Is there any place where I can get a historically correct mold for .44-40?

Are you thinking about the old original "IDEAL bullet mold & reloading combination tool"?
In that case I think eBay and gunshows are your best bet.

If on the other hand you want a modern bullet mold that casts an authentic flat-nose bullet with proper grease grooves, then LYMAN still makes those.

Lyman 427098 is a historically correct 44-40 mold. 2 grease grooves and no crimping groove.  Mine usually drops wheel weights at about 200 gr, pure lead closer to 205gr.

Quote from: Tascosa Joe on November 27, 2024, 11:33:42 AMLyman 427098 is a historically correct 44-40 mold. 2 grease grooves and no crimping groove.  Mine usually drops wheel weights at about 200 gr, pure lead closer to 205gr.

Unfortunately it seems that that mold is out of production.

9245, ifin you are set on the Lyman style 427098 mold for a 44-40, if ya can't find one somewhere, in case you have or haven't heard of them, try NOE Bullet Molds (online store). They are a quality maker of both aluminum and brass molds of alot of rifle and handgun calibers, many of them similar to alot of bullet designs from yesteryear. They are very good, excellent quality with high fives in the bullet casting fraternity. I have two of them, one a .257 diameter (250 Savage) rifle mold and the other a 45 Colt mold (.454) for shooting in my Kirst cylinder Colt 3rd Model Dragoon conversion. They aren't cheap, but nor are they overly expensive. Similar to RCBS and Lyman prices. NOE has alot of variations of about every caliber you can think of in style and weight, 2-6 bullet molds. Might not have some extreme wildcat caliber, but from looking at all of their offerings bet you could find something similar to what you are looking for. Friendly helpful staff if you need to call. I talked with the owner once and ya couldn't find a nicer guy. Besides bullet mold talk we talked about a whole host of things. You wouldn't see or get that with any of the 'big name' outfits selling shooting needs.

How does the Lee 429-200-RF compare to the original?

The LEE molds have shallower grease-grooves than the originals, so they are more suited to smokeless type bulletlube and smokeless loads.

One way to compensate for these shallow grease-grooves when loading blackpowder, especially for Cowboy Action Shooting, is to reduce the powder charge and fill the void between powder and bullet with sesame seeds.  The sesame seeds contain up to 50% oils, and when fired will leave an oily film in the barrel that prevents powder residue from caking and thus ruining accuracy.

A .44-40 will hold up to about 35 grains of blackpowder. 
Reducing this to about 25 grains to make room for sesame seeds will not matter in a competition scenario.

In a hunting scenario you would probably want the full 30+ grain load, and you should be able to squeeze off two to five rounds before accuracy suffers. 
Then you'd have to wipe the barrel clean before tackling the rest of the buffalo herd...

How about Lyman LY2660666?

Accurate 41-200L?

I only have experience with the Lyman style 427098 and the LEE mold.

I have heard only good reviews of Accurate Molds, and I believe he has technical drawings of his molds on his website...

Perhaps someone with firsthand experience with the other two will chime in...?

Quote from: Crow Choker on November 27, 2024, 08:12:03 PM9245, ifin you are set on the Lyman style 427098 mold for a 44-40, if ya can't find one somewhere, in case you have or haven't heard of them, try NOE Bullet Molds (online store). They are a quality maker of both aluminum and brass molds of alot of rifle and handgun calibers, many of them similar to alot of bullet designs from yesteryear. They are very good, excellent quality with high fives in the bullet casting fraternity. I have two of them, one a .257 diameter (250 Savage) rifle mold and the other a 45 Colt mold (.454) for shooting in my Kirst cylinder Colt 3rd Model Dragoon conversion. They aren't cheap, but nor are they overly expensive. Similar to RCBS and Lyman prices. NOE has alot of variations of about every caliber you can think of in style and weight, 2-6 bullet molds. Might not have some extreme wildcat caliber, but from looking at all of their offerings bet you could find something similar to what you are looking for. Friendly helpful staff if you need to call. I talked with the owner once and ya couldn't find a nicer guy. Besides bullet mold talk we talked about a whole host of things. You wouldn't see or get that with any of the 'big name' outfits selling shooting needs.

