I have been offered a Remington Hepburn in .30-40 Krag.  It has a Remington-marked barrel, 30 inches long with a bubble level front sight.  The top of the barrel is roll marked with "Remington Arms, Ilion N.Y. USA"   The caliber is marked on the underside with a hand stamp simply "30.40 ".  As roll marking is impossible to do without the machine and dies, I know that the barrel is legitimate.  But an acquaintance told me that all smokeless powder Hepburns were blued and this action has traces of color casehardening on it.   How, other than the finish, can I identify this action as smokeless powder?  The serial number is about 7500, which would be late in the Hepburn production history, I have been told.  This rifle has a shotgun butt and very nice wood with checkering.   The barrel only has a front sight mounted. There is no provision for a rear sight on the barrel.  The rifle does not have a rear sight, but there are filled holes on the heel of the stock where a back position sight was mounted at one time.  I have a line on a Lyman tang sight that came off a Hepburn so I will be able to shoot the gun should I acquire it.   The price is pretty high, but I am willing to pay it if I can determine that this is a smokeless powder Hepburn.   What should I look for on the action to determine that?   I can't post photos now, but I will do that here once I acquire the rifle.   

Also, if smokeless powder Hepburns are as rare as I have been lead to believe, what is a fair price to pay for this gun?  The bluing on the barrel and the wood finish are in very high condition. The action has some pitting on the top and is a mixture of brown with some casehardening in places.  The bore is perfect.  It  seems to me that the gun may have been rebarreled by Remington at some point. 

Thanks.

Allan

One basic thing you can do is take off the forearm and see if the barrel has a matching serial number. This will at least tell you that the frame was originally configured for a smokeless powder cartridge.

John Gross

You might want to look at J. J. Grant's book Single-Shot Rifles. 

Grant quotes from the Remington catalog that "The continued demand for our single-shot No. 3 rifle for high-power ammunition has induced us to adapt this celebrated rifle to the high pressure cartridges by substituting the improved breechblock, using the necessary small firing pin and special Ordinance steel barrel."

Grant goes on to say that the rifle was made with round ordinance steel barrels, with a rifle butt plate, case-hardened frame and mountings, open hunting sights, and checkered pistol-grip walnut stock. Barrel lengths were 26" (standard), 28" , and 30 inches. Available cartridges were 30/30, 30/40, 32 Special HP, 32/40 HP, 38/55 HP, 38/72. 
Weight: 8 lbs, Price: $20

Extras: Double-set triggers to order $3.50, Shotgun butt to order $2.00

The Lyman tang sight for the Hepburn chambered for 30/40 should have an R code stamped into the underside of the sight base.

As for price, your guess is as good as mine.   

That is a very nice rifle and I enjoyed looking at your photobucket photos.

J.Louis

Very nice rifle. I was obviously incorrect. Never heard of an origional Hepburn in smokeless calibers. Thanks for putting me straight. Learned something. Sounds like firing pin diameter might tell the story. 
Chuck

I was told on another site that this is  a Hi-Power model, apparently only available in .30-40 Krag, and pretty rare indeed.

The one thing that stands out on that Hepburn is the need for you to trade me that stock for my similar stock with crescent buttplate.
Very nice rifle. Per Grant's book, you will want to check that the firing pin is, indeed, the smaller one with the matching hole for the high pressure loads if you are going to be shooting anything above 1500fps, or so. If you've not taken a Hepburn apart, they are one of the more simple designs to take apart and put back together. Looking forward to getting my Hepburn in 40-65 finished (being engraved and case-hardened and a shotgun buttplate stock) for the coming silhouette/mid-range target season.