Reflecting on the 44-40

My reflections on the 44-40 continue. In Part I, the history, popularity and variety of the guns and loads for the 44-40 were discussed, including the smokeless powder cartridges which expanded the variety of ammunition for this old black powder cartridge. Now, here in Part II of this tale, I want to talk more about the new firearms made for the 44-40, as well as shooting them with black powder loads.

Perhaps I’ve grown up a bit over the last 45 years because now I enjoy my 44-40 shooting with black powder loads almost exclusively. Also, while I do today’s shooting with modern-made replicas, my tastes have “gone backward” because I no longer favor the Model 1892 (although I still have my old ‘92 carbine) and instead I prefer the well-made replicas of the 1873 and even the 1866 lever actions. One reason why I favor the 1873 or the 1866 rifles is because those were the guns that might have been taken to the buffalo camps, 20 years or so before the ’92 was introduced.

In general, the 44-40 is rather popular again today. Some might say that popularity simply follows in the shadow of Cowboy Action shooting, while others would say that Cowboy Action shooting is popular today because of the 44-40. I’m not following either of those opinions but I am happy that the good replicas of the older guns are easily available.

If we follow the path of history, then the first

replica we should talk about is the Henry lever-action rifle and the various versions, which can be bought today. We can’t ignore the fact that the original Henry was never made in 44-40 caliber. Actually, the original Henrys of 1860, couldn’t be chambered or even re-chambered for the 44-40 simply because their actions weren’t long enough. The old 44 Henry rimfire cartridge is shorter than the 44-40. We could hold an original Henry rifle next to one of today’s Uberti replicas of the Henry and quickly see that the actions of the new guns are longer; the replicas are not exact copies.

The very same thing can be said about the replicas of the 1866 Winchester rifles, the first Winchesters. The originals of those had the same action length as the Henry rifles. This makes sense because they fired the same Henry rimfire cartridge. In fact, the first of the 1866 rifles and the last of the Henrys were made side by side, at the same time. How much overlap there was isn’t actually known but the overlap did exist. As with the replicas of the Henry rifles, we couldn’t very well expect the new 1866 rifles to be produced in 44 Henry Rimfire if we wanted to shoot them.

While I enjoy seeing the new versions of the Henry rifle, my personal preference is for guns that have forearms, so the 1866 gets my vote when talking about those two models. I have an Uberti 1866 Short Rifle in 44-40 caliber with the 20-inch octagon barrel and a full magazine. That’s a handy rifle to pack around and the brass-framed 1866’s are heavier than the new 1873s. Original ‘66 Short Rifles are rather few. I have read in books by George Madis that only 850 or so of the Short Rifles were made. So, that means there are more replica Short Rifles out there than originals. At least the Short Rifles are authentic, and I have a good copy of a rather rare rifle.

Shooting one of these replicas with black powder loads requires more than just black powder. Also needed, of course, is some good black powder lubricant for those cast bullets. Without a good black powder lube, the rifle’s barrel will be hopelessly fouled after perhaps only three shots. After that, accuracy will be just a memory.

Like a whole lot of shooters, I’ll recommend using good ol’ SPG Lube, which is available from SPG Sales blackpowderspg.com. In addition to that, the lube should be used on cast bullets that were designed for use with black powder loads, having wide and deep lube grooves to hold the lube needed for accurate black powder shooting.

For 44-40s, I prefer Accurate Molds’ No. 43-205C, which has a huge single lube groove. Accurate Molds has other bullet moulds with the same large lube groove of heavier weights, such as No. 43-215C which is the most popular bullet style that Accurate makes, but I do favor the 205-grain weight. Another mould that I have is Lyman 427098, which is the old style for the 44-40. The Lyman is a very good mould with twin lube grooves. I’ve used the Lyman bullet for several years but more recently my favor has gone to the Accurate bullet for more consistent accuracy.

Those 205-grain bullets get loaded over 35 grains of Swiss 3Fg powder, which is a rather full load in the modern (Starline) solid head cases. With this amount of powder, the powder is compressed as the bullets are seated but the bullets are not deformed. Performance with the load is excellent and it’s the load that was featured (Spring 2025, Issue 129) in my testing with the 44-40s with various barrel lengths, from 16 to 30 inches. My 20-inch barreled replica of the 1866 was one of the rifles used for that testing and in that rifle the loads just mentioned developed a velocity of 1,295 feet per second. This is just five feet per second shy of the advertised velocity of the original factory loading.

My first shots with this 1866 replica were taken on our club’s black powder trail-walk, shooting at hanging silhouettes. I could see the open rear sight better than I had expected at that time. However, after I tried using the rifle on the Meat Hunt at Buffalo Camp, one of the Lyman 2A tang sights was quickly added. That was when I was still shooting with my right eye. Now that I shoot with my left eye, things are better but I still favor the peep sights.

With rifle barrel lengths of 24 inches or longer, the 35-grain loading of Swiss powder under the 205-grain bullets exceeded the 44-40’s old advertised velocity of 1300 fps.

The real classic 44-40 rifle, of course, is the Model 1873, the rifle that introduced the 44 WCF cartridge. Whether you agree that it was the Winchester Model 1873 that won the West or not is up to you. All I can say about that is how the lever-action Model 1873 has won my heart. I like this rifle far too much to have only one of them. My real favorite is the Uberti replica brought in by Cimarron Firearms with the 30-inch barrel. I consider that as my “go-to gun” and I find myself taking it out of the gun rack more than most other rifles, certainly more than any other 44-40.