Closest I could find from them was 432-216-RF-Z1, which is a 216 grain bullet, not 200 as the original was.

Quote from: 9245 on December 01, 2024, 04:25:16 PMClosest I could find from them was 432-216-RF-Z1, which is a 216 grain bullet, not 200 as the original was.

Well in the later days of 2024 that we are in now, sometimes "Closest" is the best ya can get and be allowed to use with what was used 150 years ago (plus/minus). If you can't get a "Historically Correct" mold or Lyman 427098 mold ya might have to go with what is similar or one that is only 16 grains over the original 200 grains in weight. Sometimes in this shootin what they did back in the day ya gotta make some concessions. I've read of shooters bitchin about other shooters selfmade holsters not having the right 'stitchin' as was done back in the day and other minor this and that. My thoughts on those who try to find nit-pickin areas of others gear, clothing, guns and such is I bet those guys are wearing modern made and purchased BVD or Fruit of the Lomb underwear at the range while finding faults with others. JMO and stickin with it.   

A big "Like" for Mr. Crow Choker's opinion.
Lucky 

  Yessiree BOB

ANOTHER BIG "LIKE" for Crow Choker

This is a near and dear topic for me. After six years or more of reading everything I can get my hands on on the subject, it is my opinion that the closest mold available now is the Accurate 43-210B, a fantastic bullet if you're using Swiss BP or a bulky smokeless- as (just like the original) it has no crimp groove. The 210gr weight is between the original 200gr weight of Winchester's bullets and that of Remington's original loading at 217grs. If you want the 200gr weight, I would talk to Tom at Accurate about customizing the 43-210B by shortening the driving bands of the bullet enough to lose the 10 grains without losing any lube capacity or messing with the nose profile which is already spot on to the original. Most designs in Tom's catalog are custom designs. This is what I want to do. I have been shooting the 43-215C with good results, but don't need the large lube groove with the Swiss powder I now shoot exclusively, and I also want a historical bullet design. Little more room for powder wouldn't hurt either.

The Accurate mold:
 https://accuratemolds.com/bullet_detail.php?bullet=43-210B


I have been greatly helped by the work of the late John Kort, whose old threads you can find everywhere by googling "44-40 black powder journey". Here are some of his initial posts in that thread as it appears on CASCity: https://www.cascity.com/forumhall/index.php?topic=54292.0

John's protege, Bryan Austin aka Savvy Jack, also has a fantastic website with just about everything you could want to know about this venerable cartridge. It's a little annoying to navigate at times, but the amount of research and testing the man has done and made available to us is nothing short of heroic: https://sites.google.com/view/44winchester/chasing-the-44-40?authuser=0

I should also mention that according to John Kort, the Lyman 427098 has reduced lube capacity compared to the original WRA bullet. Probably fine with Swiss, but the Accurate bullet is better in that respect.

As others have said, Lyman 427098 is as close as you'll find.  If you want the real deal, buy an original Winchester .44 WCF bullet mold.  You'll see them often on Ebay.

Quote from: Crow Choker on December 02, 2024, 07:35:29 AMWell in the later days of 2024 that we are in now, sometimes "Closest" is the best ya can get and be allowed to use with what was used 150 years ago (plus/minus).   

This is very good reasonable advice. A good choice for a bullet, if you can find the mold, is Dick Dastardly's Big Lube Mav Dutchman. It is about 200 grains in 44-40 and has a lube groove that will carry enough lube for the longest barreled rifle.

