Uberti Cattleman Flattop .44 Special conversion

[cwfritz]

Hi,

I'd like to convert a .44-40 Cattleman Flattop to .44 Special.  Uberti says I just need to buy one of their .44 Special cylinders and have it fitted, but I'm wondering if the barrel's inside dimensions might be a little too tight.  Doesn't the .44 Special use bullets a couple of thousandths bigger than the .44-40, and would this really be a problem?

Does anyone know the land and groove diameters of a Uberti Cattleman .44-40?

And can anyone recommend a gunsmith to do the installation of the new cylinder?

Thanks.
Chris

[John A]

cwfritz,
    Slug the bore and find out what the groove dia is! I'm not sure what the Italian replicas run but early Colt 44-40 ran around .427 or a bit tighter! The 44 special should run a bit larger around .429-.430. I have a Colt NF in 44 special that slugs .4295! There have been some convertables made by ruger and possible others in both 44 special and 44-40, so possibly they settled on a common dia.

                                                John Anderson
                                          www.rockislandballistics.com

[44 Man]

The barrel should be just fine.  Some of the clones use .427 bbls and some use .429s.  My Colt .44 spl has a .427 barrel and shoots just fine.  If it was a problem, Uberti would have advised you.  They don't want any problem guns out there with their name on it.  The only concern I can see is that you may need a taller front sight, as the heavier 240 gr bullets will print higher than the 200 gr 44-40s.  Most clones come with a front sight that is too tall anyway, so unless you have shortened it, it may shoot right where you want it to.  44 Man

[Flint]

Colt uses the .427 (44-40) bore for both calibers.  Ruger uses the .430 bore from the 44 Magnum for both calibers.  Whatever the Uberti bore is, it doesn't seem to be any danger or problem.

[cwfritz]

Thanks one and all.

Since posting this question I found the barrel chart on Cimarron's website.  If their numbers can be taken as representative of Uberti barrels across the board, both the 44-40 and the 44 Spl use a .429 groove diameter.  The 44-40 uses lower, wider lands than the 44 Spl (.421 X .1327 vs. .417 X .1076 respectively); how that would effect accuracy with cast bullets is the question.  Might have to make the alloy extra hard.  At least I know it would be safe - I wouldn't be forcing an oversize bullet into an undersize bore.  However, the best recommendation is still to "slug the bore!"

Now, any recommendations on who should do the cylinder installation?

Thanks,
Chris