Replica Remington 1875 .44-40 Questions

i had a uberti 44/40 that was very early. the spring was way too heavy. i think they are ok on the current ones. i honed that spring with a honeing stone for thee days untill i had it like a uberti colt feel for let off. i used black horn 209 powder with a 60 thousands wad over it and a slightly over sized round ball coated in in lee alos as the projectile. rolled crimmed over the end of the roundball. i liked the 44/40 round better than the 45 long colt. how ever i could never get used to the 1875 remingington grip. so i sold it with out loss of money to a friend who loves it. i even had the revolver cryo treated as the cryo co. owed me a free cryo job. it was nickle plated and laser ingraved. i may get the blackpowder conversion uberti 1858 some day but not the 1875. cant tell you about the grips other than they dont feel like colts. my hands are small and colts feel just right to me army or navy grips. enjoy what you get.

Howdy

Did you read my post from about a month ago about shooting an original Model 1875 Remington?

It should answer some of your questions, even though you are asking about a replica and I have an original.

https://www.thehighroad.org/index.php?threads/remington-model-1875.854590/

The grips of the Colt Single Action Army, the 1858 Remington C&B revolver and the 1875 Remington are a bit different.

In this photo you can see the grip of the 1875 Remington is longer than the grip of my old EuroArms 1858 Remington. The 1858 is wearing its 45 Colt conversion cylinder, but that does not matter. There is considerably more space behind the trigger guard of the 1875 model. The replicas are similar. I often find the knuckle of my middle finger getting whacked by the trigger guard of the 1858, that is why I usually shoot it with 45 Schofields with less recoil. I had no trouble getting my knuckle whacked with the 1875 Model.






Just for comparison of the grip shapes, here is the 1875 Remington and a Colt Single Action Army.





As far as handling is concerned, with a long barrelled Colt, 1858, or 1875 Remington, they all handle about the same.

However because of the web under the 1875, it is a heavy gun.

The 7 1/2" 1875 Remington weighs 3 pounds even.

The 8" 1858 Remington weighs 2 pounds 10 ounces.

The 7 1/2" Colt weighs 2 pounds 10 ounces.



As far as binding up with Black Powder, read what I had to say in my other post.

The main factor in how much a revolver binds up with Black Powder residue is how much of a raised bushing there is on the front of the cylinder to shield the underlying cylinder pin from fouling blasted out of the barrel/cylinder gap.

Left to right in this photo are the Remington 1858 Cylinder, the Remington 1875 cylinder, and the Colt SAA cylinder. Note the complete lack of a raised bushing on the front of the 1858 cylinder. In my experience, I have to remove the 1858 cylinder and wipe the fouling off the front face after every cylinder full of 45 Schofield or 45 Colt Black Powder cartridges or the revolver will begin to bind up with fouling. Remington learned this lesson with the 1875 revolver and included a raised bushing on the front face of the cylinder. It measures about .055 proud of the face of the cylinder, which is not very much, but it allowed me to shoot 30 Black Powder 44-40 rounds without significant binding. I did put a little bit of Ballistol on the cylinder pin to help things along, but binding was not a significant issue during a six stage CAS match. The Colt cylinder is the champion as far as shooting Black Powder without binding is concerned. The removable bushing on the front of a Colt cylinder stands about .075 proud of the cylinder. The relief around the circumference of the Colt bushing also helps direct fouling blasted out of the barrel/cylinder gap away from the underlying cylinder pin. I can shoot a Colt all day long with Black Powder 45 Colt rounds and it never binds and never needs any extra attention.






Regarding the modern replicas of the 1875 Remington, I borrowed one from a friend a whole bunch of years ago chambered for 45 Colt. It was a long time ago, but I was able to get through a six stage CAS match without too much trouble firing Black Powder 45 Colt loads.

I would expect you would have about the same results with a modern replica.

Do note that the operation of the modern replicas is slightly different than the originals. The originals had a small spring catch on the front of the cylinder pin to pull out the pin to remove the cylinder. Modern reproductions have a spring loaded cross latch very similar to a Colt.

Just so you know, my Black Powder 44-40 loads are quite similar to yours. 2.2CC of Schuetzen FFg which weighs about 33 grains, under a Big Lube 200 grain Mav-Dutchman bullet. Starline brass and Federal Large Pistol primer.

The Big Lube bullets carry more soft bullet lube than anything else on the market. I used to cast my own, these days I buy them from Whyte Leather Works. He casts them in a very soft alloy, and lubes them with his own homebrew of lube which is very similar to SPG. I always ask him to size them to .428, which works well in the 429 barrel of my Henry, a few old Winchesters with .427 groove diameters, as well as an old Marlin with a .427 groove diameter. I never use filler, perish the thought.

http://www.whyteleatherworks.com/BigLube.html

A friend has a pair of the replica 1858 cartridge conversions.

https://www.uberti-usa.com/new-army-conversion-revolver

He shoots them with 45 Colt Black Powder cartridges. He uses the red Mobile One grease in them to keep them rolling. These revolvers also have a fairly low lying bushing on the front of the cylinder, but he can get through an entire six stage CAS match with no problem. He may put a little bit of Ballistol on the cylinder pin partway through the match, but that is all the maintenance he has to do during the shoot.

As I say, I am pretty sure the bushing on the front of the replica 1875 cylinders pretty much duplicates the short bushing on my antique 1875. I am pretty sure you could go through a reasonable number of shots without binding. You might have to add a drop of Ballistol on the cylinder pin at some point, but that is probably all you would have to do.