Lucky   

Here on Ebay,

https://www.ebay.com/itm/146236850113?_skw=winchester+44-40+bullet+mold&itmmeta=01JE6VKH469T31FH4G648XCG00&hash=item220c653fc1:g:-scAAOSwWF9nL9sx&itmprp=enc%3AAQAJAAABAHoV3kP08IDx%2BKZ9MfhVJKnejzRWkkcNrM1BtqQxgyEmnASJsPV%2BakD1XIOLgX0TL0feUkzHcnF37ytM3t2etqiuOlQqswqwtHfaty8eFdZGWL44bM%2F6II8VxTlK17K4t282M0sqrAMeGwZFjZzXs57JfBmmWS9nVU3e3vdeIAA%2FAaOq4ar%2Bh3%2BSATMNsquawyCn%2FUNjhiMkxkpHQYsZvi%2BDgzT%2F1lfHouTvgZ%2FnVjyAOevBdRDtSu%2FwDuBtuWjONp7oyCGkABSxqflAp4RGENG%2FeDLzCEsza--E8yAf1S4s99jsxqShfqjeZaOYDeE4B9MBFmDMcEcIDWke7z0W1Vg%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR5SSztvxZA


A buy now,   https://www.ebay.com/itm/156546707921?_skw=winchester+44-40+bullet+mold&itmmeta=01JE6VKH46QRG7S8RFETV6TGSR&hash=item2472e931d1:g:jdYAAOSwoc1nJVIw&itmprp=enc%3AAQAJAAABAHoV3kP08IDx%2BKZ9MfhVJKmQ4t6ERWnNvhEge0qppptVdre9pcfhe2qUo8WwZuEQ2SIog3Pm93tQxtkpoJzLaqFTrDwQ3DljrH9YZVodtj1IO9gqiyXlxJW%2FJ8p2KETbQw5gL4TY9c0LmN398d6qsbYOGAo%2F9%2FIUJs79%2F1J3SKlqBV%2BpWEBVYOhCN2i33M4P2NdIO9X6HHQa4SYkiSE4MXJcbHRgnRY7j2T9s4lO9P0%2FYJOAP9RMnF6ryrC9UGQG19hoKLcaW8Hf%2BatAOpGoGzoaIWOWcz8PEJgOEJ%2BGKyyFQR08pyMXwAfAo7ay62FYfsJi0sUVbiKG5cqzVQxpdnM%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR5aSztvxZ

A Real Winchester,   https://www.ebay.com/itm/205040055508?_skw=winchester+44+wcf+bullet+mold&itmmeta=01JE6VTA4PTZ0R91MC4MBCE3XQ&hash=item2fbd56f4d4:g:iP4AAOSwThNnCxtv&itmprp=enc%3AAQAJAAAA4HoV3kP08IDx%2BKZ9MfhVJKmTHRGVg%2B7DLbRPwYvViH1nCHRkG8K0s3kTYVDZScH69YOfXGxhdfRdd7gw6ujRfHSsd24oqiQttABo9aXhDREI1OUWvT13Ykqqwagod%2B0Qa0%2FQSgdNWjs7%2FIXekCi7qirEhvZ9tvULJCL%2BosJ1nW%2BSxIppe3VxAHdijd%2BNZsKMCd0ADc9%2BlAeptSan3iMfLQPldHft5Gt4%2FnTO83ebRNoT5%2BU0Q%2FFyhc8GNt364YvgdVjnogo9YixypX3oyZms%2BdBVl40hW7hNmUHO2g7gbL9a%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR7ai6dvxZA

Just go to Ebay and search and BE ready to pay.

That top double cavity Lyman mold looks to be the best of the three, but appearance wise looks like DD's Mav Dutchman mold/bullet and the Mav carries alot deeper lube cavity. Thumbs up Lucky RK for posting, was thinking about doing so but forgot to. Do any of DD's big lube molds ever show up anywhere for sale? Was going to get his 45 PRS when Dick was still selling but waited to long to do so and couldn't find one for sale. Ended up getting a similar appearance NOE deep lube bullet mold. Surprised if Dick isn't going to offer again no one took up the task of doing so. I love my 44 Mav Dutch, shoot in 44 Open Top, Richards II, and a RM conversion. Also 44 caliber '66 Yellow Boy, size all at .430". Also shoot a 38 Snakebite cast in RM conversion. Great bullets.

Good luck trying to buy a Dick Dastardly bullet mold.  I tried about 1 1/2 years ago and nothing to be found.  I read most people state he is out of business and off the website, here.  Only chance is if someone wants to sell their used one.