Gentelmen, could use some advice
picked up a Hepburn and now I would like to shoot it a few times, well...just because. I have some .405 win brass that needs forming, too big in the head dia. though. Fire formed a 30-40 krag case but is is to short to pursue. Does the 40-70 sharps straight have the same case dimensions as Remington? Would like to know before I buy a FL sizer die. Right now all I have is a neck size die and  seater die. I have 3 original 40-70 2 1/2"rounds 1 is marked Ballard, only 1 chambers, so there must be more than 1 size for different guns?
thanks
kw

You might want to compare the 40-65 Remington Straight Central-fire case with the 40-70 Sharps Straight 2.5" case too.

will do a chamber cast today to confirm. assuming that it is a 40-70 ss. is there a better avaiable choice for a parent case to fire form than the 30-40 or the oversize .405?
kw

I hope someone has details on the .40-65 Rem. cartridge. I've never seen or heard of this one? I've seen a .40-65 Ballard, and the .40-65 Win. of course. Not a Rem. though. [/quote]

I'm pretty sure that 40-65 was what at least some of the time Remington was calling the 2.5" straight case that we currently call 40-70 SS. The Remingtons I have seen marked 40-70 have the 2-1/4 BN chamber. Also, thinking about it, I don't think I have seen a 2-1/4 BN in a Hepburn or a 2-1/2 straight in a Rolling Block. But I sure haven't seen them all. Now that I've said that, half the forum will have rifles to prove me wrong.

The 1899 Remington catalog shows the 40-65 Remington Straight Central-fire case chambered in the No. 3 Remington Sporting and Target Rifle, though it's not listed for the Remington No. 3 Match Rifle.
If you look in the UMC catalogs prior to 1910, you'll see listed the "Sharps & Rem. straight" cartridge having both the 40-65 and 40-70 designation - both loaded with either the "Patch" or "Grvd." 330gr bullet, and all four cartridge variations listed with a "Lgth. Shell." of "2 1/2".
Going back a bit further, the 1882 Remington catalog on page 42 lists the "40-65" grains "Straight" using the 330gr bullet and having a "Length of Shell" of "2 1/2" .
A long time ago, I stumbled across a UMC cartridge having the 40-65 headstamp - whose case length measured 2 1/2" long, topped off with the 330gr grooved bullet, and after getting back to the shop, the rest of the external measurements came up the same as the old standard 40-70 Sharps Straight case.

KFW, give Buffalo Arms a call and see if they still carry their stretched 30-40 Krag cases for the 40-70 SS.  They used to have it in 3 rim thicknesses.  Check your rim depth before ordering. I like it because the Krag case has a beveled rim and the Hepburn has zero camming ability.  Makes loading much easier.  Bob

I worked on a Hepburn about 1985. It was marked .40-2.5.

It had a paper patch chamber and needed .408 bullets
to fit the groove dia.

There was no .405 brass at the time but the owner used RWS 9.3X74R brass.
It was long enough but the chamber neck was so small the max neck thickness could only be .003.

To correct this the owner had me bore out the chamber .004 larger than a loaded round.

The enlarged chamber shot great.

Trivia
I looked through the bore while turning in the lathe.
It was so crooked the bore flopped around like a jump rope while the exterior ran true.