A Brief History of .44-40 Winchester

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Күн бұрын

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@blueduck9409 Күн бұрын

The 44WCF is a grand old cartridge. Still useful even today. There are some very interesting reading out there about historical accounts of old timers using the 44 WCF to kill bear, elk, moose and other dangerous game.

@MarlinWilliams-ts5ul 6 ай бұрын

Interesting content, nicely presented. That rifle you've got there is a dandy.

@billnopoles1934 6 ай бұрын

Winchester adopted the .44WCF - only Colt had to use the .44-40 to avoid royalty. Both are identical. The Colt .45 could not be used in repeating rifles since at that time the .45 Colt have had a copper casing where the rim was too small for the extraction from repeating rifles.

@georgelewis7010 2 ай бұрын

@@billnopoles1934 sorry but they are not the same 45 colt groove Dia. of 451, the 44-40 groove dia. is 429/427 and the 44-40 is also a slightly bottle necked and the colt is straight walled. When Smith and Wesson came out with the break open revolver aka as the Schofield and the 45 Schofield round is basically a shortened 45 colt so you can use the Schofield round in the colt pistol but not the other way around.

@jasonbuck489 3 ай бұрын

I know one thing, those 44-40's can be a Real Pain In The "Wazoo" to Reload!... That Daggone Bottleneck and trying to get that Crimp correct can be "Fun" sometimes depending on what Brand of Brass you have..... Great Video, Bud!...

@joedeleon1189 11 ай бұрын

Great info. I myself am more interested in the 38-40 (never mind its backwards designation to every other cartridge nomenclature out there... either some clerk, or marketing sales rep, fucked that one up?), witch is the cartridge performance John Browning wanted to emulate in his .40" version of the GP35 after WWI, and Col. Cooper tried to materialize in the .40"G&A version of the same GP35; and FINALY ended up becoming the .40"S&W, sometime around 1990... :>0

@kn6vbw 11 ай бұрын

The 40 S&W is an underrated cartridge. Even when I try to explain the history of its performance potential, like you did, people call me an idiot. In a full size handgun, I have been able to somewhat safely load it to 10mm velocities. Too bad its popularity is waining. I am soon getting a 9mm pistol, just for the price of ammo and the fact that 40 S&W range ammo is starting to get harder to find where I am at. However, the 40 will always be my choice for real world use. 👍

@joedeleon1189 11 ай бұрын

@@kn6vbw Yup... Well, I've been called names very often and it has yet to bother me much. :>0 Thankfully in my little corner of Paradise, the .40" is still plentiful and the preferred fodder of many. Be it the FMJ or JHP; albeit mostly in 180gr. But that's my preferred cartridge load anyway, so yeah. Works for me... By the way most 10mm commercially available, at least those I've seen over here, have no better performance than the .40"S&W (I mean, 180gr JHP at around 1,000 fps?... and that's about what I've been getting from my Glock 23 since 1990). I know there are some "real 10mm" for hunting and stuff, out there, but they are about as common over here, as honest politicians... Stay safe!

@mkshffr4936 11 ай бұрын

You should gain anywhere from 200-400 fps going from pistol to rifle with the same load. One of the issues to watch for is chamber and barrel dimensions. Original spec is for .427 bullets but many modern guns use the .429 barrels used for .44 Mag/Spl. The manufacturers don't always cut the chambers to match the bore. So you will want to check proper matching and that your pistol matches the rifle.

@kn6vbw 11 ай бұрын

The Winchester 1873 is not “the gun that won the west”. That title goes to the 1873 Springfield Trapdoor Carbine, the standard firearm that was in the hands of every soldier on the frontier. The saying that the Winchester won the west came from a marketing campaign, I believe from the early 1900’s. It was just an effort to sell more rifles.

@richardkut3976 11 ай бұрын

Grit & Determination Won The West. Take care,

@BeingFireRetardant 11 ай бұрын

Land thievery and guile and duplicity 'won' the West, but carbines certainly played a part. All depends on perspective. 9x19mm and 5.7x28mm are the new .44-40 in terms of pistol/carbine combos currently.

