loaded round
Hunter
Did Ruger use the same barrel (bore and twist) on their 44-40 WCF Vaqueros as they did on their 44 Mag Blackhawks and Vaqueros? If so I want to buy and fit a 44 Mag cylinder to my 44-40.
Chuck 100 yd said:Slug your barrel and find out !
Hondo44 said:Any bullet will actually work, it's not absolutely necessary to have a soft lead slug, it's just a little easier to drive thru the barrel. If you don't reload and have a bullet around, just pull a bullet from a 44 Mag or 44 spl. Always use lubricant when slugging a barrel.
But I can tell you the answer, Ruger uses the same barrel dimensions for 44-40 or 44 Mag/Spl.
Hondo44 said:You're welcome.
How is the accuracy of your 44-40? I presume it's an original large frame Vaquero model.
Doug said it well, early in their production Ruger supplied cyls with .427 throats, so .427 or bullets larger got squeezed down and just rattled down the .429 barrels. And about 1/3 of factory loaded 44-40 ammo these days come with 429 bullets. Ruger would fix or replace those cylinders free.
You can actually ream your 44-40 cyl to 44 mag and shoot both rounds in it; as long as you shot 44-40s with .429 bullets, you'll get good accuracy with both. The larger chamber neck area diameter of the 44 Mag will make it easy to chamber 44-40 cases with 429 to 431 bullets.
Yes the 44 mag cases will swell a little at the bottom of the chamber but doesn't hurt anything. If you reload your ammo and only shoot the 44 mag in that cyl, you can just neck re-size them. Or full length re-size them if you shoot another 44 Mag gun.
loaded round said:My cylinder was reamed to .429'' when I sent my Vaquero back to Ruger for some trigger work. Yes, it is one of the original large frame Vaquero's that I bought at auction because no one else bid on it, so I essentially stole this pistol at 110.00 plus tax. It's a decent shooter with the .426'' bullets I bought for it, but now that I know it's a .429'' bore will load 240 gr 44 Mag cast bullets in it and see how she shoots. Don't want a magnum but a good 44-40 load. Report to follow in about a week.
Hondo44 said:You can actually ream your 44-40 cyl to 44 mag and shoot both rounds in it; as long as you shot 44-40s with .429 bullets, you'll get good accuracy with both. The larger chamber neck area diameter of the 44 Mag will make it easy to chamber 44-40 cases with 429 to 431 bullets.
Yes the 44 mag cases will swell a little at the bottom of the chamber but doesn't hurt anything. If you reload your ammo and only shoot the 44 mag in that cyl, you can just neck re-size them. Or full length re-size them if you shoot another 44 Mag gun.