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!

(You need to Login or Register to view media files and links)

(You need to Login or Register to view media files and links)

(You need to Login or Register to view media files and links)

(You need to Login or Register to view media files and links)

(You need to Login or Register to view media files and links)

(You need to Login or Register to view media files and links)

(You need to Login or Register to view media files and links)

(You need to Login or Register to view media files and links)

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 ...

(You need to Login or Register to view media files and links)

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!

The record is long run on BP Turkeys, shot by Eric Stevens at Shippensburg, Pa silhouette range, with Barry Harmon spotting. They held up the match so he could go for a long run record. I was there that day, and if memory serves he shot 34 turkeys in a row (at 385 meters). He shot with iron sights, using a CPA rifle. The last few hits were a bit shaky because he was running out of ammo and was down to his chicken loads.

Eric's record was with the 40/50 Bottleneck cartridge. Either one will shoot with the proper loads and technique. It is a good cartridge for a youth or lady or a shooter with neck or shoulder problems. Heck, its a good cartridge for anyone.

That running out of ammo reminds me of shooting the Quigley Bucket offhand at 500 yards. The target was the size of a 5 gallon bucket.  I only had 3 shells left and they were foulers; 2 of one loading and one of another. I told my spotter to watch close on the first shot because it may hit off my point of aim.  Got lucky and hit the bucket    Got a second hit out of the 3 shots.  We shot that for several years at Ravensdale and Tacoma.  Only time anyone hit it twice in 3 shots    Luck trumps skill ever time 

Wonderful Rem-Hepburn, Al!

Do you believe you will have any worrisome excess headspace using reformed .303 brass?

When I reformed some .303 brass (and some .30-40K brass) for my .40 2 1/2" Hepburn years ago....I could hear the cases rattling in the chamber when I shook the rifle hard back and forth. The primers also sat a bit "proud" after firing. Tapping the rims forward a bit solved that problem, and I lived with that until BACO began offering "stretched" Krag cases of the proper length. They also swaged the rims somehow to proper thickness.

My R.-Hepburn example is an early one with 3-digit SN.

marlinguy wrote on Sep 27^th, 2018 at 11:49am:


You assumed something incorrectly. Cases that had been fired many times rattled and showed "proud" primers. That's when I decided to bend the case rims forward a bit to take up more space in the rim cut of the chamber.

When that Hepburn came to me in ~1977.....Hornady .405 Win. brass did not exist. Initially, I had to use a small batch of ancient .40-70 UMC brass that came with the rifle, and when that stuff wore out, I had to "make-do" with formed .303 and .30-40 cases. Even though they are too short, they worked satisfactorily for several decades........and we do what we have to do to keep the old rifles shooting. The BACO "stretched and rim-swaged" Krag cases have worked perfectly for my Rem-Hep ever since they became available. Besides that, the "stretching" thins the necks enough for me to be able to seat the proper size grooved bullet without thinning the inside of the necks. I've tried a few of the .405 Hornady cases....and the necks are too thick to do that. I'm not interested in fooling with paper patch bullets in this rifle.

I didn't have any issue with cases rattling once they were fire formed, as they expanded to fit well. But being so short I didn't want to use them. 
I started using .405 Win. brass and outside turned case necks, as I didn't like inside turning myself. Once fire formed the necks expanded out and bullets worked fine as fixed grease groove bullets.
I went to Hornady as soon as they became available as the cost was cheaper, and they were plentiful. I also share the .405 Hornady brass amongst several Ballard rifles and the Hepburn, as the .405 brass works well for the .40-63/.40-70 Ballard also. Unfortunately it appears Hornady has dropped the .405 from their lineup and I hope I have enough brass purchased to ensure I'm good for some time! Hate to have to start scrounging again at this point in life!

My brother in law is out from Manitoba and staying with us for a visit and I always take him out for a range day when he is in town, so yesterday we spent the day up at one of my local ranges and I let him shoot several hundred rounds in a variety of rifles.  While he was shooting I fire formed another 70 or so rounds of .40-50 SS in the Remington Hepburn.  I fired up my RCBS bottom pour pot a few days ago and finally cast a batch of 300 grain RCBS CSA bullets so now I need to make a bunch of test loads since I have about 120 formed cases.  The project continues ...

I did get the Hepburn out to the range, but only got a chance to zero it before the weather turned sour.  The wind got ugly and it started to rain off and on which is not good weather for shooting groups!  I was zeroing at 50 yards to start and then planned to take it to 100 and test 3 different loads; it's looking promising so far.  If the weather improves this week I'll try to get out again ...

(You need to Login or Register to view media files and links)