.44-40 Adventures: Hunting with a Uberti '73

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Carlsen Highway
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.44-40 Adventures: Hunting with a Uberti '73

Post by Carlsen Highway »

I have been doing a lot of .44-40 work this year. I have been corresponding with John Kort from this forum who has helped and advised me along the way and to whom any modest successes I have had is entirely due.

I started out loading for my .44-40 Rossi '92 which is a carbine. For years I used a jacketed HV load of H4227, shooting mostly a few rabbits with the rifle but this year I wanted to try black powder and cast bullets and hunt a big stag with a .44-40. So I experimented and took advice from John Kort, and ended up getting a mold from Accurate Molds of a .44 WCF design that John made of the 19th century Lyman bullet design with a larger lube groove for modern black powders.

The interest in this fueled my desire to own a Winchester '73 in .44-40. The only ones really available around here are the Uberti versions, the original Winchester are rare and too expensive, and I finally managed to get a Winchester 73 short rifle with an octagonal barrel. It looks like this:

Image

I have always been ambivilent about a colour case hardened receiver, feeling it was a touch too flamboyant for me. I possibly would prefer simply a blued receiver, but I can live with it. People who dont know think its just old and worn. :)
Overall I think she is beautiful. I suspect I may be the only one in this country at least who is still seriously using the .44 WCF for hunting deer, or even taking one of these Uberti '73's out hunting. Most people seem to get them for cowboy action shooting. I want to use these rifles for what they were designed for.

I had a hunting trip coming up in only two days, and I was pleased to see the rifle show up before I left. So the same afternoon I got her, I took it out to the range and shot this at 55 yards, just to see if it would go bang and to get an idea if the ammo I had loaded was going to shoot into the ball park:

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This is with the smokeless load I had been loading for my Rossi 92, based on John Kort's advise to me about loading RE7 or H4198 and using it as a bulk smokeless load. (This also fixed a problem I had been having with my cartridges holding a crimp properly.) This load chronographs 1348 fps with the soft lead 220 grain bullet (Pure Lead and 1% tin) with no leading at all.

Then I tried my black powder load which is 36 grains of 3F with beeswax and tallow as a lube, compressed about .2 of an inch, and shot five shots into 3 inches at 100 yards. This I sighted to be spot on at the top of the front sight blade at 100 yards. This load chronographs 1198 fps with the same bullet. ( I call that 1200 fps) and what a 20'inch barrel should do with a .44 WCF I believe.

This is good enough for government work, and I was pleased with that. The rifles bore cleans up easy with only some hot water poured through the bore and a couple of patches. There is not a trace of soot or residue in the action, and no leading in the bore that I can tell.
This is the only range time I had with the new rifle before I went on my hunting trip. I did have one minor quirk which is that the black powder loads I had made already for my 92 carbine, some of them would feed with a little difficulty through the action, simply because the 92 design will allow a longer OAL than the '73 by the look of it, and the length of my black powder load is marginal. I managed to scrounge seven rounds which would cycle through the action. I figured I could single load the too-long cartridges into the chamber and have these seven in the mag behind it, and that would get me through the hunting trip I had. So I took a couple of those. Turns out I should have taken more ammo...

I went off to my hunting area which is in the Fiordland National Park of New Zealand, which can be some rugged country, including mountains and fiords, thick rainforest and some beautiful rivers. The deer here are red deer, from England and Germany, and also some Elk, gifted by President Roosevelt himself, which we call wapiti.

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At this time of year it is the rut period for the red stags, and they are roaring, like lions, to attract females, and to warn other stags off their territory.
Where I hunt is is scattered clearings or meadows, interspersed with very thick bush, visibility sometimes down to only a few yards. In these conditions it is possible to call stags in very close.

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The hunting is all backpack hunting, with a lot of walking.

It is no surprise they filmed Lord of the Rings here. Fiordland can be a bit other worldly.

