S&W 544 .44-40 Texas Wagon Train Commemorative

[redhawk500]

I've found one of these, five inch, blued.  Is the .44-40 worth fooling with?  Load data and bullet suggestions?  What is a reasonable price?  I have let several model 29s pass me by over the years, not realizing they would be valuable some day.  Maybe this one would be a good companion to the 6 1/2" S&W 624 and 6" S&W 629.  Starline brass is supposed to reduce losses when reloading and I realize I'll have to lube the bottleneck cases. 

[poules'deau]

redhawk,

Generally, the 44-40 WCF is usually found in single action.  However, S&W had a special run of these in their N frame size.  Nothing special to do with the loading.  Most all manuals have data.  Being a bottleneck type cartridge you have to take a bit more care in the reloading process.  Even then, you'll loose some brass when seating the bullet.  No big deal though. 

If you decide not to keep it let me know.  I may be interested.  Can trade or whatever.

[Lloyd Smale]

I had one sold it bought it back and its sitting on the safe right now. Terry Merback bought it from me. Theres a few things that are a little different about loading for it. FIrst i had to trim about .30 of the bottom of my lee dies to get the shoulder back far enough to chamber. Second is bullet selection. It doesnt like bullets sized over 429. It shoots them fine but its a job gettting them to chamber. When this one was loaded with a 200 rcbs rf sized to 429 and loaded with 8.5 grains of unique it was probably one of the most accurate N frames ive ever owned.

[redhawk500]

I tried National Bullet RNFP 205 grain bullets at about .430 inches.  I used 8 grains of Unique for an average velocity of 974 fps with a standard deviation of 17 fps.  The deviation was higher (for 6 rounds) than I like.  The biggest worry was difficulty extracting the brass.  Accuracy wasn't given a real test.  It was 25 degrees and I was more interested in getting six across the chronograph before light and my finger both failed.  I did get five into the lower left quadrant of a 8.5 x 11 target with basic center cross at 50 yards.  I didn't have a proper rest and was in a hurry.  I hope to find some .428 or .429 bullets that may improve ejection eventually.  I have ordered 500 ".44-40" bullets sized .427 from National Bullet Co.  I tried some Cerrosafe casting alloy for the first time.  These may be too far the other way considering both the throats are .4285 inches and the bore at some .428 inches are both larger than these bullets.  My sizer-luber has a .429 available but I really don't want to set up for casting at the moment.  I have a Lyman 429421 mould, way too heavy for this application at some 245 grains.  I have to say the S&W 577 was pleasant to shoot and had a nice balance at my first testing.  The primers and cases appeared normal without any signs of high pressure or any dimensions over standards for the caliber.