. When the rifle’s extractor failed, Wright dived into the creek, submerging to his chin under the bank. Later, chilled to the bone, he crawled ashore. The bear lay dead. Wright pried the 44 hull free.

Brisk sales of Winchester’s 1873 spurred other gunmakers to offer rifles in 44-40. The 1883 Colt-Burgess lever-action chambered it, as did Colt’s slide-action 1885 Lightning. Sam Colt saw bright prospects for it in his 1873 Single Action Army revolver, introduced that year. From handguns, the 44-40’s 200-grain .427-inch bullet was no more effective than the 45 Colt’s slightly slower, 255-grain .452-inch bullet. But the 45 Colt was essentially absent in rifles. In 1878, Colt barreled its SAA to 44-40. Sales response was quick and gratifying – largely because the 44-40 absolved customers of buying different ammunition for rifles and revolvers.

The 45 Colt had a head start and argument-ending reputation ensured its dominance after the 44-40 joined it on Colt’s roster. A whopping 42 percent of early SAAs sold were in 45 Colt. But the 44-40 finished strong, with 18 percent. It would remain an option until World War II.

The only fly in the ointment for the 1873 Colt and other solid-frame SAs was reloading. Clearing each chamber with the ejector rod was tedious. On horseback, it was also difficult – especially if bullets were flying. The top-break Smith & Wesson (S&W) Model 3 in 44 American and 44 Russian could dump a cylinder full of empties in 2 seconds. Poking hulls from an SAA took 26. Major George Schofield urged tweaking the S&W for cavalry. The army pointed out that while ammunition for a Schofield revolver would function in an SAA, the reverse was not true. Citing inevitable mix-ups in battle, it awarded contracts to Colt.

In Winchester’s 1873 rifles, the 44-40 had little competition. Everyone wanted a ’73. It rode on the coaches of Wells Fargo and in the wagons of trappers and settlers, then sheepherders and cowboys. It served the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the Texas Rangers and town lawmen on the frontier. Lawbreakers met violent ends with – and from – 44-40s, as did hostile tribes. Rag-tag military units in South America bluffed and blazed their way toward the twentieth century with Winchester ‘73s. “The .44-40 has killed more people, good and bad, than any other cartridge.” Given its colorful career on several frontiers, that’s a credible claim!

The last of 720,610 Model 1873s shipped in 1924. By then, Winchester was the preeminent U.S. firearms maker – due largely to a man who brought the 44-40 into the smokeless era.

Winchester’s follow-up to the ‘73 was the similar but larger iron-framed 1876 for the long 45-75 W.C.F. cartridge. It lasted a decade. A better lever-action design appeared incidentally after a salesman traveling in the west brought to Winchester Vice President Thomas Bennett a secondhand rifle.

The stout, dropping-block, single shot would chamber the likes of the 45-70 and compete in a market then-owned by Sharps and Remington. Bennett traced the rifle to a Utah gun shop and bought a train ticket to Ogden. The shop was staffed by four brothers barely into their 20s. The eldest was John Moses Browning.

Son of a frontier gunsmith, Browning had fashioned his rifle without blueprints, using only basic tools. But Bennett was no fool. He recognized the value and wanted all rights to the single-shot rifle. Browning was no rube either. He pitched a price of $10,000 – a fortune in 1883! Bennett countered at $8,000, and on his return to New Haven, slated the rifle for production as Winchester’s Model 1885. During the next 17 years, John Browning sent 44 firearm designs to Winchester. Bennett bought them all. The lever-action Model 1886 rifle, with the vertically sliding lugs of his single shot, netted John $50,000.

Reportedly, Bennett offered Browning $10,000 for a short-action rifle like the ’86 “…if you finish it in three months.” John’s reply: “The price is $20,000. You’ll have it in 30 days, or it’s free.” The Model 1892 arrived early, a 44-40 clearly superior to the 1873. Chambered also in 25-20, 32-20 and 38-40, it sold to the walls at $18. Winchester would list it until 1941. With Models 53 and 65 variants (in 1924 and 1933), more than 1,034,000 Model 1892s would ship.

Marlin’s side-ejecting lever rifles competed ably with Winchester’s as black powder gave way to smokeless. The Marlin 1894 was barreled to the 44-40 and its three W.C.F. siblings, and produced until 1934. So too, Remington’s slide-action Model 14½, announced in 1913 in 38-40 and 44-40. By 1938, the 44-40 had fallen off the chambering rosters for all rifles built stateside.

In 1907, the 44-40 lost some market share to the 44 Special, designed to give 44 Russian bullets more sizzle from a slightly bigger case. In full-power loads, the capacious 44-40 out-muscles the Special, but the Special brass is stronger. Maximum average breech pressure is about the same. Factory loads for the 44-40 have dwindled; it’s now commonly loaded with 200-grain bullets at 700 to 800 fps (from mid-length revolver barrels). Ditto most boxed cartridges in 44 Special, albeit Hornady has a peppy 165-grain FTX Critical Defense load, and Black Hills gives the round extra moxie with 125-grain Honey Badgers at 1,250 fps.

I feed Black Hills Ammunition Cowboy Action cartridges to my 44-40s: a Cimarron Model P revolver and an original Winchester 53 rifle. This Black Hills Ammunition features excellent Starline brass and perfectly formed flatnose lead bullets. Accuracy is as good as I can tap. Mild pressures baby the guns and make shooting fun.