Image

Image

I will say now that I did not shoot any great stags on this trip. But I did enjoy carrying and hunting with the '73 rifle and with black powder cartridges, which for me was a first. Early on I shot a young hind or cow, for meat supplies at my camp I made. This animal I found in the late afternoon, browsing in the middle of a grassy clearing by a creek. I took her with a 75 yard offhand shot. She went down at the shot and struggled briefly. Worrying about my ''low-powered'' cartridge, I fired at her again (and missed totally I discovered) and, not used to the amount of smoke from the rifle, I lost sight of exactly what she did after that.
I had to fuss around for a few minutes trying to find her, thinking she might have run off into the thick bush fifty yards away where I would have a serous tracking problem. But I couldnt see how she could have done that with out me seeing, so I went back to the start....and found her lying behind a bush three yards from where I had thought.

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She is a small young hind, probably about two years old nearly. (judging from the whitetail deer I shot in Arkansas she would be about the size of a large whitetail doe?) The soft lead bullet had hit her about where I had aimed and passed through completely, making an exit about .43 calibre as well, although I could see plenty of bloodshot damage inside the exit wound. I didnt autopsy here properly to see what the bullet had done although I wanted to, as it was getting dark and I was none too sure about how to get back to my campsight, so I had to hurry. (the wound you can see in the photo is the exit.) For a bullet I made in my garage with old roofing lead and some tin solder, I was very pleased with this result. My first black powder animal, and on the first day I took the '73 rifle out!

For a week I hunted after that, calling in stags or trying to find a trophy animal. I found many deer, and called in three young stags and let them go. Sometimes in the NZ bush you cant tell what size animal you have called in until the animal is very close, or even until its on the ground after you have shot it, the bush is so thick.

I called in a young stag which I misjudged because he sounded like a mature beast and shot at him. After the smoke cleared I found him standing a few yards to the right, staring at me. He didnt run until he saw me reloading, and even then he simply turned and walked away from me. I held fire then, because he was a very young animal and not what I wanted. I was worried that I had shot him, but judging from his behaviour and a search of the area for blood, he hadn't been shot. The miss was simply one of those things, and I didnt put it down to the rifle, offhand shooting in thick stuff is not easy when you can only see part of an animal, especially with open sights.

Later I called in another animal to within twenty yards and didnt shoot him also. He caught my wind and trotted off and I let him go.

There were other encounters with deer, some shootable some not, but this time I didnt see or hear any stags that sounded like mature animals.

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By this time I needed more meat and I decided to shoot another animal and go home with it if I could do so. At dawn I sneaked up on a young stag who had been roaring in the open all night time, and then the silly character kept roaring into the daylight. This was all in long grass and bracken. I crept up to him, using his own roars to cover my own noise and got to about 40 yards of him. He wasnt tall so I didnt have much of a target, but I shot high and missed him. He had a hind with him and they lunged away through the bracken in the dawn light making a fine sight.

Later I stalked a ridge over a swamp that deer often use, and spooked up two hinds. One of them kept circling as I made cow sounds, and I had a shot at her, again at around fifty yards, and missed, I judged I must have shot high again. By this stage I had had three misses in a row, which for me, even with open sights, is unusual. Granted none of them were easy shots, but I had an uneasy feeling that all my shooting was going high, and I checked my sights. The elevator on my rifle seemed alright, but it had worked its way backwards in the notch, so that the rear sight was elevated higher then where I wanted it. Also, I realised that I was unused to shooting with the trajectory of the .44-40 on game rather that at targets. In the heat of the moment of was forgetting that the bullets will be hitting about three or four inches high at 50 yards.

I stalked up on another young hind feeding the open in the late evening once more, in nearly the same spot as where I shot the earlier one, and took it with a fifty metre shot through the shoulder. This animal went down and then looked like it would get up. So I shot it again - and missed entirely - high again! Then I shot again and I found that I had hit it in exactly the same spot as the first shot both shots hitting higher than I wanted. The animal was still struggling, and I thought a finishing shot prudent and deliberately aimed low and hit where I intended. She expired by the time I walked up.

