Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Cowboy Action Shooting Resurrecting the 44 colt

Some modified 44 magnum lee dies, a 210 grain bullet, 4.8 grains of ww231, starline brass, and what a shooter it is

What lub?

.451 or 429?

This particular italian clone shoots a 429.

Back in the day, the Colt Richards-Mason conversion, and the Henry rifle, shot the same 44 colt round, making them the first rifle-pistol combination to take the same cartridge.

Never loaded a black powder cartridge. Reading about it, its sounds somewhat complicated. I've got an old rogers and spencer conversion in 44 I'd sure like to put back into service.

Do you have to use heeled bullets?

Slug the bore. Likely to be .451 or more. Would need heel bullets.

If .429, shouldn't need them.

I don't have a lot of personal experience with black powder. What I've written is mostly from reading others experiences.

That's a fine looking old revolver. Hope you get it going.

That is the first step I believe, slugging the bore. I did find a place to order heeled bullets; but have to find out if I use lube or wad, or what the hell

The 44 Colt is a centerfire cartridge and is not the same cartridge that the Henry took. The Henry and later Winchester 1866, sometimes called the "Improved Henry" were chambered for the 44 Henry Flat (44 rimfire) round. The 44 Colt is very similar to the 44 Remington which is encountered very often in the model 1875 Remington Army revolver.

There were some pistols chambered in the 44 RF but they are not often encountered. Here is a Smith and Wesson single action American in the rimfire caliber. It would have interchanged with Henry or '66 Winchester cartridges. This particular specimen was manufactured in 1872, IIRC.

I did indeed have that wrong. The henry round was used in early conversions, in the late 1860s.

http://gunsmagazine.com/old-west-44s/

Even the peacemaker was chambered for the henry round from 1875-1880

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colt_Single_Action_Army

The 44 colt didn't surface until 1872 or so.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.44_Colt

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.44_Henry

The Colt SAA has been chambered in a myriad of cartridges over its existence, one of them indeed being the 44 Henry RF. It is a desirable collectible due to its rarity.

There was no widely used rifle-pistol cartridge until the 44 WCF was chambered in the SAA. The date of that occurrence used to be set at 1878 but Mike Venturino has reported instances of factory chamberings dating back at least to 1876, IIRC.

1882 specimen.



I don't know the numbers offhand, but there may have been more Smith and Wesson single actions, such as the above, chambered in the 44 RF than there were Colt SAA's. Both are rare guns though.

The first factory conversions were of the Remington Army .44 to a .46 caliber rimfire round...again, IIRC. The Rogers and Spencer is interesting. I'd be very careful what cartridge I shot in it. Word-of-mouth anecdotes about chamberings of such old guns can vary in their accuracy.

Colt Pocket Conversion to 38 Colt.



Conventional wisdom used to be that small charges of smokeless, usually fast-burning powders, were safe in such old guns. I personally would not shoot anything but Black in such a one. Loading black in cartridges is not difficult, but requires some different techniques than smokeless loadings. Any questions would be fielded on the Black Powder Cartridge Rifles forum.



Of course your 44 Colt Uberti is perfectly safe with smokeless, but one mustn't fire anything even approaching hot loads in an open topped design, even one manufactured with modern steels. Frame-stretching can occur very quickly.

Nice revolver!

A couple of years ago I traded for a Uberti Open Top in .44 Special...more out of curiosity than anything and because I came out on the better end of the deal.

Anyhow, I love going through SA's and slicking them up, working on the trigger pulls, etc. Well after doing such on this revolver, then shooting it, there was NO WAY I was getting rid of it. Absolutely the best, most natural pointing revolver I've ever held. It will now forever be my one of my CAS revolvers.





I shot a few cylinders full of loads that some might call "stiff", but they were straight out of Alliants data (6.9 grs. Unique under a 250 gr. cast SWC)

I had another in 5 1/2" but it was marked as being chambered in .44 Colt. The somewhat concerning part of this was the fact that my .44 Special handloads would drop right into the chambers all the way to the rim and could've easily been fired. The chambers would not, however accept a fired .44 Special cartridge case.

35WN

There are plenty of guys using shortened 44 special brass to make 44 colt. The rim is bigger and some have a little trouble ejecting rounds. I bought 400 starline 44 colt brass for next to nothing, and am also overwhelmed at how accurate my clone is.

Very nice. I'm not sure I've ever seen one in 44 Spec.

EE;

I saw two in .44 Special just today. A 5.5" barreled version and a 7.5" "Man with No Name" version. Damn, did they point beautifully and cycle just as well.

The Special is certainly more convenient than calibers such as 44 Colt, 44 Rem., 44 RF, 44 American, etc. I don't think it offers much advantage ballistically or reloading-wise over the 44 Russian. It is certainly more easily obtained though.