Fire formed cases, REALLY!

[Tuolumne Lawman]

Digging through the safe, I found 30 rounds of 38-40 ammo, loaded with 37 grains (volume) of Triple 7 and a 180 grain bullet.  Since I have not had a 38-40 in about 10 years, I decided they were excess to my needs.  What I do have is 44-40s, and never enough brass.  My 44-40 Armi san Marco/EMF 1873 clone and I took a walk in the woods with the 38-40 rounds.  I fired all 30 and created 30 new 44-40 cases, (well actually 28, as two of the cases older ones with many reloads under their belt split).  The rest, however, formed into 44-40 cases perfectly.  What is funny is the fact that I hit whatever I aimed at, even though the bullets were .027" undersized.  I guess they cruised down the barrel like a ball down a smooth bore.

[Grapeshot]

I've changed .38 WCF cases into .44 WCF cases when I was reloading a batch of .44's.  Seems that the expander die opened up the .38 WCF's enough for me to seat a .429 boolit into it and when I fired it it became a .44 WCF with the wrong headstamp.

As long as they work, keep on charging.

GO ORDNANCE!

[Tuolumne Lawman]

I've changed .38 WCF cases into .44 WCF cases when I was reloading a batch of .44's.  Seems that the expander die opened up the .38 WCF's enough for me to seat a .429 boolit into it and when I fired it it became a .44 WCF with the wrong headstamp.

As long as they work, keep on charging.

GO ORDNANCE!

AMEN.  I had some empty 38-40 cases that I did the same thing to.  The expander only went part way down the case, so there was a groove below the bullet.  Once fired, they were perfect.  The 50 or so 38-40s gave me 50 more 44-40s!

[longinosoap]

Has anyone ever changed 44 Mag into 44-40's? I was messing around last night in the shop and they came up about .15 shorter than 44-40 and about .08 smaller in diameter at the base. Do you think they will work?

[Tuolumne Lawman]

I tried it about 15 years ago with a .427 bullet, but they still would not chamber because the case mouth was too large with the bullet in it.  A long time ago I read about someone sizing bullet to .425 and it worked, sort of. They flopped around in the chamber.