Uberti's "Remington NMA Cartridge Conversion", .44WCF...

[mtmarfield]

      Greetings, All!

   I've recently taken possession of an Uberti "Remington NMA Cartridge Conversion" Revolver, 8"bbl, .44WCF, that I had ordered some months prior to be a companion to my Uberti Henry. Although it's somewhat beefier than my older NMA .44 C&Bs, the balance and "feel" is excellent, and for me, has captured the esthetic of my "first real gun", my Lyman NMA .44 C&B.
   My intention is to experiment with my assortment of BP and Smokeless .44WCF "Henry" handloads, and my 'catalogue' of bullet moulds, with the emphasis being a cartridge compatible in both arms.
   Here's the "rub": the three boxes of Uberti Henry handloads that I took out require "TWO THUMBS" worth of pressure to seat them into the NMAs "SAAMI-Minimum" chambers! Using a smoked cartridge, I'm only seeing 'scuffing' right at the origin of the shoulder at the base of the neck. I thought that the bullet might be oversized, but it's a factory cast .427" bullet. I'm seriously thinking that I might have to have a gunsmith take 1/32" off of the base of my RCBS Sizer Die, so that I can set the shoulder farther back. I've had to do that with a LEE .38WCF Sizer Die, and I'd rather not do it again. Neither do I really want to over work my brass in some "One Size Fits All" Factory Duplication Die, only to have it blow out again after each shot.
   Ideas?

          Thanks Mucho!

                  M.T.M.
   

[Cap'n Redneck]

Sounds to me like Your only other option would be to have a gunsmith ream the chambers of the NMA cylinder 1/32" deeper.

If I was to shorten the sizing die by as little as 1/32" I would do it myself on a bench-grinder or even with an angle-grinder.  The mouth of the die could be re-beveled with a Dremel-tool.

[Marshal Will Wingam]

If I was to shorten the sizing die by as little as 1/32" I would do it myself on a bench-grinder or even with an angle-grinder.  The mouth of the die could be re-beveled with a Dremel-tool.

I shortened a closing die 3/8" exactly this way one time and it works great. It can still be used as originally intended, too.

[mtmarfield]

      Greetings!

   Thanks for the feedback, everyone! I believe that I'll shorten the Sizing Die / set the shoulder back a bit.
I'll keep You All posted!

                    M.T.M.

[mtmarfield]

      Greetings, All!

   After spending a week in the Lazy-Boy with a bout of 'La Grippe', I received a reply from RCBS: I was informed that the ".44-40 Cowboy" Sizing Die would likely not change things for me; I was advised to loosen the Lock Ring, raised the Lever Handle on my Press with the Shell Holder installed, and torque the Sizing Die down as far as it will go, resetting the Lock Ring. I did so. With my Remington NMA Conversion beside me, I FL sized fifty R-P cases; these all dropped and fully seated into the six Chambers, and the Cylinder freely rotated all of the Case Heads past the Recoil Shield. I then reloaded them with the Laser-Cast .427-200 bullets, 6.0gr TITE-Group, and CCI #300 caps. Each cartridge was again chambered and rotated past the Recoil Shield ( High primers caused binding in the past! ). I then loaded a second box of cartridges using Star-Line brass; from the second batch, I had ONLY ONE cartridge fail to seat without force, and I believe that this Brass was a dented "range pick-up" case, and I had run it a couple of times through the Expander & Sizer Dies to iron it out prior to reloading...
   So, it appears that my dilemma "may" have been solved, although I'd like to shave a little off of the bottom of the FL Sizing Die, if for no other reason than to give myself a little extra leeway when sizing this cartridge for tight chambers.
   Lessons learned: 1. MAKE SURE Primers are seated at least flush with the Casehead ( Headspace! ). 2. When working with cartridges that have a SHOULDER, remember to consider headspacing in ALL firearms! The previous FL Sizing Die setting was fine for the Henry and the 1866 "Yellow-Boy" SRC, but the shoulder wasn't being set back far enough for the Remington NMA Conversion chambers. ALL of this should've been "bright flashing lights" to a veteran reloader like me, but...
   Again, I think that I'll be giving serious thought to taking a tiny shave off of the bottom off of the FL Sizing Die. I may also see, when the brass case is slipped into the Shell Holder, if I can slip a leaf from a Leaf Gauge between the Shell Holder and the bottom of the Casehead, AND THEN run the Case into the FL Sizing Die.
   Hmmm...

                  M.T.M.

[mtmarfield]

      Greetings!

   A brief follow-up: Uberti Remington NMA .44WCF is behaving splendidly with fully-sized brass from unmodified Sizing Die. A bit of
rummaging produced a handful of long forgotten cast bullets from one of my Ideal #429348 Wadcutter Moulds: .429" sized, 180gr weight,
over 6.0gr. TITE-Group. Seated and gently crimped into the uppermost lube groove, they grouped very well ( 2" ) at indoor target range of 15
yards, and the same elevation as all other 200/215gr bullets, about 2.5" low. I'm beginning to suspect that Uberti mounted a ".45Colt" front
sight on my revolver... Time to break out the file.
   Dave Scoville declared these "little" wadcutters to be instant bad day for any and all critters up to and including Coyotes; I would suspect that
they'd be dandy for a treed Mountain Lion, as well.

                    M.T.M.
                 11-06-22

[mtmarfield]

      Greetings!

   My Shooting Buddy gifted me a small tub of bullets cast from his obsolete LEE #90339, a .429" - 208gr Wadcutter; these
were tested to a BHN of 15.
   With a "Starting Charge" of 5.2gr of Hodgdon's TITEGroup, CCI #300 caps, and R-P .44-40 brass, I seated these bullets to
an OAL of 1.521", crimping into the uppermost lube groove.
   Sorry, no chrono, but average 10yd groups hovered just over one inch, with my best group inside my 1" orange paster. An
offhand, two-hand hold would usually allow this performance at 20yds, but alas...
   Similar experiments with a new RCBS #44-200CM, sized to .429" and a BHN of 10 ( Common jacketed bullet cores ) performed
well with both 7.2gr Alliant Unique, and 5.2gr Hodgdon's TITEGroup, CCI #300 caps, Star-Line Brass, and crimped to an OAL
of 1.570".
   I was disappointed to find that the RCBS bullet would regularly hang up on the chamber mouth while shooting my Uberti Henry;
I like the broad flat point of the #44-200CM, and hope to get to the root of this problem...
   Update: This Load cycles without a hitch through my other 'Toggle-Link' Rifles; my observation that my Uberti Henry carrier protrudes
from below the frame by about 1/32" when at rest makes me think that it might not be raised fully by the 'Carrier Lever', thus causing
the bullet to hit the lower edge of the chamber mouth...

                     M.T.M.
                    5-28-23