38-40 Winchester Rifle Shooters!

What is the ammo demand like for this caliber? 38-40 is a caliber I have thought about loading to offer the Hornady 180 grain XTP and 180 grain HAP bullets in the 38-40 caliber. Starline makes some good brass for it. My data shows a 180 grain Hornady runs 1080 in a 6.5" revolver, and should run 1460 in a 20"+ barrel. That would be a fun little round in a level gun!

I have an old Model 1873 with some OLD Peters ammo but have thought about hunting with it. I killed a deer when I first got it and then put it away. Where are you getting load and ballistic data?

Fun old round and in a handgun it and the 40S&W are very close. In a rifle 10mm velocities are possible IIRC.

An old friend used one that had been in his family killing Texas deer since it was new. It is a fun little round in a leveraction and revolver. With the lack of good factory ammo it might sell well.

I have a Win 1892 (made in 1894) 38-40 that I shoot often. It’s a fun gun/round to shoot, but I only shoot light loads using Trail Boss due to the age of the gun. You are right about the Starline brass, it’s good. Mine seems to last forever due to the low power loads.

I think your biggest market would be the cowboy action shooting groups. The 38-40 along with the 44-40 are calibers frequently used in their competitions. That being said, they are going to be more inclined to want traditional lead rather than jacketed bullets. There’s not many choices in factory ammo for the 38-40, so you might look into it.

I have some reloading manuals with data in them, mainly the Hornady manual. It has some good data, and I also looked up some QuickLoad info. QL seems to be in line with the Hornady manual.

I loaded some for a friend a couple of years ago. Marlin 1894 built in 1901 and passed down in the family. He was just wanting the family to all get a chance to shoot it. This load turned out to be a nice accurate plinking load.

Created: 09/20/14 11:38 AM
Description: Marlin 1894 38-40 24"
Notes 1: Acme .401 RNFP 180 gr. 16 BHN
Notes 2: 13 gr. Alliant 2400, Starline Brass, Win LPP
Distance to Chrono(FT): 15.00
Ballistic Coefficient: 0.140
Bullet Weight(gr): 180.00
Temp: 74 °F
BP: 30.05 inHg
Altitude: 0.00
# FPS FT-LBS PF
5 1180 556.61 212.40
4 1160 537.90 208.80
3 1117 498.76 201.06
2 1142 521.34 205.56
1 1171 548.15 210.78
Average: 1154.0 FPS
SD: 25.1 FPS
Min: 1117 FPS
Max: 1180 FPS
Spread: 63 FPS
Shot/sec: 0.2
True MV: 1164 FPS
Group Size (in): 0.00

Thanks Chad, I've looked in my old manuals, one back to 1957, and never found it. The Hornady has it as a Ruger pistol round. Didn't think to look there.