Although not over, my journey into the history of this great cartridge has been long and very enlightening. Staring in detail about 2007. With what I have learned, I wanted to create a short timeline of Winchester's factory offerings as far as powder used. There are so many variations and loads, I decided to just stick with the powders.
For details, I have much information and photos on google docs here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...cnEM1lv6tCWBJsCOB8vLIDOIg/edit#gid=1905899731
For extreme details, visit the 44-40 website: https://sites.google.com/view/44winchester but for this topic, I wanted to just post about the powders Winchester used for this cartridge.
I did mix in a few UMC/REM-UMC variations for comparison.
Basically Winchester seems to stick with only a few powders for the 44-40 over the duration of it's lifespan. Obviously starting with black powder and basically using a mixture of FF and FFF I have often herd referred to as a "Sporting" black powder. But for the most part, just ole black powder loads compressed on average .17" to .21" pending cases used.
After dissecting and studying some 28 cartridges of different years, I found the following;
Dates are for reference only
1. 1873-1946 - Black Powder, no details needed, lead bullets, 1,325fps
2. 1894-1924 - Dupont No. 2, used in normal loads...JSP and Full Patch, 1,325fps
3. 1903-1941 - Sharpshooter used in High Velocity loads, JSP and FP, 1,500fps to 1,565fps (M-92 rifles only)
4. 1924-1950's - Sharpshooter used in standard JSP loads, 1,310fps
5. 1962-1964 - Flattened Ball powder, JSP, 1,310fps
6. 1964-1976 - Ball Powder, JSP, 1,310fps
7. 1976-today - Disc powder, JSP, 1.190fps (some people call it flake powder like Unique)
Powder charges varied greatly and were not consistent. Dupont No. 2 charges varied from 15gr to 17gr. Sharpshooter loads remained in the 16gr charge while the HV loads varied with years from as high as 20.3gr (early loads) to as low as 13.9gr (late loads). One 1946 load showed a light charge of a perforated disc powder like Sharpshooter but was only 11.3gr with the discs looking a tad thinner than Sharpshooter.
12gr to 12.5gr is what I found with the ball powder charges and by mid 1976, 7.5gr to 8gr of disc (flake) powder similar in looks to Unique.
The more this cartridge was transitioned from rifle use to revolver use, the performance plummeted. Even in 1937, it was urged to load this cartridge different when used in rifle vs revolver.
I have discovered that for rifle use, Mid-Range rifle powders like Reloder 7 work extremely well in the Winchester 73' giving me 1,325fps @ only 12,000psi with less than 4" 40 shot groups at 100 yards. 200 yard ten shot group yielded 7 1/2" group.
For details, I have much information and photos on google docs here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...cnEM1lv6tCWBJsCOB8vLIDOIg/edit#gid=1905899731
For extreme details, visit the 44-40 website: https://sites.google.com/view/44winchester but for this topic, I wanted to just post about the powders Winchester used for this cartridge.
I did mix in a few UMC/REM-UMC variations for comparison.
Basically Winchester seems to stick with only a few powders for the 44-40 over the duration of it's lifespan. Obviously starting with black powder and basically using a mixture of FF and FFF I have often herd referred to as a "Sporting" black powder. But for the most part, just ole black powder loads compressed on average .17" to .21" pending cases used.
After dissecting and studying some 28 cartridges of different years, I found the following;
Dates are for reference only
1. 1873-1946 - Black Powder, no details needed, lead bullets, 1,325fps
2. 1894-1924 - Dupont No. 2, used in normal loads...JSP and Full Patch, 1,325fps
3. 1903-1941 - Sharpshooter used in High Velocity loads, JSP and FP, 1,500fps to 1,565fps (M-92 rifles only)
4. 1924-1950's - Sharpshooter used in standard JSP loads, 1,310fps
5. 1962-1964 - Flattened Ball powder, JSP, 1,310fps
6. 1964-1976 - Ball Powder, JSP, 1,310fps
7. 1976-today - Disc powder, JSP, 1.190fps (some people call it flake powder like Unique)
Powder charges varied greatly and were not consistent. Dupont No. 2 charges varied from 15gr to 17gr. Sharpshooter loads remained in the 16gr charge while the HV loads varied with years from as high as 20.3gr (early loads) to as low as 13.9gr (late loads). One 1946 load showed a light charge of a perforated disc powder like Sharpshooter but was only 11.3gr with the discs looking a tad thinner than Sharpshooter.
12gr to 12.5gr is what I found with the ball powder charges and by mid 1976, 7.5gr to 8gr of disc (flake) powder similar in looks to Unique.
The more this cartridge was transitioned from rifle use to revolver use, the performance plummeted. Even in 1937, it was urged to load this cartridge different when used in rifle vs revolver.
I have discovered that for rifle use, Mid-Range rifle powders like Reloder 7 work extremely well in the Winchester 73' giving me 1,325fps @ only 12,000psi with less than 4" 40 shot groups at 100 yards. 200 yard ten shot group yielded 7 1/2" group.
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