Joe West

The various causes asked and answered but the length and tech of the replies might be overdoing it. Since the smokeless powder isn't supporting the bullet during seating and crimping, adjust your neck sizing/powder drop to less expansion for a slightly tighter fit. So: Bullet won't stay put long enough to crimp= too loose. Deformation of case= too tight. Hope this helps, 44-40 is my favorite. Joe west

The factory should have already taken care of this. I know it will mess with any chance you have for warranty work, but yer warranty a'int working so take or send it to a gunsmith familar with the 1860 and include rounds if face to face or just your specs if mailed and let them set it up. Many times issues with 44-40 have made their way into my shop, they were varied in reason but all were resolved. If you can find the perfect ammo set up great. If Winchester, Magtech, or Black Hills 44-40 cowboy rounds won't work it's not right. Joe West

Unique, Titegroup, and VV N 340 worked well for me.

I did a pair for a new young shooter. Full refit of all internals worked out well. I make up my own springs from various stock to achieve reliability. The guns were too stiff even for my arthritic hands to start with so they need some work to be fun to use.

I'm glad for that. Perhaps I'm not the only person that couldn't pick up on that from your picture.

It is, but it's smooth, cupped , sized to cleanly clear the cylinder, and holds the ball in the cupped area. The pictured threaded bolt doesn't inspire me with the same confidence as the two different brands of off the frame loaders I use that have brass rams.

Note: I'd not want to use this press with BP. I suggest a brass end when seating a ball onto powder in a steel cylinder. Sparks are bad. You only have to wrong once with this rig. joe west

Time the lifter so that the lever/lifter action fully brings the carrier down and the carrier up for the bolt. The springs are just to help the process not to complete it. That's how a properly set up lifter needs only minimal spring tension to function perfectly. The best result of a good action job is parts continuing to function. The factory set up of timing and spring tesion ensure a usable life but often creates excessive wear. You won't have a problem finding people to work on it. Inquire as to price, warranty, and turn around time. Joe West

You've got plenty of options. If you have a few basic tools around, you can file out your exising rear sight to any width or shape that suits and cut off a piece of round brass stock, use your cut off tool to cut a groove in it and jb weld it to your front sight. That's a cheap easy way to go. I always put a bigger brass sight on the guns I do if the customer wants and cut out the rear sight if they don't want to buy a buckhorn. Once you've got daylight on both sides of your front sight you're good to go.

Meeting and becoming friends with new people was our best quality. We didn't put cas matches together to give away money prizes, we came from other shooting sports, racing, or whatever seeking something different. Our gatherings were like a big reunion with new family members each time. The best matches still are. That attitude carries over to most folks that post. But any group with Isom Dart in it automatically goes up a notch. When Kid Concho , Isom ,and me were shooting together that was as good as it gets.

Like Fireball I use hard cast bullets. My cartridges are loaded full case triple 7 2f , no wad standard lube, heavy bullet for caliber. Antique firearms would need a little more gentle load but modern mfg firearms, hard is better. Less leading equals less pressure build up as you shoot and easier cleaning. Less deformation of bullet gives better accuracy. It needs to fit the chamber mouths go smoothly into the forcing cone and obdurate into the rifling and it'll hit where your barrel ends up pointed.

I've shot the lever revolution 44 mag in a Winchester 94. Those are good shooting rounds. The polymer tip really provides a superior ballistic bullet to safely use in tube mag guns. There's no need to guess when a company puts it resources and expertise into providing a quality product. I know from running ranges people are going to do whatever suits them and justify their actions anyway they can regardless of rules, manufacturers recommendations, and often in spite of common sense. It's human nature, most of what little knowledge I've retained is from my screw ups. In the end it's simple, I prefer everyone leave the range in as good a state of health as they had on arrival.

Only witnessed it once, Remington factory round nose lead round nose .38 spl. yellow box in 1866 carbine Uberti. CAS match in Dalton, GA. 2nd shot ignited 3 rounds blew side plate off & deformed and blew out mag tube. No injuries as no one close to the side plate. Val Folgett found us a side plate, unfinished rough cast, as it was an early 1xx serial number Navy Arms gun and I was able to salvage the gun. It's still in use today with the caveat not to use round nose bullets. One of my pards blew his hand up a bit with a 1860 Uberti Henry with rnfp 44-40 bullets when the follower slipped. So a round nose bullet shouldn't be that much of a stretch to see you don't want to be that guy. I've been shooting and officiating in all kinds of matches for many decades. I've seen every kind of firearm in those matches suffer a failure. The majority were ammunition based, some of those were factory rounds. The round nose flat point bullets designed for the specific caliber ie: 30-30 are made to be safe in that loading. The fmj pointed round nose .308 bullets for loading rounds into the chamber from a box magazine obviously shouldn't be in a tube mag and the manufacturers and the loading manuals point that out. We've had this argument among shooters since I can remember reloading starting in 1973 and i guess we'll have it forever. Please just tell me if you're using sharply rounded bullets so I can stand back a bit more while timing you. Anyone who has ever watched me run a timer notices I stay pretty clear just as I never stand in front of a door while knocking on it anymore.

Not true. The 1866 was made until 1898. The 4th model was it's latest version, some sent to the Mexican Army, were centerfire 44-40. They had an improved frame. I had the opportunity to examine one.