44-40 W.H.V. Draw Set

[Bryan Austin]

This is a 1903 44 W.H.V. "Draw Set". This was Winchester's first year production of this cartridge. The cartridge in this set contained 20.8gr of Sharpshooter powder. Dissected REM-UMC loads of the time-frame also used 20.0gr of Sharpshooter. By 1945, Winchester's H.V. cartridge powder samples had dropped to 14gr of Sharpshooter powder and discontinued. Remington still sold HV loads into the 1970's, but they were no more than normal pressure/velocity loads. Remington's final offers were called "Express" loads and matched Winchester's normal "substandard" load performance by 1979.

 

[Gun Smith]

Thanks for showing those Savvy_Jack. Nice collection of an interesting cartridge style and how it was formed. I presume these were "Ballon Head" cases, not sure?

I once had quite a number of boxes of "Ballon Head" unprimed brass in .44 Special, that had to be pretty old. I got them from some estate sale, and some lady bought them from me at my gun show table.

I think she said she was a Cowgirl shooter, and I explained to her that they were BH type, and she said that she wanted them anyway.

Never having seen BH cases, I found it interesting to look into them to see what they looked like.