Merwin, Hulbert & Co revolvers

[St. George]

No.

He died awhile back.

Scouts Out!

[Professor Marvel]

With a bit of browsing I discovered these nice links for self-publishing:

http://www.schulerbooks.com/schuler-books-presents-espresso-book-machine
http://www.bly.com/Pages/documents/ART4H.htm

http://ask.metafilter.com/252970/How-to-self-publish-a-book-that-is-out-of-print
http://www.sellbox.com/re-publishing-out-of-print-book-after-rights-reversion/
http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2013/05/the-real-costs-of-self-publishing-book/

https://www.createspace.com/en/community/thread/23044


But since Art passed, I fear that complicates things. If the rights reverted to his heirs someone  would have to contact them and convince them to pursue this worthy endevour,  or take up the flag and acquire the rights themselves . I fear too many of us half otherwise useful lives to chase that nightmare waiting to happen white whale  unicorn ...

That could be nearly as much of a headache as to try to restart a Merwin and Hulbert Revolver factory ...  I need to stop jousting with windmills.

yhs
prof marvel

[St. George]

I seriously doubt you'd be the first to attempt to get the heirs to re-publish.

Some things take time - and the clock that runs for them is not the one you're using, so all I can say is to be patient.

The same can be said about McDowell's book on Colt Conversions, Brunner's on Colt Pocket Automatics and Peer's on Snub-Nose Colts - 'all' need to be re-published, but no one's in any hurry to do so.

Scouts Out!

[Driftwood Johnson]

Thinking back, I do not recall ever seeing a blued Merwin Hulbert, all the ones I recall seeing were nickel plated.

Have to correct myself. Happy Trails has a blued one chambered for the 44 MH cartridge. He made up some ammo for it using 41 Magnum cases as his starting point.

[wildman1]

Have to correct myself. Happy Trails has a blued one chambered for the 44 MH cartridge. He made up some ammo for it using 41 Magnum cases as his starting point.

How difficult was making 44 MH cartridges from 41 mag? wM1

[Sir Charles deMouton-Black]

I haven't done this one, but a look at a case dimension chart makes it look very feasible. Cartridge case conversions are necessary when one is interested in uncommon cartridges. Not much of assistance on a search.

http://bullet-blog.com/44-merwin-hulbert-2/

http://smith-wessonforum.com/reloading/364946-44-merwin-hulbert.htmlhttp://smith-wessonforum.com/reloading/364946-44-merwin-hulbert.html





Depending on your revolver dimensions, it seems that .424 is the usual bullet diameter. You might have to obtain a sizing die in this diameter. Or, perhaps find a bullet closer in diameter, for example from here;

http://www.neihandtools.com/catalog.html See page 9, the .422-195 designed for the Glisenti, but resizing common .44-40 bullets would be much cheaper.

It might take some fiddling and a choice of dies and case prep tools, but here are the steps, after determining your revolver's chamber & bore dimensions;

http://members.shaw.ca/cstein0/revolver.htm

1. compare base diameters and case length. .41RM base .433;   Case L. 1.28 . bullet dia. .410
                                                               .44 M-H     .444                1.16                  .422
2. Shorten the .41 RM case to 1.16". The base is a bit small, but will eventually fireform. It is not enough to cause a safety problem.

3. Choose a neck expansion die to open the neck just enough to hold a bullet. C-H4D has a selection to choose from. After the first reload, you might try a .44-40 sizing die to choke the case neck enough to hold a bullet.

http://www.ch4d.com/products/dies/expanding/tmp

4. Load in the normal manner. FOR AN ORIGINAL (the only kind available) USE BLACKPOWDER ONLY! I think a .41RM die set with the .41RM shell holder might do to assemble your ammo, but any of the common .44 dies might also do?? (CH4D have over 2000 calibers listed  for their dies. I don't see this one, but I suggest you might ask.)

[Blair]

Sir Charles,

I believe the issue with using .41 Mag cases for the .44 MH is in the rim diameter of the cases.
The .41 Mag rim is just a bit too small (.488) to allow the extraction ring within the .44 MH (.500) to extract spent cases reliably when the revolver is opened. Measurements vary greatly when it comes to the .44 MH cartridge when you can find them.

My experience with checking my .44 MH, rims for .41 Mag case are too small to extract.

My best,
Blair

[Sir Charles deMouton-Black]

Blair; Your experience trumps my speculation, but I see in my search there are frequent references to .41RM

I just found an old thread from 2009. Montanian, used .44 Special brass but swaged down to fit the chambers. Using the .41 RM might be easier to make if shooting something is the objective, with the drawback of having to poke em out with a stick. RedGreen suggests 9.3 x 72 R cases, trimmed. I have a box of 19 loaded Sellier & Bellot rounds in this caliber. (the other round was shortened to .360 Express, 9.3 x 57R, for an old Husqvarna cape gun.) This is a relatively rare rifle round and might need inside neck reaming??

http://www.cascity.com/forumhall/index.php/topic,19624.0.html

I just went back to reread the above thread and the last post in 2014 was by Blair.

[Blair]

Sir Charles,

I believe I may have even recommended using .41 Mag cases.
This was what I used to work up loads for my .44 S&W American.
They worked very well. But, the S&W extraction star works on about 1/3 of the cartridge case rim diameter. Whereas, on the MH, there is a very small amount of the rim that comes in contact the extraction ring.

When I checked my .44 Americans in the MH revolver, they fit very well. I, however, did not think about trying the extraction system. I only checked for chamber fit.
I still have not shot the MH, but because of this very long thread, I have gone back to check on how well they extract in the MH. Not good! Extraction was none, but being un fired, the rounds just fell out.

Starting with .44 Special maybe a better bet. And there are companies out there that will make alterations to common cases. If, they have the measurements of the case you need?
My best,
Blair

[Driftwood Johnson]

Howdy Again

All I know is that Happy Trails used 41 Magnum brass to make ammo for his 44 Merwin Hulbert revolver. He did mention something about a discrepancy of dimensions, but said it was not a problem.

[wildman1]

Hey Driftwood I saw a M&H today. Gent told me it was rare. It was a 38 caliber small frame, had the skull crusher grip frame on it. The barrel was marked Hopkins and Allen, the frame was marked Merwin Hulbert on the left side and 38 cal on the right side. It had about 95% of the nickel remaining. wM1

[Blair]

wildman1,

I have seen one midsize frame DA with the "skull" crusher grip in .38 S&W. (perhaps more rare than the basic square butt grip?)
It was very cool! But it also had a 5 1/2 " or 6" barrel on it. (I don't remember which)
Without a full size frame DA next to it, it was difficult to see the difference between the two sizes.
My best,
Blair

[wildman1]

This was a short barrel I think 3 1/2 or 4". Pard told me he could find no evidence that they were made. wM1