I found that my first two shots had hit nearly together, too high on the shoulder but still underneath the spine, and not hitting major organs. The front legs had been taken out of commssion, but the bullet with their low velocity were not doing the extensive damage a HV bullet would do. In my opinion a .243 bullet in the same place would have dropped this animal on the spot and it would not have moved with the shock of the HV bullet, and died quietly. The .44-40 killed it in about the same length of time, but the animal was more mobile and struggling more.

The difference is between the shock of high velocity and large internal bubble cavity of the HV bullet disrupting nerves and organs around the strike area incapacitating the animal while it dies, versus the lead bullet of the .44 WCF boring through causing only the mechanical damage of its passing. These are my thoughts on the matter.

But in summary, the deer was shot three times and each bullet completely passed through. The animal was shot on an angle quartering away. I have no pictures of this deer because right after I took the next photo below my battery died.

This next picture I had to take, because I have not hunted with black powder before - I turned and took a picture after walking up to the deer, there was almost no wind and the smoke was still hanging, slowly drifting into the trees. This is what it looked like after four rounds rapid fire: the fog of battle; I have read of it before but never seen it...

Image

Now I was out of ammunition. So I went home and got back yesterday.

Some notes on hunting with the '73 short rifle in .44 WCF and black powder:

She is heavy. Heavy as in just as heavy as a modern rifle with a scope. That will mostly be because of the octagonal barrel, but I wanted that. She balances well, and so she doesn't seem as heavy as she actually is. But definitely heavier than the '92 carbine or my '94 .30/30.

The lever makes a little click noise when I close it to disengage the lever safety. My '94 doesn't make this sound. It didn't mess up anything for me, but it is some to remember when in close on animals. I have to remember to softly close the lever as bringing the hammer to full cock.

The parabola of the .44 bullet at these slow velocities - this combined with the rear sight being slightly higher due to moving backwards in its notch and riding upwards may have caused or contributed to my missing a couple of animals. (Possibly from the recoil of my very first shot on the first day.) I was holding high on those deer because of the height of the undergrowth they were standing in, and four inches doesn't sound like much, but on a neck or high shoulder shot it would have made all the difference. I stopped at an old airstrip on the way out and test shot the rifle with some smokeless loads I had left in the car - the intermediate POI at 50 yards was much higher than I imagined or thought it would be. I need to shoot the rifle at ''things'' rather than at paper and learn to work with the trajectory.

Of course it is also perfectly possible that I just missed them. I can miss like nobody's business, and these were not easy shots either. But I was still shooting higher than I thought.

The sights - in open country shooting at animals clearly visible in good light, the blade front sight and the large notch in the buckhorn rear sight work just fine. But in thick bush, which is dark, and with the darker coloured animals in shadow, I was not comfortable with the elevation of the blade within the rear notch. My eyes are no longer twenty or even thirty five years old and the rear sight is close to the eye. I was not quite certain of what was going on in poor light.
I would much prefer a white bead with a smaller notch - like the sights on a Winchester 94, or a white bead with an express rear sight.
I am not entirely happy with putting those kind of sights on the rifle I have decided because they dont feel right for the rifle, although I know Winchester did make some rifles for the British market with seven leaf express sights and a bead.
But an aperture tang sight would do the trick I am thinking and be a nice addition to the rifle, I could keep the front sight as it is. That is what I am considering.

Judging by the penetration on these animals I would have no problem using the load and bullet on larger animals such as a big stag, although shot placement would be through the engine room, and I would forgo other shots that I sometimes use, such as a high shoulder shot, or other shots directed at nerve centres that rely on heavy damage from a high velocity bullet. I wouldn't use a behind-the-shoulder rear lung shot either on a large animal, it might run too far.
Dont get me wrong I would use all these shots if that is all I had. I am just thinking about what is suitable for a general rule.

