Frankford Arsenal .44 Martin cartridges back in the day

[Tuolumne Lawman]

While I was researching Remington  NMA .44 centerfire conversions, I found that Frankford Arsenal .44 cartridges made for the Army to use in both .44 Colt Richards conversions and Remington's New Model Army conversions.  They had a 225 grain bullet and 30 grains of powder! Thats. about 3 more grain than the .45 Schofield, and a duplicate of the later issued .45 Colt military rounds that had the decreased powder charge. (The Army found the 40 grains of powder in the original loading too much for most troopers).

That made the Remington's NMA .44 conversions and Colt's 1860 Richards .44 conversions better fight stoppers than 1872 open tops in .44 Henry and S&W No 3s, either with the .44 American or .44 Russian caliber.

[Galloway]

Yep and dont forget the long and short 46 made good stoppers aswell. The 44 colt was particularily anemic for the size of shell i always though. Also i dont believe the the open top would chamber the 28 gr flat loadings, only the 25gr pointed offerings. The reduced revolver ball load kept the 250 and would be my choice though.

[Tuolumne Lawman]

YOu are correct about the .46 Rimfire in the Remington NMA. The .46 Rimfire of the first 5 shot NMA conversions licensed from S&W were stout, especially in the Winchester loading: a 230 grain bullet over 26 grains of powder -basically a duplicate of the .45 Schofield.

In both cases (1860 and NMA), the Conversions were generally an improvement over the combustible cartridge shooting percussion versions.