Testing Vintage 44-40 ammunition!

May 12, 2015

Recently I found some vintage 44-40 cartridges on Gunbroker with the earliest UMC headstamp that dates from 1885 to approx. 1900. The S H stands for Solid Head. UMC started using that nomenclature in 1885 as solid head cartridges were quickly replacing folded head cartridges at the time.

I dissected 3 of the cartridges and they did contain 40 grs of powder.

A bit surprisingly was the average velocity that they generated......about 10% more than published figures at that time!

Shots 1,2,3 - bullet lube dried out because the cartridges were not dissected (primers were replaced)

Shots 4,5,6 - bullet lube replaced / cartridges were dissected then reassembled with current primers

Note that the pure lead bullet was .0045" under groove diameter.

Interesting history........

REM-UMC Hi-Speed 160gr Mushroom Cartridge