Uberti Henry Rifle.

[Capt, Woodrow F. Call]

One thing i haven't found out about Uberti Henry rifles. My Henry is  cal ( 44-40) and when i cast new bullets in my mold, the bullet is bigger ................. After taking measures of the mold, it says 429 cal and not 427 cal. Some other Uberti Henry's is cambered in 429, but not mine............. how come
Is the cambering of Uberti henry that different, and so unpunctual.

I have to bay my self a bullet sizer, that make my bullets go from 429 to 427 in measures.
Or maybe the mold is not punctual.......i don't now what to believe right now.

Do you have the same problems with your Henry Rifle.  

[major]

Woodrow
You want your bullet to be a little larger then the size of your boar.  This way the bullet will be sized as it enters the barrel and it will engage the rifling.  If you force a raw bullet down your boar with a rod you can then measure the size of the bullet with a micrometer.  I shoot a .430 bullet out of my Henry and it works great.

[D-Hansen]

Does the .429" diameter bullet fail to chamber?  I shoot .430 from my Uberti 1866.   My bore slugs .421" bore and .429" groove.  .429" and .430" are perfect lead bullet diameters for the 44-40 Uberti rifles and revolvers that I have loaded for.   With out more information it is speculation, but is it possible you are having a crimp situation causing you problem?

D-Hansen

[Capt, Woodrow F. Call]

Thank you for your answer's. 

The problem is when i load with raw bullet ammo 429, the bullet is too big for the chamber, i have to press the ammo in to the chamber, and the ammo would not go all the way in.
Look's like the chamber is to small, or short ! for 429 sized bullet, but factory made ammo, fit's perfect. After some tests today, it seems i have to size every raw bullet, before i can use my Henry.

It's very weird...... The bullet mold is market and say's 427, but give's me 429.... ...... this Lee bullet mold, gives me a bad headache. 

[D-Hansen]

What are you applying the crimp with?   The Lee Factory Crimp Die (Collete style) works well and eliminates a crimp issue.  If your crimping with the bullet seating die make sure the crimp is not too heavy.  Try to load a dummy round with your .429" diameter bullet with a very light crimp and see if it makes a difference.   Also the thickness of your brass in combination with the .429" bullet may be causing this.  Just my opinion and thoughts.  You may be right and the bullet may be too large for your camber, but .429 should be OK in the Uberti Models.  I've seen crimps cause hard cambering problems.

D-Hansen

[D-Hansen]

When you cast your bullets, what alloy are you using?  They will shrink and alloy make-up will effect how much.   There is data on which alloy will yield which results.  Are you measuring bullets that you have cast yourself?

D-Hansen

[Pettifogger]

Uberti uses .429 bores and most molds won't drop the exact size indicated on the mold.  It is expected that you will run it through a sizer and luber.  You mentioned the chambers look like they may be to short.  Almost every .44-40 die set I have ever used won't set the shoulder on the case back far enough.  In most cases I have shortened the sizer die about .030".  .44-40 can be a pain to load until you get everything set right and get a bullet and brass combination that works in your rifle.  Different brands of brass have different neck thickness and rim size.  You have to eliminate one problem at a time when getting set up.  The first thing to do is take some of your resized brass and drop it into the chambers.  If the un-sized, empty brass won't drop into the chamber up to its rim, then you need to work with your dies until they do.

[Abilene]

Pettifogger mentioned different brands of brass having different neck thickness.  Myself and others I know have to use Wnchester or Starline brass with .429 bullets in tight Uberti 44-40 chambers.  Remington, 3D, PMC, and others have thicker necks and won't allow the round to chamber without "pushing it in" (with difficulty at that).  With .427 bullets I can use any brass, but I prefer .429 bullets.

[wyldwylliam]

Just a thought here, but have you checked that your over all cartridge length is right? If your reloads are a bit too long this could cause your chambering problems. My Uberti needs .430's to shoot well and I use the standard .44wcf 200 gr. bullet.

[Driftwood Johnson]

Howdy

Welcome to the fun of loading 44-40. The 19th Century standard for 44-40 groove diameter was .427. That was the standard, however barrels have been measured that varied all over the place, probably as small as .425, probably as large as .432. I have an antique Winchester and an antique Marlin, both made before 1900, and their groove diameters slug to .427. I have an Uberti replica 1873 made in the 1980s and it too slugs to .427. However I have a Winchester Model 1892 made around 1918 and an Uberti Henry made just a few years ago, and they both slug to .429.

Today, some firearms makers use the old .427 standard, but some use the same barrels that they would use for 44 Special or 44 Magnum, having rifling groove diameters of .429. Most shooters these days report that Uberti seems to be using .429 for their 44-40 rifles.

That 1873 of mine has a tight chamber. It will accept ammo loaded with .427 or .428 bullets, but it doesn't quite like .429 bullets. Nothing to do with the length of the chamber, it is because a 'fat' bullet like .429 or .430 swells the brass just enough to be stubborn in a tight chamber. For that reason, I always used to use Winchester 44-40 brass, it is about .001 or so thinner at the neck than most other brands, so rounds made with it are more forgiving in a tight chamber. These days it is tough to find Winchester 44-40 brass, but I have had good results with Starline.

In addition, you can vary the size of your cast bullets by varying the amount of tin in your casting alloy. Pure lead shrinks the most on cooling. Adding a little bit of tin cuts down the amount the bullets shrink. I cast my 44 Mav-Dutchman bullets with pure lead because my mold is a little bit over sized and I want them to shrink down enough so that I can size them to .428 when I lube/size them. But I add about 1 part tin to 20 parts lead for my 45 bullets because I don't want them to shrink quite so much.