Can it be????? I may be getting a .44-40 Spencer! YIPPEE!

[Tuolumne Lawman]

Way back in 2005, I got a .44-40 Spencer Carbine when they first came out.  I loved it, but stuck with my .56-50 Taylor's Spencer, and traded it to a friend. Ended up selling the .56-50 later, so I have been Spencer-less for the last three or four years. UGH!!!!!

Fast forward seven years:  I was bragging to my pard whom I had traded it to about how accurate my .44-40 Marlin 1894 Century Limited was at the match Sunday (you could shoot eggs at 50 yards).  He was wishing he had it now.  Well, I asked him if he still had the .44-40 Spencer.  He said he did, and that it has been sitting in the safe, unfired, for 6+ years.  He tried it for a main match rifle one time, but he thought it was way too slow.  we have a tentative agreement to swap straight across, as rifle values are nearly identical.

Way AWESOME!!!!  The good things about the .44-40 are that I already load .44-40 for the Century and the two EMF revolvers (nickel Hartford and blued "GW II" Californian).  As I am on a very limited budget, I really could not afford to get set up for .56-50 again: mold, brass at $2 each, dies, etc.  For using as a CAS main match rifle and at annual matches, I'd need $500 worth of brass alone!  I have powder, dies, and lots of 200 grain .44-40 slugs already. I am at a place where I want the "cool" factor of the Spencer, without needing the "real" Spencer caliber.  THis Spencer was doing three shot clover leafs at 25 yards with Black Hills Ammo when I had it before.

[Deadeye Don]

Congrats!!  What goes around comes around! 

[Tuolumne Lawman]

Another positive of the .44-40 is that Starline has fairly inexpensive 5 in 1 blank brass for reenacting, or you can make blanks from 410 shells like Terry Schultz does.

[major]

TL
I have been making blanks all winter and I have 5 coffee cans full of 7 shot tubes.  I am ready to reenact this summer.
Terry

[Tuolumne Lawman]

TOMORROW!!!!!!!  I do the trade!   I won't be able to sleep tonight!

Terry, I still have a roll of those .410 blanks you sent me.  I'll have to try them out.

[Tuolumne Lawman]

It's MINE!  The deal is done!  I will post pics a week from Saturday when I use it at a California Rangers match at Cowboy Town outside of Ione, CA

[Silent Joe]

Congrats with your deal, TL. 

[Tuolumne Lawman]

Argh! Was going to use the .44-40 Spencer in a match tomorrow, but badly pulled a chest muscle (can you say AGONY???) Now I'll have to wait two weeks until the local match.  I used the 56-56 original, then the 56-50 Armi-Sport as main match rifles for years.  I am foaming at the mouth to return to the Spencer fold at a match.