I love shooting the black powder loads. The authority of a black powder .44 load going off is deeply impressive to me. The concussion is like someone clapping their hands over your ears, and just the deep bass sound of it will convert you. When you hear the mild treble crack of the smokeless load, you believe what you 're told about "pistol cartridges" and hunting with them. But shooting off the black powder loads, you have no worries about shooting big animals with it. In the old days they would have shot moose and big deer with the .44-40 and thought it right to do so, because it sounded like you could. The sound of a modern under-loaded smokeless factory round is what makes people think the .44-40 is a "50 yard deer cartridge" I reckon....
This rifle is only getting loaded with black powder.

Image
Last edited by Carlsen Highway on Sun Jul 16, 2017 11:13 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: .44-40 Adventures: Hunting with a Uberti '73

Post by RIHMFIRE »

excellent hunting report and pictures.....I wish Florida looked like that! beautiful place!
and congrats on your pile of venison. Fire-up the BBQ!
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Re: .44-40 Adventures: Hunting with a Uberti '73

Post by Griff »

'Tis beautiful country. I, myself, am originally from up in Richmond. Hunting Red Deer with my Sharp's is on my bucket list; and yes, BP loads only! Excellent report, great photos and even better courage for taking an new rifle and load to the woods! :mrgreen: :mrgreen:
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Re: .44-40 Adventures: Hunting with a Uberti '73

Post by OldWin »

That is some beautiful country.
I'd never shoot any game cause I'd just be standing there looking around! When pictures look impressive, I can only imagine what it's like to be there.

Oh, nice 73 too! :D
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Re: .44-40 Adventures: Hunting with a Uberti '73

Post by Galloway »

Nice gun and great story!
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Re: .44-40 Adventures: Hunting with a Uberti '73

Post by M. M. Wright »

Great report Carlsen. I own a couple of those Uberti 44-40s. One 20 inch and the other 24. Both wear Marbles tang sights which I really like. I mostly shoot black in them.
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Re: .44-40 Adventures: Hunting with a Uberti '73

Post by ollogger »

Not much else to say except, that is an excellent story with awesome photos & I like my 44-40s also



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Re: .44-40 Adventures: Hunting with a Uberti '73

Post by Bronco »

Awesome story and pictures. Man that landscape, like it was said.. I would have trouble not being mesmerized by the beauty of it all and would probably forget to shoot! Thanks for taking me on the adventure with your post :mrgreen:
We must be related, I too have been know to miss what I shoot at. :roll:

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Re: .44-40 Adventures: Hunting with a Uberti '73

Post by earlmck »

Wow! Great hunting report, fine pictures of some fantastic country. Much thanks for the tour, Carlsen. Tang sight and a fiber optic front (those old boys would have used fiber optic if they'd had 'em :D ) that's what my 70 some year old eyes would need, anyway.

And we talk about large diameter bullets being "brush busters" but we are sooo wrong. It's amazing how much the least little twig or blade of grass can deflect those short fat bullets from slow-twist barrels. In that kind of vegetation those "deflection misses" will happen frequently I'd bet.
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Re: .44-40 Adventures: Hunting with a Uberti '73

Post by Sixgun »

That's what I call a "post of substance"! Thanks for the cool pics and well written story from a far away land.

Your 73 has better than average c.c........as Earl says....put on a tang sight....it will save you a lot of aiming headaches.

Also, don't know if your interested or not but your Uberti will easily and safely handle cast 200 grain bullets to 1600.----6
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Re: .44-40 Adventures: Hunting with a Uberti '73

Post by Old Savage »

Yes, great post. If you don't like the CCH, put cold blue on it. I did on my Pietta 1860 Army. It will turn it blue as the CCH is likely the chemical variety.
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Re: .44-40 Adventures: Hunting with a Uberti '73

Post by JerryB »

Thank you for a chance to see a hunting land like you have, one of God's many treasures for sure. Your load development with John sure has proved out for your and your beautiful '73. Thanks again.
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Re: .44-40 Adventures: Hunting with a Uberti '73

Post by PaperPatch »

A remarkable story and report...thankyou for sharing this with us!

