44-40 WCF Vaquero Question

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.

Slug your barrel and find out !

I would if I could find a soft lead slug to do so.

Chuck 100 yd said:

Slug your barrel and find out !

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Look for egg sinkers in your local fishing tackle store. Take an empty fired case as a gauge and look for some that are just a smidge to big to enter the case mouth. Make sure they are soft by using the thumbnail test. Some fishing sinkers are made of Zink and can't be used.

Thanks, I'll give that a shot.

quote="Chuck 100 yd"]Look for egg sinkers in your local fishing tackle store. Take an empty fired case as a gauge and look for some that are just a smidge to big to enter the case mouth. Make sure they are soft by using the thumbnail test. Some fishing sinkers are made of Zink and can't be used.[/quote]

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.

Jim:
Thank you for your advice and answer to my question. I suspected that the barrels were both the same. Wouldn't have a lot of sense for Ruger to ream a different barrel for a small run of 44-40 revolvers. I was trying to stay away from slugging my barrel.
Mike

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.

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The problem is as you stated, a .429" ~ .430" groove diameter in the barrel, and .425" ~ .427" cylinder throats. You can send the cylinder and have it honed to .4315" and use .431" bullets with it, which will help accuracy by leaps and bounds. You can also use a soft alloy bullet sized to .430" if you can't chamber a .431" and let the pressure of firing bump it up to throat diameter which works good too. This approach is MUCH cheaper than refitting a new cylinder.

It really isn't necessary to slug the barrel, it will be either .429" or .430"

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.

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'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.

Click to expand...

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.

Click to expand...

You have the solution right there. I would use a bullet that is soft enough to scratch with a thumbnail, and some soft lube. 50/50+2% alloy takes to Ruger rifling like water to a duck. It is near perfect for all of the Ruger calibers and will gladly "bump up" or obturate to seal the bore with a modest to stiff charge under the bullet. Doesn't have to be a magnum level charge.

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.

Click to expand...

This is a rather popular "fix" for bringing the 44-40 chamber and throat to proper diameter to use .431" bullets. The neck area is normally too tight to use .431" so in addition to reaming the throats, you have to ream the neck in order to use a bullet of this diameter in 44-40 brass but it works great and cures the ills with the modern 44-40 offerings from Ruger. I get quite a few requests for cylinder work of this nature.

I never thought about using 44 magnum loads in the 44-40 but I suppose you could do just that and shoot either caliber in the same cylinder. 44-40 case is .025" longer than 44 magnum case so it would certainly chamber.

Montana Bullet Works sells some excellent WFN designs in soft alloy, BHN12, with Veral's soft blue lube and they just work. Some are gas checked and I use these often.