Well, it just got odder. All these months I have been happily shooting 445 Super Mag brass in spite of it being undersized in the head and generally loose in the chamber but being accurate because of having the bullet out to the rifling. Sure, I get a little blow by in the high forehead coming out of the slot for the rimfire pin but not really a problem. But, I still wondered what Wesson was thinking in doing the oversized chamber and undersized bore for what I was assuming was supposed to be a 44 Wesson Extra Long (mainly because of the 1.6 inch chamber length). Then the lightning struck. I had just gotten a copy of The Handloader's Manual of Cartridge Conversions and was flipping through it when I happened to stop on a page that had the 44-40 Extra Long. It was 1.6 inches long and the correct head size for the chamber and a bullet diameter much closer to my barrel. It looks like a 44-40 with a longer distance to shoulder and a longer neck, What the heck, I took a loaded 44-40 (no I wasn't going to shoot it!) and it just dropped in the chamber. Shazam! OK, now to prove it. My WalMart was fresh out of 44-40 Extra Longs so I was going to have to make some. The Manual said take 444 Marlin brass, cut it to 1.6 inches, full length size it and trim to length. Burntwater came to my aid and answered my plea for a couple of 444 Marlin cases. I made a jig for my mini chop saw and cut them to 1.6 inches, lubed them up, gave then a touch of a 44-40 WCF seating die to get the mouth tapered just enough to get them in a 44-40 WCF sizing die (anyone ever run across a 44-40 Extra Long sizing die?) with the decapper removed and gradually ran them all the way home backing out and resmearing the lube along the way. So at this point I had a 44-40 with a really long neck. Now, the first real test. They dropped right in the chamber. The next real test will be to fire them and see what they come out like - of course, that should be looking like the chamber cast. Looks like Frank Wesson made a rifle for the then new 44-40 Extra Long. Actually, COW has a shadowy image and says they exist but no one is sure what rifle ever used them. I know of one! To be continued in the reloading section.

That’s a good tale, and I hope you will share photos of some completed cases and loaded rounds. The rifle itself is quite quirky and interesting, and the .44-40 XL chambering makes it even more so!

While my rifle is definitely chambered in 44-40 (Extra) Long now, I'm becoming convinced that it did not leave the factory that way but met that reamer sometime in the distant past. For one thing, the rifle is RF/CF convertible and there was never an RF equivalent for the 44-40 XL. So, what was it back in its youth? Wesson 44s used bullets that were really 44s (not like the 44-40 and our modern 44s which use .427 or so). My barrel (which is original other than the chamber) is in the low to mid 42s. That brings us to a very rare Wesson cartridge, the 40-40 Wesson. There is a gentleman on this site who actually has a 2-trigger Wesson in 40-40 Wesson. Now, in spite of the "40", the 40-40 Wesson uses bullets in the low 42s and because of its case diameter and 1.6 inch length could shoot most any of the low powered 44 RFs like 44 Henry. If a guy had a 40-40 Wesson and ammo was no longer available or wanted something with a little more oomph he would need something with a case that would at least equal the 1.6 inch length to clean up the chamber and that would use the 42's barrel. That didn't leave much choice except the 44-40 XL and that is my current theory and one I think is fortunate because now 44-40 XL brass is a lot easier to make than 40-40 Wesson;-)

John, there are 2 threads: the original Feeding the Wesson 44 Extra Long (You need to Login or Register to view media files and links) and Feeding the 44-40 Extra Long (You need to Login or Register to view media files and links).

After reading William Curry's excellent article on the 38-40/44-40 in the current Black Powder News, I was able to contact him and I think he has solved the 44-40 XL mystery. So the rifle was originally a 44 Wesson XL (which makes perfect sense with the RF/CF capability of the type 4 Wesson and the .419 barrel). Eventually the owner was unable to get any more of that ammo and had a 44-40 reamer run into the chamber. Now he could use 44-40 XL ammo/brass which when passed away as such opened up the use of 5 in 1 brass resized in 44-40 dies. Presto, the short cut to what I'm doing now. Thank you, Bill!