Original .44 Henry Ballistics = by .44-40 Cowboy ammunition

[w44wcf]

Interestingly, some of today's .44-40 factory ammunition (smokeless) ompares  ballistically to the original .44 Henry Flat factory black powder ammunition of the late 1800's.



The Magtech is "Magtech Sport" ammunition.

Other 200 gr. .44-40 Cowboy ammunition tested produced less velocity:
velocities average of 10 rounds each in a 24" barrel -
Hornady.... - 991 f.p.s.
Magtech ....- 987 f.p.s.

Reloaded ammunition with a 200 gr. cast bullet over 6.0 / Titegroup produced an average of 1,130 f.p.s.

w44wcf

[DJ]

Very interesting.  I wonder if part of the explanation might be that the powder charges are perhaps not all that different.  I know at first glance the .44-40 case looks like it would hold a lot more powder that the .44 Henry, but there are a couple of factors that are not externally visible but that limit the .44-40 capacity. 

First, the Henry, presumably, uses a balloon headed case, while modern .44-40s use a solid case.  Original balloon headed cases were generally thinner brass than modern cases and the ballooned head would allow for several more grains of powder around the primer than modern solid head cases.

Second, the heeled, outside lubed design of the Henry bullet places most of the bullet outside the case--only the short heeled section is inside.  That allows for more powder than if the bullet were mostly seated inside the case.  In comparison, the .44-40 uses an internally lubed bullet design where most of the bullet is inside the case and only a relatively short nose extends out of the case.  That bullet design takes up space that would otherwise contain powder. 

There is also the possibility of a finer grained or more efficient powder in the original that could add a few feet per second.

Still, very interesting and somewhat counterintuitive.

[Coffinmaker]

Ever wonder how Bullet Velocity was measured in 1866??  With no Chronograph??  Must have been like figuring out the Ballistic Coefficient of the average Elephant.  Wonder what the velocity of a Charging Rhino is at impact with Great White Hunter???   Hummmmmmm.

Coffinmaker
(Ballistically Perky Today)

[w44wcf]

DJ,
.44 Henry Flat ammunition was only ever loaded with black powder or semi-smokeless powder. The  .44-40 ammo referenced is loaded with smokeless.

The .44 Henry is a rimfire which eliminates the button pocket of the balloon head case, thus making more room for additional powder (28 grs in the .44 Henry Flat).  The original .44-40 was loaded with 40 grs of black and pushed a 200 gr lead bullet to 1,300 f.p.s.

Coffinmaker,
I don't know, but the black powder taken from a original .44 Henry Flat cartridge produced 1,133 f.p.s. with a 200 gr bullet when tested.
Pretty darn close to the claimed 1,125 f.p.s.

w44wcf

[Trailrider]

Ever wonder how Bullet Velocity was measured in 1866??  With no Chronograph??  Must have been like figuring out the Ballistic Coefficient of the average Elephant.  Wonder what the velocity of a Charging Rhino is at impact with Great White Hunter???   Hummmmmmm.

Coffinmaker
(Ballistically Perky Today)

Bullet velocity was measured using a ballistic pendulum. This was a device with a pair of arms hanging from pivots, with a bar connecting the two arms, also with pivots. A bullet was fired into the end of this parallelogram, which swung forward and upward. Knowing the weight of the mechanism plus the weight of the bullet and the height reached by the parallelogram, allowed the energy gained to be calculated, and the velocity was derived from that.  Of course, there were losses due to the friction of the pivots, but this was taken into account.  The velocity of the Charging Rhino can probably be calculated by how high it throws the Hunter! 

[Coffinmaker]

Way Cool Trailrider.  The way things were done in those halcyon days of yesteryear never cease to amaze me.

Since I have never been in the Right Place and the Right Time with a flush gun fund when a 44 Special Henry came available ......
I have substituted the Cowboy 45 Special case for my equivalent of the 44 Henry Flat.  Also allows me to stuff an obscene number of rounds in a Henry Rifle.  Really fun to rip off 18 rounds.  Then put on a glove so I could grab the barrel (hand warmer in winter dontcha know).

All four of my Main Match rifles are Henrys.  16inch, 18 1/2inch, 19inch and a stock 24inch.  Way too much fun 

Now.  About the Ballistic Coefficient of that Elephant >>>>>>>

Coffinmaker

[w44wcf]

Trailrider,
Thank you for the info. I had heard of the ballistic pendulum before.

The question is what did Winchester use in 1875 when they stated the 1,125 f.p.s.  for the .44 Henry and 1,325 f,p,s, for the new .44 W.C.F.?  Whatever they used, the velocities stated were pretty correct.

Perhaps Winchester used the ballistic pendulum or the following (?) or something else....

"An early chronograph that measures velocity directly was built in 1804 by Grobert, a colonel in the French Army. This used a rapidly rotating axle with two disks mounted on it about 13 feet apart. The bullet was fired parallel to the axle, and the angular displacement of the holes in the two disks, together with the rotational speed of the axle, yielded the bullet velocity."

w44wcf

[Tuolumne Lawman]

 I used Winchester's data of just over 1100 FPS to build a clone load using 45 Schofield loads and BP and substitutes.  Using 23 Grain volume Triple 7 gives about 1100-1150 FPS with 200 grain bullets, respectively.  45 Schofields use a .452" bullet, .44 Henry was .445," and .44 Special/Colt uses .429.  The .452 is .008" larger, where the .429" is .015" smaller in diameter.

With that in mind, the 44 Colt cartridge is also Ideal for  henry duplication load.