let me preface this by making it clear that this is strictly my own opinion, other more knowledgable and more experienced member may have more valid ideas.

First of all, its your rifle. You CAN do anything you want with it, the question is "Should you?".

Its kind of an open question with a whole lot of "depends".
what gun is it?   exactly what is the barrel?  how hot will you load it? how much will you shoot it that way?

If it is a rebarrel with a relatively modern barrel and you keep your loads reasonable The action itself---assuming it is in safe condition,should hold it.    After all CPA makes/made a heat treated version of the 44 1/2 usable with modern magnum hunting cartridges as I recall.

now if it is a good original barrel it might be a different story--depending.

AND if the gun is a really nice original--one of the more select models---custom gunsmith work etc etc ----why risk ANY wear and tear.   If some of the more traditionalists thought you were shooting modern powder loads and jacketed bullets in a vintage Pope/Schoyen/Zischang they'd be at your gates with torches and pitchforks in a NewYork minute.    LOL     Now if it was a Niedner rebarrel it might be slightly different----like I said---lots of things to be considered.

The bullets are for hunting and the 32-40 is not considered to be one of the great hunting rounds.  Nowdays must hunters would consider it minimal to dubious for whitetail deer----not that it won't kill one if hit properly.

I'm sure you realize by now that ASSRA permits ONLY plain-based lead bullets in their matches so they would not be usable for that and accurate loads developed with them might be interesting--information-wise, but would not be very helpful to most of the 34-40 shooters here.
Again JMHO!
It'll be interesting to hear what others might say.

One of the old gun catalogs reproduced by Satterlee (in 14 Old Gun catalogs) was the 1902 Stevens catalog.  In 1902, Stevens was advertising both their high-end Pope match barrels and barrels especially made for smokeless powder & jacketed bullets.  The smokeless barrels were chambered for .30-30, .30-40 US, .32 Winchester Special, .32-40 or .38-55.  The customer was to furnish his action and Stevens would fit the barrel, either the fancy Pope barrel or a barrel made for smokeless powder and jacketed bullets.  When the 44 1/2 came around a year or two later, it seems reasonable to me that one option the customer had was to order a barrel made of steel better suited for smokeless powder & jacketed bullets.  We know that Stevens-Pope barrels were fitted to other than Stevens Ideal actions by J Stevens A&T Co, both with and without HP's blessing.  Several of us have seen such rifles.  The Pope barrels went for $40 and up.  The smokeless barrels went for $20 each, installed & chambered by Stevens.  There were at least 2 different types of barrels made by Stevens.  So I would suggest Slumlord44 takes a closer look at the 44 1/2's barrel markings.

IF the barrel in question is one of those made for smokeless powder, today's bullets & smokeless powder and primers are a lot less damaging than their counterparts of a century ago.  A hundred years ago, how many shots could one expect to get from a "smokeless steel" barrel?  I have read that Winchester barrels made for the 6mm Lee Navy cartridge were well on the way to being worn out after 800 rounds.  Townsend Whelen reported that the original 1903 Springfields with the first .30-03 cartridges were also worn out & too inaccurate for service use after 800 rounds.  But those were the high-intensity cartridges of the day.  The .32-40 was less erosive, but how much less is less?  If barrel life was 1,000 rounds, each shot will degrade the barrel by 0.1 %.  Maybe modern powder & bullets decrease that rate of wear, but is it worth it?  If that is what is happening, any bargain realized from jacketed bullets is more than offset by a decrease in the value of a vintage 44 1/2.

  The 44 1/2 is a good deal stronger than the 44. I think the 32-40 is to much cartridge for the 44 action in smokeless persuasion. One mans oppinion. MD

QuestionableMaynard8130 wrote on May 7^th, 2008 at 5:30pm:


IMO causes were corrosive primers, priming compound containing glass, erosive powder, cupro-nickle and other fouling-prone jacket material (unremoved jacket fouling accelerating rust underneath) and the mistaken idea that smokeless powder meant that cleaning could be delayed and so of course in many cases it wasn't done at all. Also, many of the fouling removers of the day, especially US military, contained ammonia and would etch out a barrel overnight under the wrong conditions.

It's true that the old barrels are softer but they're still steel. I hardly think a few hundred rounds of jackets will noticeably wear any steel barrel that gets cleaned properly. But that's just JMO and I, too, would not use jackets in a really rare or exceptionally valuable rifle barrel.
Good luck, Joe

Slumlord. In my opinion with no shouting or insult intended you are taking a chance that cannot be undone. The 44 1/2 was introduced in the time when the industry was going from some very soft and mild steel barrels to tougher alloy steels. No way that I know of to determine when your Rifle was built. Does not take a lot of time or effort to pull Bullets with an inertia puller and resize and reload with lead. There just are not enough of these fine old rifles to go around.
Just my opinion. Regards, FITZ