On the other hand, and at the other end of the barrel length list, is my 1873 Trapper with the 16-inch barrel in 44-40 caliber. It is just my personal taste but I don’t like the carbines with the front sight mounted to the barrel band. But when I found this Trapper with the front sight mounted to the barrel behind the forward barrel band, and not dovetailed like others I have seen, I had to have it. Yes, my eyes demanded that I have a tang sight added to the gun but that’s my problem, and this short Trapper Model most certainly does shoot!

Today, just as in the old days, the 44-40 is not restricted to lever-action repeaters. What might be considered the very best of the 44-40 rifles in my personal array is the single-shot 1885 Low Wall Classic that was made by C. Sharps Arms. This fine rifle has a 28-inch No. 3 weight barrel and it certainly does shoot with the best of them. In this gun the most commonly used load is the very same as for the lever-action rifles but the Low Wall has fired groups that the lever-actions have not been able to duplicate. 

If a single-shot 44-40 interests you, look on the C. Sharps Arms website. They will make an 1885 Low Wall or High Wall and currently they show the 44-40 as having a 1 in 24-inch rate of twist in the barrel. This would be good for shooting with bullets heavier than the standard 44-40 loads with the 205 or 215-grain bullets. Therefore, if you’d like a Sharps rifle, such as the 1874 Hartford, C. Sharps Arms will make one of those for you in 44-40 caliber. While the old Sharps factory didn’t do that, as far as I know, some of the frontier gunsmiths certainly could have. It’s just my guess that a Sharps ’74 Hunters Carbine with the barrel length of your choice in 44-40 would be a gun worthy of putting some meat on the table. For models, prices, and all options, take a look on the C. Sharps Arms website at csharpsarms.com.

Uberti also makes copies of the Low Wall and the High Wall single shots, which every now and then are barreled and chambered for the 44-40. One of the hombres in our club uses an Uberti Highwall in 44-40 and he does most of his shooting with it. No problems at all with the gun and his shooting is getting better and better.

With all of this talk about currently available rifles in 44-40 caliber, you might be thinking that I’m ignoring revolvers; not at all. Very few black powder revolvers go “off with a bang” anything like a fully-loaded 44-40. To say that a full black powder load in a 44-40 revolver is a real handful is putting it mildly. That’s a real performer and is the type of six-gun where if you like it, you’ll love it, but if you don’t like it, you’ll want to avoid it.

In my opinion, a 44-40 revolver that is intended to be used with full black powder loads should have the 7½-inch barrel, just to use that powder charge effectively. Again, in my opinion, one of the best revolvers made for the 44-40 is (or was) the Uberti Cattleman Flat-Top, which was imported by Dixie Gun Works. That gun has the sights that really make the difference. I say “or was” because Dixie is currently out of stock for this model and I’ve asked if they will be bringing in another run of them but have received no answer. With the 35 grains of Swiss 3Fg powder, the 205-grain bullets left the 7½-inch barrel at the average speed of 1,020 feet per second…that’s “moving-on” for a black powder revolver. Shorter barrel lengths were not tried.

Loads with reduced powder charges could be used and that would simply mean keeping the rifle and revolver loads separated. However, I enjoy the performance of the 44-40 rifles with the full loads and I do feel that the 44-40 is more of a rifle cartridge than a revolver cartridge.

Even so, I do have one of these Dixie Flat-top revolvers and I’m very pleased with it. I must also admit that for my gun I also got a spare cylinder for 44 Special cartridges, that I generally use with 44 Russian ammo. That extra cylinder was purchased from VTI Replica Gun Parts, their web site can be seen at vtigunparts.com. The shorter 44 Russian maintains its reputation for accuracy and my favorite loading has 18½ grains of Olde Eynsford 2Fg powder under the 250-grain cast round nose bullet. That is a milder load than the 44-40 with 35 grains of powder, obviously, and for me it is more pleasant to shoot. Let me also say that in our club’s friendly revolver shooting matches, I have been outshot by shooters who were using the full loads in the 44-40; not every time but it certainly does happen.

So, I’m hoping Dixie will bring the Cattleman Flat-top back and I’d personally love to see it with the option of 44 Special chambering.

Of course, there is a very wide array of revolvers made today for the 44-40, from the many copies of the “Colt Frontier Six Shooter” to the top-break Smith & Wesson Schofield Model (which was not originally made in 44-40). In addition to those, the third generation of the Colt Single Action Army has been available chambered for the 44-40 since about 1980. I’ve had a couple of those newer Colts and dearly loved them.

There’s a lot of shooting done these days where the grand old 44-40 will fit right in. After all, we’re not always trying to hit targets at long range. As examples, our club, the Black River Buffalo Runners, holds Lever-Gun matches almost every month where we have competition to hit targets at 100 yards and closer. In addition to those, our annual Buffalo Camp has an event called “The Meat Hunt” where participates use their camp guns to “make meat” for their dinners. The camp guns are quite often lever-action rifles chambered for the 44-40. Other clubs have similar events and even more clubs should have them simply because such shooting is so much fun. Also, I haven’t even mentioned Cowboy Action competition. To say the least, there’s a whole lot of shooting left for the old 44-40.