First off I have to extend my sincere thanks to Terry (shovel80) for allowing me to become the new curator of this wonderful piece of shooting history.  I've been liquidating a few duplicate and project guns (mostly Winchester lever actions) and replacing them with a few single shot rifles, which have always been my favorites.  I didn't have a Hepburn action rifle yet and when Terry posted this one for sale I contacted him ASAP.  It took a bit of extra effort and patience to get this rifle up across the border to me, but it was definitely worth the trouble and again my thanks to Terry for agreeing to the cross border sale and everything that it entailed.  I'm in the process of shortening and fire-forming some .303 British cases to use in it and if our local weather will cool down a bit then I can cast some sample bullets to test it out.  I just happened to have a spare Unertl 15 power scope to drop onto the supplied bases and that will help with the load testing since my blurry old eyes just aren't what they use to be!

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While I am glad for you, I am turning green. I never got to own a Hepburn and it looks like I never will. I have a 40-60 heavr barrle rifle but it is no Hepburn. I also use 303 British cases but I don't have to shorten mine. I do have one of those 1 inch Unertl scopes but I rarely use it. Again, that is a very nice rifle. It is also great that it came down thru the years in such good shape.

Finally got up to the range today with a few rifles (and to host a friend and his 16 year old grandson for a day of shooting) and I fire-formed 10 test loads made from shortened Winchester .303 British cases.  They blew out fairly well, but they are not 100% yet, so I'll up the load another grain or a grain and a half of powder and test a few more.  (For these loads I used 7.5 grains of Nitro Trap 100, a 1/4 sheet of toilet tissue, bulk yellow cornmeal up to the case mouth, and then another 1/4 sheet of toilet tissue to hold it all in place.)  If a slightly heavier charge works better then I have another 150 or so rounds of Winchester .303 British brass that I can fire-form into a batch of "shooter" brass for this .40-50 SS.  Now if it will just cool down a bit I can cast some bullets for it ...

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Yup!

Your rifle has the large diameter (BP era) firing pin and I think Remington used old steam locomotive truck springs for main springs.

All mine are the same way....

Terrific rifle. Great 'belly' guns (prone) with the side lever. Have a few myself. 

Tell us about the barrel (#4?, twist, length?). Looks great, though I would wear a shoulder pad with that original buttplate. Especially prone.

The 40-50 is an excellent BPCR round with minimal recoil. In fact, one of the national BPCR records has been held since 2008 by someone who shot a 40-50SS. 

If that were my rifle I would polish off the tip on the firing pin a bit until it wasn't hitting so deep. Mine do not and I've never suffered a misfire in ~15,000rds (40-65, 38-50 & 35-40).

SSShooter wrote on Sep 5^th, 2018 at 6:51pm:


What record it that?

It is actually 3 records held by my son since 2009 as an intermediate junior and junior shooter in BPCR silhouette. He actually shot several Master scores in monthly matches that are higher than the records he holds. Only scores in registered matches are recognized for records.

Deadeye Bly wrote on Sep 6^th, 2018 at 8:19pm:

Congrats to him!