Hi there. I unearthed a nice Remington Hepburn recently - #4 oct barrel, DST and a nice bore to boot. It had .40 1 7/8 Sh stamped under the barrel and a chamber cast confirmed that it was a .40-50 straight. It should be a great rifle for offhand shooting as it balances very nicely. Have any of you boys had experience reloading for this cartridge? The Jan/Feb 2002 Classic Cartridges article in the SSRJ has been a good start. I'll probably use .303 Brit cases to begin with as they are "thick on the ground" out here in Australia. Will I need a set of RCBS or Redding dies to load for this old girl. I slugged the bore to see if it was .403 or .408 and turned up five groove rifling which makes it difficult to measure. Was five groove/land rifling a feature with Hepburns. In the past I have sent "odd" slugs over to Kevin Plinkerton or OH McKagen for measurement. Do these guys still perform this useful service?
Any suggestions? Thanks
Spud

Sorry for the interuption, but I'm at work and a mini-crisis
came up........
What I was getting at was that the groove depth on many;
not all; but many antique rifles were cut much shallower than
what we'd see today. Usually, this was because they were
intended for paper patch bullets. You'll also find that original
bore dimensions were not well standardized - so you need to
get all the dimensions down before you can order the needed
molds etc.
So, Don't assume you'll need .408 bullets or mold.  Check it all out carefully, and you'll save a ton of money and headaches.