44 Winchester Cartridge Names

[Bryan Austin]

The 44 Winchester Cartridge of 1873 had no less than five "official" names by 1915.

Winchester 1873 - 44 Winchester
Colt 1878 - 44 L.M.C.R.
Marlin 1890 - 44-40
Winchester 1903 - 44 Winchester High Velocity
Remington 1915 - 44 Remington
Winchester 1928 - Transition...44 Winchester (44-40)
Winchester 1948 - Transition...44-40

[mickbr]

Very interesting

[Pat C]

You forgot 44 WCF

[Bryan Austin]

I didn't forget

[blackhawk44]

My grandfather and two uncles on my mom's side always referred to it as 44 Winchester. Grandad had both a Colt Frontier Six Shooter (4 3/4") with no bluing and a '92 full rifle with about 10% blue. They were the only centerfires he owned. At about 9 or 10 it became my job to clean them on visits each year. He had numerous pictures of successful deer hunts around the house, all in the South Texas Brush Country. He passed on in 1970 from cancer at age 78. Uncles gave me the '92. Still take it out. Last game I took with it was when a friend winged a spring gobbler through the craw and it began to run directly away. It broke his neck.

[Pat C]

Interestingly some eastern states have minimum muzzle energy for pistol caliber rounds 44 WCF just barely squeeze by in most cases. Certainly wouldn't be my choice even close range. 30 WCF was always considered minimum for hunting deer in my part of the country. I used to take 38WCF 1892 turkey hunting occasionally.

[Pat C]

From the WRA 1914 catalog.

[Bryan Austin]

Interestingly some eastern states have minimum muzzle energy for pistol caliber rounds 44 WCF just barely squeeze by in most cases. Certainly wouldn't be my choice even close range. 30 WCF was always considered minimum for hunting deer in my part of the country. I used to take 38WCF 1892 turkey hunting occasionally.

Indeed, but the 44-40 and 38-40 were classified as Pistol SIZED rifle cartridges, not pistol cartridges. Back when they were loaded correctly, 1,325fps and even 1.310fps gave good ballistics....once loaded with pistol powders by the 1970's, the performance plummeted. Even recently, ballistic velocity has been reduced again from 1,190fps down to 1,130fps. The 44 Henry was advertised as 1,125fps.
Winchester claims the reason for the 44-40 was to increase the velocity from 1,125fps up to 1,325fps. I guess there really was a reason!

When I tested velocities at 300 yard impacts, I was getting 950fps with my 1,350ps loads. The math may not add up, but the chronograph did not lie! 950fps is the muzzle velocity when used in revolvers. So what a 44-40 revolver could kill at the muzzle, the rifle could kill at 300 yards...if you could actually hit it...LOL

[JimT]

When I was a teenage I had a Model 92 El Tigre made in Spain. Using a rest I could keep most of my shots in the kill area of a deer silhouette at 400 yards. I was shooting the Keith #454424 SWC with heavy loads of 2400. Case life was about 3 to 4 shots. The gun had some headspace issues and I didn't help it with my handloads. I got pretty good at removing the remains of the cartridge after I ejected the case head.

Edit: I forgot to mention that all the bullets at that distance were keyholing ... completely unstablized and going through the target sideways.

[Bryan Austin]

My 300 yard target from yesterday. The red circle was the final shots after getting the scope zeroed in. It can be difficult to get it zeroed in because two or three shots will cause you to just chase holes. Ya gotta make at least 5 and use the center of the group to make the adjustment. As you can see, there is still room for some windage adjustments...but that may take another 40 rounds...LOL.

25.5gr of Reloder 7
1,350fps
no more than 11,000psi
43-214A, cast to 218.4gr for these shots. Velocity may be a tad slower, velocity noted is for 214gr.

13 hits inside 13".

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Full story here: https://www.44-40.org/targets/2025-targets