Zoom in on the photo of the 1875 on the Uberti web page. I'm pretty sure I can see evidence of a short bushing on the front of the cylinder. Notice there is daylight showing between the front of the cylinder and the frame below the cylinder pin, but no daylight showing at the cylinder pin or above. If the photo is at all realistic, that tells me there should be a short bushing on the front of the cylinder.

https://www.uberti-usa.com/outlaw-frontier-and-police-revolvers

Worst case, you pop out the cylinder and wipe off the face of the cylinder with a damp cloth, just like I do with my 1858 with its cartridge conversion cylinder. Then you pop the cylinder back in and shoot some more.

are you only allowed blackpowder at these competition shoots? or can you use a black powder sub. also?

Catman42 said:

are you only allowed blackpowder at these competition shoots? or can you use a black powder sub. also?

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A little bit off topic, but most competitors at Cowboy Action Shooting matches use Smokeless ammunition. Yeah, it's not historically accurate, but that's the way it is.

I would say somewhere between 10% and 20% use Black Powder or a Black Powder substitute.

Dave Markowitz:
I have an older Uberti .44-40 Rem M75 revolver, so I can't speak to current production. Mine is quite functional with black powder or smokeless loads. Since I had a Winchester M92 also in .44-40, I had hoped I could use the same ammo. Unfortunately, this is not possible as the '92 Winchester needs .430" bullets to shoot accurately without serious leading and these won't chamber in my Rem M75 revolver. The revolver requires .427" diameter bullet to chamber. Nonetheless, it is a fine,accurate pistol when fed cartridges that meet its custom ammo specifications. Revolver cartridges shot in the M92 Winchester keyhole even if shot with black powder. From my point of view they might as well be chambered for two different cartridges as I have to keep the ammo separate for each gun.

Curator said:

Dave Markowitz:
I have an older Uberti .44-40 Rem M75 revolver, so I can't speak to current production. Mine is quite functional with black powder or smokeless loads. Since I had a Winchester M92 also in .44-40, I had hoped I could use the same ammo. Unfortunately, this is not possible as the '92 Winchester needs .430" bullets to shoot accurately without serious leading and these won't chamber in my Rem M75 revolver. The revolver requires .427" diameter bullet to chamber. Nonetheless, it is a fine,accurate pistol when fed cartridges that meet its custom ammo specifications. Revolver cartridges shot in the M92 Winchester keyhole even if shot with black powder. From my point of view they might as well be chambered for two different cartridges as I have to keep the ammo separate for each gun.

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Couldn't you have your revolver chambers reamed so the .430 bullets would fit or is the barrel also too tight?

ontarget said:

Couldn't you have your revolver chambers reamed so the .430 bullets would fit or is the barrel also too tight?

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Here is a different idea.

First, make sure you are using the thinnest possible brass. The thinner the brass is at the neck, the less it will 'bump up' in diameter when a bullet is seated. When I first started loading 44-40 for my Uberti 1873, I was tailoring my loads to its .427 groove diameter. Yes, 427 groove diameter. I slugged it several times to make sure. This rifle was made in the 1980s. I tried using bullets .427, .428, and .429 diameters. They all shot well, but the .429 bullets swelled the case mouth just enough that they were a little bit stubborn to chamber.

In my experience Winchester brass has the thinnest brass at the neck. Right about .007 thick. So I used Winchester brass for a long time. At that time I was shooting the .427 diameter bullets and everything was fine. Yes, conventional wisdom says lead bullets should be .001 oversize of the groove diameter, but .427 worked fine and gave good accuracy. Apparently, the rifling was still getting a good bite on the bullet even though it was the same size as the rifling groove diameter. The .427 bullets also worked well in my original Winchester '92 with its .427 groove diameter. (I have slugged a lot of barrels.)

When I bought my Henry about ten years ago and slugged the barrel I found out that like most modern Uberti 44-40 rifles the groove diameter was .429. It turns out I have about 5 rifles chambered for 44-40, and the all have rifling diameter grooves of either .427 or .429. I won't go into which is which, suffice it to say some are modern replicas and some are original Winchesters and a Marlin.

I was not about to start loading ammo with two different bullet diameters, just was not going to do that. So I compromised with .428 diameter bullets for everything. The .428 bullets shoot fine in my Henry with its .429 groove diameter. The bullets are soft lead and I only shoot them with Black Powder. Perhaps they are bumping up in the bore to fit the rifling grooves, but I doubt it. I think it is just not so critical and the .429 diameter rifling grooves do fine with the .428 bullets. And my .427 barrels like them too. I have since gone over to Starline brass because Winchester was hard to find. Winchester only runs 44-40 brass maybe once a year and it is hard to find, whereas Starline makes it all the time. The Starline brass is slightly thicker at the neck than Winchester, but not enough to make a difference.

So

1. make sure you are using the thinnest possible brass, and
2. Try .428 diameter bullets.

You may be pleasantly surprised.

your softer lead bullets bump up with black powder, black powder slams and bumps up a bullet that is soft enough fast. other powder bump up also but not quite as fast as blackpowder. if they were hollow based and even with a 60 thousands wad behind the bullets the wad pushes against the base of the hollow point bullet so had it bumps up from the very first bang. the next bit of info may be interesting or not. a lot of 45 long colt target shooters ive metuse blowed out 44/40 brass for loading loading as 45 long colt. i dont know the reason but they do. ive by accident shot 44/40 in my 45 long colt revolvers and then realized what just happened, no accuracy. they shoot and get blown out to be reloaded as 45 long colt. i posted this on another site and their was at least a dozen shooters who admitted to doing the same. i wasnt the only nut on the block who made that mistake. sorry for the grammer mistakes my computer wont let me fix them. i wish it was alive so i could give it a good rap and make it feel it.