BLACK POWDER: TODAY’S .40-CALIBER CARTRIDGES

BLACK POWDER

A handloaded .40-65 cartridge, loaded with a short Brooks bullet.

TODAY’S .40-CALIBER CARTRIDGES

Variants of yesteryear's .40-65 Winchester enjoying a 'new life' in black powder rifle competitions.

STORY AND PHOTOS BY MIKE NESBITT

These days the old .4065 Winchester is really enjoying a “new life” as a cartridge for single-shot rifles used in black powder cartridge rifle (BPCR) competition. One place to see such rifles in action is on the black powder silhouette ranges, where targets are placed between 200 and 500 meters. That’s where the .40-65 really seems to enjoy itself and you can find them in number, right along with the guns in .4570 caliber, as well as other .40s.

The .40-65 Winchester began as a cartridge for the Model 1886 repeater. Back then it used a 260-grain bullet over 65 grains of black powder fuel and it was regarded as a fine hunting cartridge for medium-sized game such as deer and black bear. Today it is commonly loaded with bullets weighing 400 grains or slightly more, with those bullets protruding from the case in a length that would never function through the action of the old ’86, and used in the single-shot rifles. Those single-shots can and do include the 1885 High Wall, the ’74 Sharps, and rebuilt rolling block rifles.

We really should start any conversation about .40-caliber rifles with the old .38-40 Winchester. That shoots a bullet of .401-inch diameter, so maybe it should have been called the .40-40. The cowboy action shooters have taken a real liking to the .38-40, which means that a whole lot of repro rifles and revolvers, including some third-generation Colts, are available in this caliber again. Someday we might take a closer look at the .38-40 and talk about loads for it, but for now let’s concentrate on the longer .40-caliber cartridges.

WE’LL BEGIN WITH a cartridge that isn’t too much longer than the .38-40, the little .40-50 Sharps Bottleneck. I know a couple of silhouette shooters who use the .40-50s loaded with rather heavy bullets sticking out of those short 1 11/16-inch cases. This combination makes for some very comfortable shooting, which makes concentration for the shot easier to maintain. The same can be said about the .40-50 Sharps Straight, which was introduced sometime later but it did not actually replace the .40-50 BN.

Today’s versions of the .40-50s use barrels with a groove diameter of .408 inch, whereas in the old days they had groove diameters of .403 to .406, so any loading comments I might have about these and other .40s now will refer to the larger size. Brass for the .40-50 BN can be made from .45-70 cases, while the best cases to use for the .40-50 SS are the old .30-40 Krag. Formed brass for these two calibers can be found at Buffalo Arms Company, but check to see if it is in stock.

New rifles are available for the .40-50

The .40-70 Sharps BN rifle, with a 30-inch barrel.

Sharps, both Bottleneck and Straight, but those are on a custom basis from C. Sharps Arms and other makers.

IN THE OLD days there was a .40-60 Winchester, which was one of the cartridges chambered in the Model 1876 Winchester repeating rifle. This cartridge fired a 210-grain bullet and it was actually just a little more powerful than the .44-40. To my knowledge there are no new rifles being chambered for this old round, so we will move on to more popular cases.

This brings us back to the .40-65 Winchester. In the 1880s this cartridge had quite a following and it was interchangeable with the .40-60 Marlin, which Marlin chambered in their Model 1881 lever-action repeating rifle. The very same cartridge was also called the .40-60 CLMR, which was used in the Colt Lightning Magazine Rifle, Colt’s large version of their pump-action rifle. Primarily a round for repeating rifles, the .40-65 was also chambered in the Browning-designed Winchester High Wall of 1885 and other single-shots.

The .40-65 is simply a .45-70 tapered down to take a .40-caliber bullet. It has the same case length of 2.1 inches. I don’t have a .40-65 of my own, but the idea is very tempting.

MOVING UP THE powder charge scale just a little bit more, we come to the .40-70 Sharps Bottleneck. This is a cartridge I do have personal experience with, and my current .40-70 BN is a used rifle made by C. Sharps Arms. This is one of my most comfortable guns to shoot with and it has a nice shotgun butt. This rifle performs rather well, using 70 grains of Olde Eynsford 1F powder under a 370-grain, .410-inch-diameter bullet. I used this rifle as my iron sight gun in silhouette matches and I still favor it for some shooting events.

Brass is made from stretched and necked-down .45-70 brass, using Starline cases, and I simply buy my .40-70 BN cases already formed from Buffalo Arms Company. At one time I considered buying a case stretcher and forming dies until I mentioned this to Dave Gullo, the owner of Buffalo Arms. Dave mentioned how much money those tools would cost and concluded that I’d be much better off just to buy the formed cases from him. He was right and that’s where I get my .40-70 BN brass.

My tools for the .40-70 calibers include a Ballard paper-patched mold that I do use on occasion, but the grease groove bullets get used much more often. I will say, however, that the looks of the paper-patched loads do give the cartridges more of that “old time” flavor.

For my own shooting, a .40-70 Sharps Straight gets used more often. That’s the rifle I use for silhouette shooting, in a High Wall by C. Sharps Arms and sighted with an RHO 6X full-length scope. I won’t say I’m very good at silhouette shooting, but this rifle does allow me to be somewhat competitive, at least on my good days.

The .40-70 SS was introduced by Sharps in the late 1870s, but it did not replace the .40-70 BN; both cartridges remained available in the old Sharps catalogs. The straight version has a

This .40-70 High Wall carries an RHO 6X scope.

2½-inch case and it was commonly loaded with 65 grains of powder, so it is sometimes referred to as the .40-65 Sharps. The original bullet for this weighed 330 grains, either “naked” or paper-patched. The bullets I’m currently using are the 370-grain bullets from Accurate Molds’ No. 41-370C, although heavier bullets have been tried. The 2½-inch cases for the .40-70 SS can be made from .30-40 Krag brass, but I am using slightly shortened Hornady .405 Winchester cases for mine. My load with that bullet now uses 60 grains of Swiss 1½ Fg powder.

THIS LEADS US to the big .40-90 Sharps Bottleneck, which I have no personal experience with. It was introduced about 1873 and intended to achieve higher velocity than other cartridges, which it did, for long-range shooting. It has a 2 5/8-inch case like the .44-90 Sharps; the .40-90 is an impressive-looking cartridge. New rifles chambered for the .40-90 BN are available today from C. Sharps Arms and it would be an interesting cartridge to do some shooting with.

One more .40-caliber cartridge deserves discussion because new rifles are made for it today. The .4090 Sharps Straight is a real long and lean cartridge with a 3¼-inch case. Speaking historically, this cartridge was introduced after the Sharps company had gone out of business. Out of all the .40-caliber cartridges, the .40-90 Straight could be the one for long-range shooting. Like the .4090 BN, a .40-90 Straight would be an interesting rifle/cartridge combination to try some shooting with, and longrange would be on the agenda.

THOSE ARE THE .40-caliber black powder cartridges that new rifles are being made for today. Looking back over this list, if I were to select a .40-caliber rifle/cartridge to use for good shooting today, I’d probably pick the .40-65 Winchester based on the availability of brass plus the fine reputation it has on the target ranges. My rifle of choice would be the High Wall by C. Sharps Arms based on my personal tastes and previous experience with that rifle. 