There was this really great deal on a birds-head grip Uberti SA in 44-40 but with an extra cylinder chambered in 44 special. Well I wanted the bird's head SA in 44 special...so I choose to think of it that way, a 44 Special with an extra 44-40 cylinder. Knowing full well that if the barrel was cut for the 44-40, the bore might be .426 or so and not .429/430 of the special. The barrel is clearly marked 44-40 'Regulator'. My other Uberti 44 Special SA is also a Regulator and gives excellent accuracy with the Keith 250 grain cast bullet over 18/2400 (Herc). But I had never taken the measurements on that gun either.

So now I have four cylinders, 2 in 44 Special...two in 44-40, and two sixguns...both Uberti 'Regulators'. The only difference is the grip frame. Before I was able to measure the two guns....I took the new one out with some commercial 44 Special ammo that came into my hands...who knows when. The regular old type 246 grain round nose, over what looks like 6 grains of WW231...in Winchester cases. I wanted the cases so I figured on shooting it up in the new gun. This ammo gave around 4 inch groups at 25 yards with my older Uberti 44 Special. And true to form, I got the same groups with this gun.

I fired some of this ammo through my old gun...the same groups...almost identical. I swapped cylinders in the guns...the same size groups again. Not only the same size, but the same round cluster type formations to the groups. My curiosity was definitely rising quickly.

At home with the dial calipers I found in these two guns, that had to be manufactured 3 to 5 years apart, some amazingly similar dimensions. I hear all the time that the Italian clones are OK but they are nothing like the American Colts. That their tolerances are not good...and that accuracy suffers. Well mayhaps that was true in the 1980s and before...but not today. The bores in these two guns were .4282 and .429, all the cylinder mouths were exactly the same .4312, not just on the two 44 Special cylinders but on all four cylinders, including the two chambered in 44-40 . Cylinder lengths run between 1.616 and 1.618. The quality control is just excellent for these two guns manufactured years apart in the 1990s.

My accuracy load for the 44 special has always been 16/(Herc) 2400 under the Keith 250 cast bullet...cast 1 in 12 or so, for around 1150 fps. It has been extremely accurate in 44 magnums I've owned also...there is just something balanced about the load. That's why I use it for accuracy testing. Well I found that in the 44-40 chamberings in these two guns, it is also very accurate.

Both guns with either of the four cylinders will keep the groups under 1 and ½ inches. That's eight different combinations...the older regular SA gripped Regulator with the 44 Special cylinder from the bird's headed grip frame will put them under an inch if I really work at hold and squeeze...the other frame with either 44 Special cylinder will stay around an inch. The 44-40s open slightly to the 1 and ½" size. It's incredible.

Are these two guns and the cylinders a fluke? Well I measured two other guns at the gun store. One a 44-40 and one a 44 special. Both had measurements extremely close to mine. Both were 'Regulators'. Both had barrels marked 44-40. Obviously I couldn't shoot them but I figure they will be very accurate also.

All this got me playing around with the 44-40. I have friends like John Taffin and some others that think highly of the cartridge. Being a practical man I always figured why a 44-40 when you can have a 44 Special?  With the Special, the components like bullets and primers and powder and all are fairly interchangeable, with firing the Special ammo in 44 magnum cylinders. Where the 44-40 usually has a smaller bore size, the cylinder mouths are reputed to be a problem giving accuracy fits...can't fire them in 44 mag chambers etc...and a lot of negative other things I've read.

Well the first thing I found was the 44-40 rounds will function and fire like small game loads out of my 444 Fatside Winchester '94 leveraction. Winchester put the 444 chambering in their 50,000 psi rated leveraction rifle/carbine. I have what they call the Black Shadow. It's a light, less than 6 pounds, carbine with synthetic stocks. But you can load the Win ‘94 444 way over what the Marlin leverguns can take in pressure. I easily get close to 2200 fps with a 325 grain bullet...and can go higher, when I really want to beat up my shoulder. But the 44-40 rounds work amazingly well out of this leveraction. And the shorter case allows fast burning powders without a lot of empty slop around space like in the 444 case.

Both handguns do well with 44-40 handloads. The aforementioned 16 grains of Hercules 2400 powder under the Keith 250 grain cast bullet gives 1100 or so fps. And is a fun load to shoot. I suspect this is a top load for the 44-40, any way it is for mine. 10 Grains of Unique under a 200 to 210 grain cast bullet gives about 1050 fps, and good accuracy. Both these loads are running around 18000 psi. I have seen loads given of up to 18 grains of Herc 2400 under 200 plus grain bullets. That may be fine in the 44 Special cylinders...but I don’t want to go near 20,000 psi or higher in the 44-40 chambers.

The 200 grain cast bullets with HS6 can easily get to 1200 fps with around 9.5 grains. With 12 grains of Blue Dot you can get 1250 fps and fairly good accuracy. Unique is another old time favorite that performs in the 44-40 with cast bullets. With 11 grains of HS6 and 200 grain jacketed bullets, you will break 1100 fps, and at a cost of low pressure around 15000 to 16000 psi. With 9 to 9.5 grains of Unique under the 200 grain jacketed class of bullets you will go 1070 to 1125 fps in the same pressure levels.

If you like the 240 grain jacketed bullets and the 250 grain cast bullets in the 44-40, like I do then H4227 is the powder to work with. 14 grains will give the 240 grain jacketed bullets around 1000 fps...and the cast around 1080 fps (remember H4227 and IMR 4227 are different).