But not all 44-40 buffs are so easily pleased. Royal Stukey is one.

In another life as a cowboy riding for Wyoming’s Padlock Ranch, Royal told me his first 44-40 was a Navy Arms reproduction of the Henry rifle. “It shot accurately with factory-loaded 200-grain half-jacket bullets,” he said. “Remington and Winchester, mostly. That was when standard loads had some zip; they weren’t lead-bullet Cowboy loads loafing off at 700 fps. The bullets hit hard. From the side, they punched big holes through deer and pronghorns, killing cleanly without damaging much meat. A bullet quartering to the off-shoulder would break it and stay inside. Neat holes through coyotes were the rule. I saved pails of fired cases, but that thin brass didn’t fare well in my loading press. About one in five split. Fortunately, factory ammo was easy to find and not terribly expensive.”

Ah, those days! When I started shooting, about a decade before Royal, a box of 50 factory-loaded 44-40 softpoints cost about $8, same as 44 Magnum ammunition. Unprimed cases listed at $74 per thousand, bullets $60. Both affordable, if you saved your dimes. But handloading also required a press. My Herters, weighty enough to anchor a small destroyer, set me back $15. I thought hard before sending that check.

Like me, Royal now handloads for a variety of cartridges. Handloading is a natural extension of his real job – building superb shooting benches and adjustable rests for people obsessive about exceptional quality and wringing the most accuracy from their rifles. With his clients, he hugs carbon-fiber stocks to hurl skinny bullets through chassis-cradled, carbon-fiber barrels. But in unguarded moments, he confided to me that such rifles have the personality of gateposts.

As we share a love for walnut-stocked lever rifles, he was keen to tell me of his latest – a Miroku-produced Winchester 1892 refined by Doug Turnbull, with wood figure and case coloring to make a stone Buddha swoon. An ace machinist and a stickler for detail, Royal quickly got past cosmetics. He ordered new Starline brass and RCBS dies, then, before buying bullets, slugged the barrel – at muzzle, throat and “through.” The bore was very smooth and even. But “through” diameter came in a tenth (ten-thousandth) shy of .4300 of an inch. “It was the measure you’d expect from a 44 Special or 44 Magnum bore,” he said. That is, it suited .429-jacketed bullets (.430- or .431-inch lead bullets), not the .427-inch bullets listed for the 44-40.

Royal then tapped Mike Venturino’s experience with black-powder cartridges. “Mike said 44-40 barrels he’d slugged mic’d .427 to .431 inch, and that to deliver good accuracy, bullets had to match the bore. Ideally, the hard-cast bullets I prefer would measure a thousandth over groove diameter.”

While a bore of .430 of an inch groove diameter can spin .428-inch lead bullets, they won’t seal it. Not only will accuracy suffer from skidding; hot gas skirting the shank will melt its surface, leading the bore and further impairing accuracy. Working backward from the bore to the cartridge case, Royal ordered .431-inch diameter bullets from Oregon Trail Bullet Co. “They were beautiful, though I noticed a shank-diameter lip ahead of the single crimping groove. Other 44-40 bullets I’ve used went right to the ogive ahead of that groove, or appeared to. A rifle must be throated for that lip, because the crimp won’t allow deeper seating for a short throat.”

Pressing a .431-inch bullet into new brass sized in a standard RCBS die, my pal produced a cartridge bulged by the bullet in front of the neck. The round chambered just fine, but when he extracted it without firing, he noticed deep rifling marks in the lead’s lip forward of the crimp groove. “That contact would be a problem if it tugged bullets free. Roll-crimped in the groove, the bullet was secure in recoil. But I feared a hard pull from the lands might stick it in the bore.” And so it did, after Royal cycled a few cartridges in and out. “A mess.”

Another challenge is sizing cases without overworking the brass. Reaming the neck of the sizing die to .440 reduced sizing compression on the brass, .0065 thick at the mouth, while permitting expansion to .428 of an inch with that figure in mind, and on Mike’s advice, Royal got a die set for the 44 Russian (which uses .429-inch bullets) and pirated its expander for his sizing die. “Result: A good grip on .431-inch bullets without squeezing the dickens out of fired cases.”

Loads from the tweaked tooling gave Royal a case that appeared almost straight. No bullet bulge. After firing, oddly enough, the case wore the 44-40’s slight shoulder. I concluded the Miroku’s chamber was generous. Royal agreed.

 The bullet lip wasn’t a problem as long as every round chambered was fired. In fact, it may have contributed to the fine accuracy Royal is getting from that carbine. With enough Winchester 231 powder to send bullets at 1,280 fps, he’s stacking shots, tearing one ragged hole at 25 yards. But, he said, “That throat is about to get reamed. I’ll go just deep enough that my bullets don’t engage the lands – maybe an eighth inch. Then I won’t have to fret about pulling bullets when jacking out loaded rounds.”

His journey handloading for a 44-40 rifle with a .430-inch bore isn’t over. “Now that we’ve cleared all the hurdles,” he said, “This ’92 and I are gonna spend some time together. I bought 2,100 of those hard-cast .431-inch bullets, and they need to fly!”