Crisco

Buckaroo Bobbins might be a good bet, but you would have to give them a call. Geneva makes leather riding skirts to order and I believe I’ve seen jackets and such too, but I don’t see anything but the skirts and accompanying vests on the website. I expect she can make it if you let her know what you want. River Crossing is still listing outfits like you are looking for too, but also made to order.

Had one in 20ga and it was a well made, reliable shotgun but I didn’t like it much for CAS. The first time I tried swiping across both hammers to cock them, all I accomplished was leaving a good bit of skin on the ears (stiff springs and small ears), and the receiver was too small to have the right hammer cocked while broken open. Think I might have seen one in .410 once but not certain.

Yes, cleared means empty. If no empty comes out when checked, then it had to have been open at some point before being discarded. No longer matters how it got closed.

Doesn’t seem to if it’s good lube like spg or crisco & beeswax.

I have heard of accuracy problems at long range using over powder wads under hollow base bullets, I assume because the wad gets jammed in there out of kilter under pressure. You can just seat a hollow base bullet firmly on the powder and do fine, or go completely old school and fill the cavity with Crisco or other bullet lube.

I used to see a piece of thin wall pipe with one end crimped shut used like that when shooting single actions in "combat" shoots. A lot faster than loading from ammo dumped into a jacket pocket, and pretty much anything is faster than a full reload from a belt.

Not sure when they stopped totally, but when Phil Sharpe wrote his Complete Guide to Handloading in 1937 there were only 14 rifle and 26 pistol cartridges still being produced loaded with black powder. The .38-40 and .44-40 were included in his list of handgun cartridges.

I have used a lot of the Black Hills cowboy ammo when doing classes, and it has been great. Never particularly cheap, but good ammunition if you can find it. As said before, keep your brass...

A Winchester 1892 .44WCF and an 1897 solid frame, both made in1898. Now and then, not every match.

To support a few of the comments above, I think it was Guns & Ammo that ran an article quite a few years ago (1979 maybe?) testing yellow and nickel .38’s till they split. I may be a little off on the numbers, but they got ~145 reloads from the yellow case before splitting, but only 56 from the nickel case. My experience Is consistent with that, so I avoid nickel cases for anything that will go in a rifle unless stuffed full of black powder.

I have shot a lot of the 250 PRS big lube Bullets over the last few years in .45 Colt and Schofield; plenty of lube, never a problem. Never had any success running a RNFP in the .45 ACP (in 4 different guns), but I see people using the 200gr RNFP in Wild Bunch shoots all the time, so you might be able to do it, but it depends on the gun.

You started out with almost the same combination I did, and I never mixed anything up at the loading table but sometimes had the wrong gun in hand when I needed to reload from my belt during a stage. I typically shoot .44 Special in everything and my wife shoots .38 pistols with a .44-40 rifle. A mistake in either direction between the .44's puts a rifle out of commission when you try to chamber the first round. We have only had it happen once in 2 or 3 years, and that was actually a case of going to the loading table with the right ammo but the wrong rifle. Luckily it was the first gun to be used... I sometimes shoot .44 Special or .45 pistols with a .44-40 rifle, and have gotten away with it, but have to be a lot more cautious than I would prefer. Since I don't have .44-40 pistols, I tend to go to .38 pistols if I want to shoot a .44-40 rifle in a big match, specifically to avoid the possibility of a mix-up. If I remember correctly, I have read of a Texas Ranger back in the day that loaded at least one .45 into his Winchester in the middle of a firefight and had to disassemble his rifle under fire to clear it (successfully, since he lived to tell the story), so I always have that in mind when mixing calibers in a match.

I am one of those that didn’t pay attention to the original question... I have used some Winchester and a lot of Black Hills factory .44-40 over the years when we used to hold classes, and never noticed any difference in function or accuracy between the two. I have heard good things about Cowboy Choice ammunition but have not tried any personally. It looks like you would need to call the manufacturers to determine bullet diameter as I don’t see it mentioned on web sites, but I would expect .426/.428 to be the standard for this.

The .429/.430 bullets shoot great in the modern replica barrels, and that's all I use since I also load .44 Special, but I have to be careful what brass I put them in. Starline and WInchester will chamber fine in our rifles, 3-D, R-P, and BHA, not so much.

I believe the centerfire 1866’s were late production, chambered for the .44 Henry Centerfire (same dimensions as the Henry but centerfire), and most, if not all, were shipped to somewhere in South America that escapes my memory at the moment. Seems like very few show up in the states.

You can find data for it under the N32C designation on the Vihtavuori web site. I have used several pounds in .45 Colt and it shoots great, but I doubt you will find any light load data for it. I have not tried downloading below published data, so have no idea what to expect if you do. Not all of their “cowboy” load data is SASS legal, so watch your velocity...

Our knockdowns (mostly US poppers) are 3/8" AR500 with 1/2" pipe stick welded to the bottom to mount in our bases. For static targets we've been using 3/8" and 1/2" mild steel for years, and they age pretty well with lead bullets and cowboy loads, but are getting too heavy for most of the folks willing to come out and help these days (not to mention being easily and heavily damaged by boneheads with rifles). We are gradually changing over to 1/4" AR500 targets with a small rectangular slot centered near the top so they can hang from a hook made of 3/8" AR500. Very much like what MGM sells for Steel Challenge if you want to see examples. We initially went with 3/8" AR500, but I saw another club using 1/4" 18"x24" targets that are aging very well in speed steel matches, in which they are getting worked over heavily with jacketed 9mm, .40S&W, & .45ACP, from both pistols and carbines. Since then everything I buy is 1/4" and they are much nicer to haul around. I just go to Pacific Steel with a cardboard template or drawing and they use a plasma cutter; I've not seen any issues with wear or such in the heat affected areas. For long range targets (and even Plainsman rifle targets) the 3/8" AR won't crater, but starts to bow pretty quick when it gets whacked with a few 405 or 500 grain bullets.

Can't answer definitively about the "antique" classification but will tackle the concern noted above about getting them back into the US. SImply fill out a customs form 4457 and have the guns verified by a customs officer BEFORE leaving the states. This form provides the proof that you took them with you so you will not be accused of importing them on your return.

I'm sure it's been longer than I think, but Numrich Arms (now Gunparts Corp) used to sell conversion kits to change your model 94 over to .44 Magnum. I think the "kit" may have consisted of nothing more than a barrel and carrier/lifter. If so, that will answer your initial question, at least for the larger cartridge.