I was watching a youtube.com video on the testing between a Uberti Winchester 1873 in 44-40 and a .44 mag. The video was out of Germany I believe although the video was in English. That Uberti 1873 has got to be some rifle to take .44 mag ammo. Apparently, only one of those .44 mag 1873's have shown up here and that was a prototype. The editor of the video was talking about hunting deer apparently in Germany from the accent.

A 1873 rifle in .44 mag hum interesting.

"You'll shoot your eye out!"----literally, I'm gonna guess.

I would think so to but the one in the video seemed to be working just fine. Of course, they were using factory ammo.

I had one of the 24" barrel Marlin's in .44 mag. I shot 240 grain PMC ammo and those puppies cleared the Chrony at 2,000 FPS. That's a lot of horse power. I would not trust any 1873 in .44 mag but what the heck do I know.

You apparently know something about the mechanics of the 1873, sir. Thats a lot of steam for that type of action in my opinion.

I'm thinking of getting a 1860 Henry rifle in the near future and have been studying the linkage system quite a bit. It would seem to me that the weak link is the pin or I should say the pins that hold the system together. The pins today are made of better metal and are harder but still the pins can only take so much strain and over time the stress from the .44 mag has got to cause metal fatigue faster than with lower pressure loads.

But I'm new to the game so maybe I don't know what I'm talking about.

You got it covered. I think it's not a very strong system overall, frankly. But if they're making the rifle in that caliber they must be pretty confident in it. I was just tossing my .02 in. Taking the side cover off one gives me the willys when I compare it to an 1886 or even a '94.

I wouldn't go near a '73 action in .44 Magnum.

I have those same feelings about a toggle link .44 rem mag. Surely their engineering team has all that figured out. Just don't want to own one as I wonder how it will hold up to a lifetime of full house ammo.

The '73's are the best for cowboy action shooting as they can be set up to run super fast. The '92's are the strongest and my pick for hot loads. They're stronger than the Marlin, IMHO. Ironically they're the worst for CAS, as they're not the best choice for fast cycling. They are COAL sensitive and tend to "stovepipe" and jam when pushed too fast.

DF

The Uberti 73's in .44 mag appear to be used in Germany according to the you tube videos I was watching. The announcer/shooter was German and using German manufactured .44 mag ammo. From what he was saying apparently only Europe has .44 mag 73's. Maybe their .44 mag ammo is loaded to much lower pressures or they don't reload.

I have not come across any .44 mag 73's in the US.

I'm sure it would work fine. You just have to wonder how long ...

They make and sell gobs of them in .357 Mag whose chamber pressures are practically identical to those of the .44 Mag. So if it's safe in .357 why would it not be in .44?

I've run across a couple of these:

UBERTI 1873 CARBINE 19" 44 MAG

Uberti 1873 Carbine 19" .44 Mag Blue

Came REAL close to buying one, but a .44 Special came along instead.

on the original 44/40's the hi speed loads tended to shoot them loose, sometimes very loose all of a sudden! the pins mentioned are only 1/4" dia, the 76's 5/16 as I remember and the bolt is also not very heavy duty either, buy 1 and shoot specials only, or load mag brass with BP and lead bullets, the bp load in that would still be more potent than factory specials

Bolt thrust, for one thing. The same reason they don't make Contenders in .30/06, but they DO make Encores in even larger/more powerful cartridges.
For another reason, those toggle-link actions don't have the guts for powerful cartridges at all, or else Winchester would have enlarged them back in the day. Instead, they hooked up with JMB and had him design the '86 and '92s (and so on, and so on). Winchester KNEW the toggle design was weak.
As for what the Germans are doing, who gives a rip? They're not noted for good sense (attacking the West, AND the Soviet Union was not smart).

This is an OLD thread, but I was wondering if anyone has further thoughts on the viability of the more "modern" loads in a recent vintage 1873 clone.

It may be a moot point since almost everyone in cowboy action shooting seems to shoot .44 Specials in their .44 Magnum rifles and .38 Specials in their .357 Magnum rifles, anyway.

Or am I wrong?

Forgot about this thread. I actually bought one of the '73's in .44 Magnum a couple years ago. I never second guessed the engineers that designed this rifle.

35WN