Varmints with the 44 W.C.F. ?

[w44wcf]

100 years ago, back in the early 1900's, Winchester offered a 44 W.C.F. cartridge with a 180 gr. lead hollow pointed bullet.  The velocity woulld have been a little higher than the standard  200 gr. bullet and the soft lead hollow pointed bullet would open pretty quickly.



Thankfully, I do have one of these cartridges in my collection so I am going to try and replicate it and test it in water jugs to see how it compares to the standard 200 gr. lead bullet ammunition that I had tested earlier.

If all goes well, perhaps I may get the opportunity to harvest a groundhog or two........

w44wcf

(the $6.50 price was for 1,000 cartridges!)

[w44wcf]

In addition, Ideal offered a bullet mold for their 42499 Express bullet for reloading 44-40.  It was the 42498 (later named 427098) with a hollow point as this illustration shows from an early Ideal catalog.



w44wcf

[Danny Bear Claw]

Should make for a fine varmint round.  Hell, I remember reading that the 44-40 was used to take much larger game than ground hogs.