An Old Shooter Breaks Long Silence- A Final Update

[Ben_Rumson]

Way to go Shasta!... John helped me a ton with my 73 SRC 44-40... Made me a little dealy-whopper to bump up bullets with.. Helped me with extry to try bullets too.. You've got me scratching my chin whiskers thinkin on another mold... Thanks Shasta & John!

[Griff]

Contact info on Accurate Molds? I really, really like 3-gang molds... and wouldn't mind replacing a couple of my double and all my 6-gang molds with 3 holers!

[hayabusa]

The going out of the way to help a Leverguns.com forum member on this forum is simply OUTSTANDING.

I have enjoyed this reloading journey.



http://www.accuratemolds.com/

Hayabusa

[Shasta]

hayabusa's link is correct. Click on "Catalog" and find a bullet design you like. The first two numbers are caliber, the next numbers are weight. Then click on "Shop Products" and "Configure & Price A Mold". This will walk you through several easy steps to get the exact size bullet. I am extremely pleased with my new Accurate mold and will be ordering more.

SHASTA

[w30wcf]

Shasta,
Thank you for the kind words. I am very happy to see that the new Accurate bullet has very good potential in your vintage Winchester.

Regarding Accurate Molds, I bought my first one about 2 years ago and was really impressed with it. Since then, I have added 4 more and the quality has been excellent on every one.

If you need a bullet to match a particular firearm (dimensions and profile) Tom offers outstanding products.
You can even design your own bullet at no extra charge!

w30wcf

[Shasta]

Howdy SHASTA,
Lots of good info here. Sounds like you have this old winnie dialed in. Here's a couple things that may come in handy. In the event that extractor bends again you might try this. Once you get it reshaped heat it to a low cherry and quench it in water. Once you do that it can be extremely brittle which doesn't work well as a spring. You need to draw it back some. Here are two ways I like to use to do that. You can buff it to white metal and lay it on an electric range top burner. turn the heat on and when the white metal turns to a yellow straw color just push it off the burner to cool. Another method to draw it is to dip it in old moter oil and heat it until the oil flames and burns off. The burning oil will draw it back but it's not as precise to me as the colors.

Next is checking the headspace. You may be getting a false reading if you are feeling resistance chambering a round. That is a good indicator for straight wall rounds but a bottleneck like 38-40 can give you a false reading if the shoulder is bottoming before the rim.
What I do is cut a cartridge case off just behind the shoulder, then measure the OAL. Next, seat a spent primer about half in the primer pocket . Chamber this cut-off case and close the action on it seating the primer. Then you extract it and measure again to see how much the primer protrudes. That will give you a rough idea of your headspace.

Nate,

Per instructions provided in your post I re-treated the extractor. It is noticibly better and is working well with dummy rounds. Now I need to have another range session to see if it hangs in there.

As for checking headspace using your method, I came up with an even .006", which I believe is within spec. Thanks for the help!

SHASTA

[Shasta]

Here's a pretty cool final update on my adventures with my old .44-40:

I took it along to a Cowboy Lever Action Rifle 200 meter silhouette match today with the intention of firing it after the match to test the extractor and maybe get some sight settings using the new Accurate 433205C bullet and Reloader 7 load already mentioned. While getting out my Model 94 .38-55 I intended to use in the match, I was disappointed to find that I had forgotten my little notebook with the correct sight settings. I have several different silhouette rifles, so I had no idea where to begin with my .38-55's settings. I had plenty of time to shoot before the match to get it figured out, but then I thought about the .44-40, and knowing its sight was already set for 50 meters since I had targeted it at that distance, I thought what the heck, that's a known starting point and it would be fun to try the old rifle in competition if the extractor works OK. I wasn't feeling very confident about my shooting anyway, what with my right hand in a cast and all.

With Dewight's help spotting, it didn't take long to get my sight settings for the 100 meter Pigs, the 150 meter Turkeys, and the 200 meter Rams. The extractor was working great! Our club's silhouette match is 40 rounds, ten shots at each of the four distances. I started on the 150 meter Turkeys, the hardest target, and got five. Moving over to the 200 meter Rams, I got six, then nine 50 meter Chickens and all ten of the 100 meter Pigs for a total score of 30 out of 40. I was pretty suprised as lately I have not been able to shoot my way out of the low twenties. I was even more suprised to find that my score was good enough to win the match! How about that? The old rifle's first match, and already a winner!

This just goes to show you how good the advice is that can be had right here on the Leverguns forum. Special thanks to those who have helped me so much.

SHASTA

[1894c]

Wow! This thread sure has lots of useful info...Thank you Shasta for the time spent for the writeups and pics.... Thank you w30wcf for your help and input so shasta had good reults to write about.
And a big thanks for info that helps others that read this.

+1 -- Shasta--this is a great post...the info and the advice has been amazing...and congrats on the shooting... :)

[w30wcf]

Shasta,
Awesome! 30x40 with a vintage 1873 Winchester. Outstanding!
Me thinks that there will be other trips to the NRA Cowboy Silhouette range with your vintage Winchester.......

For those not familiar with NRA Cowboy Silhouette


w30wcf

[Nath]

Most excellent read gentlemen. I salute you

The extractor thing was interesting! I had to make some hammer springs for a double gun over a year ago. They kept breaking! that was untill I spoke to my knife maker buddy and he told me how to draw the temper back. Still working anyhow! I used diesel engine valve springs, the wire heated and straightened out!

Best wishes to your health Shaster (and others of course).

Nath.

[Ben_Rumson]