:wink:
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Re: .44-40 Adventures: Hunting with a Uberti '73

Post by piller »

Those red deer are beautiful.
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Re: .44-40 Adventures: Hunting with a Uberti '73

Post by Buck Elliott »

Thank you for the great hunting/shooting story..
It always pleases me to see tales of good lever guns in the field.
A lot of people seem surprised that something like a '73 can be just as effective today as it was 100-plus years ago..
I've owned a number of Uberti 73s over the years, mostly 24"rifle configuration, and almost all of them chambered for .45 Colt. Because of Uberti's excellent barrels, they have all been excellent shooters..
My current '73 is a .45 Colt, short rifle. My standard "working" load is a compressed dose of H-4198, sparked with a CCI LP magnum primer.. Velocity runs ~1550 fps with a hard cast, 250 grain bullet, with 3/4" accuracy @ 50 yards. That same load yields ~1250 fps from a 7 1/2" revolver. Optimum cartridge length for the '73 is 1.600" +.005/- 010". Longer or shorter rounds can give feeding problems with the standard '73 carrier..
In my hands, that load has killed cottontails, jacks, snowshoe hares, coyotes, mule deer, elk, hogs, domestic sheep, cattle and an unfortunate horse, (plus other various and sundry targets of opportunity) giving complete penetration and exit in virtually all cases.. Out to about 125 yards, I don't give much thought to "hold-over", but beyond that distance, trajectory can become problematic. I prefer to run the elevator up a notch for best results..
BTW, on the short rifles, the rear sight is precariously close to the receiver, making it easier for the carrying hand to nudge the elevator out of position..
Regards

Buck

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Re: .44-40 Adventures: Hunting with a Uberti '73

Post by .45colt »

Awesome post. Thank You... :D .
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Re: .44-40 Adventures: Hunting with a Uberti '73

Post by 3leggedturtle »

Great post and details. Nice looking lever. Todd3/leg
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Re: .44-40 Adventures: Hunting with a Uberti '73

Post by Ben_Rumson »

This report was really fun to see & read. Thanks! 8) Folks tend to shoot high in low light situations because they unconsciously raise their front sight up out of the rear sights notch so they can see it better. The tang sight will cure that but not the parabolic trajectory issue you were dealing with. I'd go back to the same hunting area again but with a smokeless load :wink:
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Re: .44-40 Adventures: Hunting with a Uberti '73

Post by w30wcf »

WOW! What an awesome report and pics! :D Fantastic
Very glad to see that the Accurate 43-215C is working well :D

In it's day (and today) the .44 W.C.F., although less powered than today's hotshot dude calibers, was used very successfully in America's game fields and many families were able to be fed by its bullet strike.

The 1875 Winchester catalog had testimonials from users printd in its contents. Here are a few exmples......

..."I have fully tested the late improved Winchester Rifle and take pleasure in stating that it is the best rifle I have ever used. I have killed a number of deer, at distances from one to two hundred yards and in every instance, the bullet passed clean through the body."

..."The killing qualities, at large game, is all that could be desired, to the wonder and admiration of the guides and sportsmen who saw its working during my visit to the Adirondack woods last fall."

..."I can say for one, that I think the Winchester Model of 1873 is the best firearm now in use for hunting and sporting; they give the best satisfaction to every one that has used them here. James Gary and C.S. Martin have killed 17 bears and 100 deer since the first of September with Model 1873.

..."I killed at a full gallop, at about 100 yards distant, a very large buck with a splendid set of antlers with the first shot. The bullet struck him in the shoulder, as he ran toward me, and after traversing the entire length of his body, tearing the lights and paunch into atoms in its course, it passed out behind through the thickest part of the ham."

..."For a sporting rifle, I think the Winchester Rifle is excelled by none. I have killed antelope, deer, and elk, with my gun,at from 200 to 400 yards. I would not exchange it for any other rifle."

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Re: .44-40 Adventures: Hunting with a Uberti '73

Post by Carlsen Highway »

Thanks!

