Shrapnel,
On the WACA Forum a Well known Member Chuck, claimed in a past post that a small number of Center Fire Cartridges were made on the Later Model 1866 Winchester!
The 44-40 also referred to or known as .44 Win, .44 WCF, .44 Largo, (Spanish), mainly in Conversation when the "73' comes up.
So I'm a little curious and would like to know the real answer, as the Blue Book of Gun Values , lists the 1866 as .44 rim fire, and center fire also.
They've had errant info before so I won't say this is gospel!
HS58
It is true that they made a few centerfire 1866 rifles and converted some from Rimfire to centerfire. I had one of the conversions but it wasn’t 44-40. The 44-40 case is considerably larger at the base and longer as well.
The size of the rimfire cartridge made it quite anemic and as such, was not much of a killer compared to the 44-40. The myth of the soldiers at the Custer battle being outgunned due to the Indians having Henry and 1866 rifles is just that, a myth. With a repeater at that time, it certainly had more fire power in the amount of rounds you could shoot in repetition, but there wasn’t much there when the bullet hit.
