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Lightning Rifle Custom Caliber


H. K. Uriah, SASS #74619

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I know the person to ask is Lassiter, and I eventually will, but have any of the Lightning lovers here on the Wire ever gone to the trouble to get one in .44 Special?   I don't think it would require much more than a barrel to do it.   

Don't think .44 Magnum would work.   I doubt if the action is strong enough.

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I have a Pedersoli in 44-40 that handles full cases of black powder and a 200 grain bullet with no problems. Usually use about 3-4 grains of Red Dot for smokeless.

Lucky

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1 hour ago, Lucky R. K. said:

I have a Pedersoli in 44-40 that handles full cases of black powder and a 200 grain bullet with no problems. Usually use about 3-4 grains of Red Dot for smokeless.

Lucky

 

I have AWA's in .45 Colt and .44-40.  I have Colts in .44-40, .32-20 and .22 Long.


I want one in .44 Special.   

I am a very strange person.  :)

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24 minutes ago, Abilene, SASS # 27489 said:

Can a barrel have just the chamber sleeved?  If so, starting with 44-40 might work.

I dunno.  

But the problem there would be .44-40's are .427's and .44 Specials are .429's.   That's why I thought you'd need to rebarrel.

I also just did some checking and while the the two .44's are quite different, the rim size of the .45 and .44 Special are nearly identical.   Assuming that may make a difference in the bolt face and other stuff, I guess you'd rebarrel the .45.

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I drilled a.45 barrel on a Pedersoli Lightning and installed a 38-40 Redman liner and cut a new chamber and it works well.

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1 hour ago, H. K. Uriah, SASS #74619 said:

...But the problem there would be .44-40's are .427's and .44 Specials are .429's.   That's why I thought you'd need to rebarrel....

 

Most modern reproduction firearms use .429 for 44-40.

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.429’s work very well in all of my 44-40’s

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2 hours ago, Yul Lose said:

I drilled a.45 barrel on a Pedersoli Lightning and installed a 38-40 Redman liner and cut a new chamber and it works well.

Did you need a 38-40 extractor? 

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6 hours ago, H. K. Uriah, SASS #74619 said:

 

I have AWA's in .45 Colt and .44-40.  I have Colts in .44-40, .32-20 and .22 Long.


I want one in .44 Special.   

I am a very strange person.  :)

My license plate is 44SPCL, you don't sound strange to me...

3 hours ago, Yul Lose said:

I drilled a.45 barrel on a Pedersoli Lightning and installed a 38-40 Redman liner and cut a new chamber and it works well.

Aw @Yul Lose you got me giving evil looks at my poor little .45 Rossi...

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4 hours ago, Marshal TKD, Sass # 36984L said:

Did you need a 38-40 extractor? 

No, the .45 works fine. I did install a 44-40 lifter or elevator.

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2 hours ago, DeaconKC said:

My license plate is 44SPCL, you don't sound strange to me...

Aw @Yul Lose you got me giving evil looks at my poor little .45 Rossi...

Well, I had this .45 Pedersoli Lightning laying around that I hardly ever used and got a good deal on it when I bought it. Years ago I had a conversation with Elrod up in Nevada about which cartridge he thought was the perfect cartridge for a Lightning and the 38-40 was his choice. So I bought a Redman liner and the drill bit (you have to drill from both ends of the barrel) and I already had a chamber reamer that I’d bought at an estate sale a few years ago. It was rather intimidating at first but with the help of You Tube and Larry Potterfield with Midway USA I did it. The liner is installed with a special Loctite adhesive and not soldered in. 

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