Best 44-40 brass

[IRON JACK]

Which is the toughest, which hold the most powder (for bp)?

The will be used in uberti 66 and 73 rifles.

Thanks

[Fingers McGee]

Starline.  That's all I've used since 2006.  My '66 didn't like Remington-Peters, and my '73 didn't like Winchester.  All my guns like Starline, and I don't experience crunching or splitting problems with them.

I've never compared capacities between brands. 

[Sgt. John McAfferty]

I agree with Fingers.  I've shot Remington, Winchester and Starline brass through my Spencer and my 1866 with no problems, but the Starline is easiest to reload by far for me.

Sgt. John McAfferty

[bear tooth billy]

Starline has thicker wall which causes less bulging when loading. I don't have any figures but starline will probably hold a bit less powder than the thinner walled brands, probably very small diference.

                                                      BTB

[Okefinokee Outlaw]

I use 35 grains of Swiss 2FG in my Starline cases. 

[IRON JACK]

Thanks for the help.

I already had 50 nickel plated starline but needed more.  Yesterday I ordered 100 plain brass starline and a factory crimp die from Track Of the Wolf.

Thanks again

[Yakima Red]

I use 'em all. When I started out over 20 years ago (yikes!) I used all Remington. I was the only shooter in our club that shot 44-40. Many soon followed. Over the years all kinds of stuff ends up in my brass bag I hang on my gun cart. At big matches folks who didn't reload would toss their empties in there. After a while every headstamp known to man was found in my reloads.

So, trim your cases to the proper length and shoot 'em all. Don't descriminate, I'm an equial opprotunity brass user. BTW, I shoot the holy black, so a little variation in thickness makes no nevermind.

[longinosoap]

Like Yakima said. I started off with 900 cases of W-W and R-P. Now I have everything under the sun. I too, am an Equal Opportunity Shooter.

[Driftwood Johnson]

Howdy

Looks like I am a little bit late in answering. I too have probably used every brand of 44-40 brass under the sun over the years. For what its worth, I always preferred Winchester because it had the thinnest brass at the case mouth. Thinner brass there allows for more tolerance with larger diameter bullets in tight chambers. However Winchester brass has started becoming harder to come by. So a few months ago I ordered 500 44-40 cases from Starline. Works fine in all my 44-40 rifles (five of them).

For what it's worth, you are not going to find a measurable difference from one brand of brass to the next regarding how much Black Powder they can hold. My standard 44-40 load is 2.2CC of FFg under a 200 grain Mav-Dutchman Big Lube bullet. Depending on what brand of powder I use, that can vary from 33 grains to 37 grains. But that is only because Black Powder produced by different companies does not weigh the same. As far as case capacity is concerned, no significant difference.

[longinosoap]

Along the same lines... Shot my new 73 SAA in 44-40 today for the first time. When I went to load it some (most) of the cartridges would not go into the cylinder, or if they did go in, the cylinder would not turn because it would drag on the frame. Mostly W-W brass, some Starline.

They all went though my Lee sizer die but seems like the last 1/16" where the case is in the shellholder will not fit into the cylinder.

Any one have any ideas what I'm doing wrong or not doing. They chamber into the 66 fine, but the tolerances on the pistol is much tighter. These cartridges were loaded with Unique. When I got home, tried to load some into the cylinder filled with Pinnacle and these were even worse.

[Trailrider]

Well, I've been usin' W-W for about a quarter century in my OM Vaqueros, Henry & Rossi's. Swear by them! Your mileage may vary.

[Old Top]

Longinosoap,

I had the same problem with my 44-40 and ended up after many trials and errors to find something that worked.  Decap and bell, prime and powder, then I run it through the depriming die, minus the deprimer, then through a lee factory crimp die.  I know that many people do not recomend this but it was the only way I found to make them load in my pistols.  Runing it through the deprimeing die again will loosen the bullets, so hence the factory crimp die.  Also lubeing before depriming helps a great deal.  That is about six trips through the single stage press, but it does make them work.

Old Top

[longinosoap]

Thanks Old Top

I did some Quality Control when I reloaded for my pistol. I turned the turrett press into a single stage and checked the cartridge after each process.

First I resized all the 200 gn bullets to .427

I sized the brass and expanded the case, then trimmed each case. Found most had stretched. Also cleaned the primer pocket. Primed and checked every piece of brass in the cylinder and rotated. All were fine. Next filled with 1.9cc of Pinnacle. Seated bullett and used FCD.

Again checked every cartridge in the cylinder. Found, after crimping that some(10%) still dragged on the frame. So I figure the crimp is what is causing a slight bulge at the base of the case causing the brass to not seat maybe 1 or 2 thousandths. Used a very light crimp.

Next step, I polished the rear of the frame, taking off 1 or 2 thousandths at the most. This helped the dragging on most of the cartridges that were being finicky. Anyways, now have 100 that will go through the pistol. Takes a while but it worked.

[Old Top]

Longinosoap,

It does take a while to get them to work right.

Old Top

[Ordnancebob]

 I use Starline for my "Pale Rider" loads with .430 bullets and APP powder.
Smokeless sees Winchester brass same bullets with Trail Boss.
All loads through Smokewagons,  Chapparel revolvers or Uberti 73 lever.
Odd brass is used for other loads such as 777 etc .

Sua Tela Tonanti
Ordnancebob