I will add to this thread another quote, from Theodore Van Dyke, the great American hunting writer of the 19th century, (and note that his Winchester was chambered for .44 WCF):

"The combined ingenuity of Earth, even assisted by light from on high, could not improve upon the quintessence of perfection for deer hunting known as the Winchester of '73."
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Re: .44-40 Adventures: Hunting with a Uberti '73

Post by piller »

Of cousre, that was before deer started wearing Kevlar.
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Re: .44-40 Adventures: Hunting with a Uberti '73

Post by Poohgyrr »

Wow! Great thread and the pics are terrific. Thank you for sharing your story.
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Re: .44-40 Adventures: Hunting with a Uberti '73

Post by Buck Elliott »

NZ looks a lot like Wyoming, but with the hair still on...
Regards

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Re: .44-40 Adventures: Hunting with a Uberti '73

Post by Griff »

Buck Elliott wrote: Sat Apr 15, 2017 2:31 pmNZ looks a lot like Wyoming, but with the hair still on...
NZ looks like a bit WY, CA, NV, the Alps, the fjords of Scandinavia, HI, and a HOST of other places to boot! My GGparents were still rowing out from shore to harpoon whales into the early part of the last century.
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Re: .44-40 Adventures: Hunting with a Uberti '73

Post by Leverluver »

I've worked on several continents but NZ was the only place I ever really wanted to visit. Too old now to enjoy it but still pretty to look at. I guess I feel lucky enough just to live in WY :wink:
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Scott Tschirhart
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Re: .44-40 Adventures: Hunting with a Uberti '73

Post by Scott Tschirhart »

I really enjoyed reading this. Thank you.
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KWK
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Re: .44-40 Adventures: Hunting with a Uberti '73

Post by KWK »

I'd missed thread this 4 years ago. I miss John Kort's posts on the old Winchester cartridges and rifles.
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Blaine
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Re: .44-40 Adventures: Hunting with a Uberti '73

Post by Blaine »

It was a real treat to see this thread come back again....Thanks!
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Grizz
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Re: .44-40 Adventures: Hunting with a Uberti '73

Post by Grizz »

seems like 44-40 was the pre 44mag... if i knew then what i know now, i might have settled on 44-40. but i never saw one where i lived and 44mag ammo was abundant and cheap when i was hunting.

but how they compare where the meplat hits the hide i have no idea...
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Re: .44-40 Adventures: Hunting with a Uberti '73

Post by piller »

Hearing of, and reading about real world use of firearms is pretty enjoyable.
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Re: .44-40 Adventures: Hunting with a Uberti '73

Post by Carlsen Highway »

I Am still shooting black powder in my .44/40's and I am still using John's bullets. I think he passed way later that same year I posted this thread. I am glad I got to show him some deer I shot with his bullets and what the .44-40 could still do on big game.

Earlier this week I took a .44 out and using a black powder load with a smokeless priming that I also worked out with John, I shot another one inch group at 100 metres with a '92 carbine, just checking the zero and making some smoke. And people think the old guns couldn't do it...

Soon the red stag roar will be coming again, four weeks to go. Maybe I will take the .44 WCF carbine out this time. My eyes are getting older now, got my first reading glasses a couple of weeks ago. Having trouble seeing the front sight a little bit now. I should probably make the most of what I can. I was 37 when I joined this forum and this year I will be 51.
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Scott Tschirhart
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Re: .44-40 Adventures: Hunting with a Uberti '73

Post by Scott Tschirhart »

If you do, please share. I know what you mean though, I'm 57 now and its hard to believe how many years and friends have passed.

I enjoy the older guns more and more all the time
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Re: .44-40 Adventures: Hunting with a Uberti '73

Post by piller »

Hope you can get a Stag again. Goodvto know that the ones down there have not evolved a bullet proof jacket yet. I think that is the theory of kevlar-lution.
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Re: .44-40 Adventures: Hunting with a Uberti '73

Post by Drawdown »

This is a very good thread i had to bring up, about a great rifle and everythingit involves! I too hope to be reading & looking of a Stag here soon? And I can relate to your preference to sights very much!
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