@scvandy3129 10 ай бұрын

"drmichaelword," Even though the phrase came from the manufacturer's marketing department that does not belittle, negate the fact "The Gun That Won the West" took hold, was accepted for the Winchester 1873. . . . . . . It's said Colt saw an obvious, ready-made campaign and used it as well, for its new Single Action Army .45, also debuting in 1873 when the U.S. Army selected it as its official sidearm. And it immediately became a hit with the civilian market as well, due in large part to ammunition, in part because its central fire application allowed a more potent charge than the .44 rimfire, then in vogue. . You write: " . . . came from a marketing campaign, I believe from the early 1900’s." "Early 1900s"?! Why would Winchester -- or ANY company -- wait A QUARTER OF A CENTURY to introduce a marketing slogan?! [early 1900s minus 1873 = 30 years, approximately). FURTHERMORE, by then the West had been settled, for nearly 15 years. December 1890, southwestern Dakota Territory was time and place of the depressing, shameful, notorious Battle at Wounded Knee -- more like the Army's and their Indian police agents' massacre of more than 200 Indians on the reservation preceded by the murder of their proud leader, Chief Sitting Bull -- is considered the closing of the Wild West, the last gasp of the great, American frontier. "1873 Springfield Trapdoor [single shot] Carbine, caliber .45-70, was in the hands of every soldier on the frontier." Exactly -- the military's choice. By then the public had been exposed to the Henry Repeating Rifle (lever action, 1860) and its successor the Model 1866 in the rather anemic .44 (rimfire) caliber aka .44 Henry. When the more powerful .44 Winchester Central Fire (WCF) [today more commonly known as .44-40] was introduced with the stronger framed Winchester 1873 the public ate it up. [Strangely, and with sometimes dire consequences, e.g., Custer's Last Stand, the Army stuck with its single shot long gun for 20 more years.] A marketing campaign, The Gun That Won the West, would hardly be 'wasted' on the military's choice of weaponry, Springfield Trapdoor, because a government contract guaranteed its purchase and usage. But advertising the Winchester 1873 to the general public as The Gun That Won the West was effective; it resonated with the them. Your declaration: " . . . a marketing campaign . . . early 1900’s. It was just an effort to sell more rifles" results in a response, something like "Duh." OF COURSE, selling more rifles is the hoped for result of ANY firearms' manufacturer's marketing campaign. One of the search engines lists FIVE candidates for The Gun That Won The West: long guns, Spencer (repeating rifle), side-by-side double barrel shotgun and Winchester 1873 rifle and carbine; handguns: Derringer (!) (very small, one or two SHORT-barreled pistol that slips into a vest pocket or lady's purse) and Colt's Single Action Army in .45 Colt. Note, all five are for the civilian market with the exception of .45 Colt which had been developed for the Army and right away law enforcement, general public as well as 'the no-accounts,' 'the bad guys' adopted it as an ideal sidearm. 1873 Springfield Trapdoor Carbine 'The Gun That Won the West' -- I think not.

@davidgardner863 8 ай бұрын

I have a 73’ musket and a trapdoor both in excellent original condition. The trapdoor carbine was the Calvary issue and the longer barrel rifle was for the infantry. The Winchester musket was purchased by several foreign countries for their military and also available on the civilian market.

@KevinSchwinkendorf 2 ай бұрын

@@scvandy3129 The slogan "The Gun That Won the West" was a marketing slogan thought up by Winchester executive Edwin Pugsley, in 1919.

@jasonbuck489 3 ай бұрын

I only have 2 Firearms that are Chambered in 44 WCF/44-40... A '73 Winchester and a Model 1878 Colt.... Both Original Antique Guns... I don't take them out to play much anymore since Factory "Cowboy Loads" are INSANELY Expensive and the Cartridges are a Pain to Reload......