Winchester 1892 44-40

[HGunner]

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I am interested in deer hunting with my original Win 92 in 44-40.  It is in very good working condition with slight bore roughness (good, well defined rifling).  I have found it to be very accurate with Black Hills cowboy ammo. I slugged the bore and measured the groove diameter at .429.  I would like to load jacketed 200 grain bullets.  I have Speer 210 grain Gold dots that mic .430 and 200 grain XTPs that mic .430.  I can get Win 200 jsp that measure .427 and Nosler 200 jsp that measure .429  What jacketed bullet size is optimal for this groove diameter?  Which of these would you recommend?  If you have a safe hunting load you'd like to share that would be great!
Thanks,
HGunner
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[eastbank]

i only shoot lead bullets in my 44-40,s,i own four right now. the load is 10 grs unique with a 200gr lead bullet. i have killed two deer and a turkey with that load along with alot of paper. eastbank.

[HGunner]

I'll end up shooting some cast bullets too but I'm hoping someone can give me some advice about loading jacketed bullets for this carbine.


I am glad to know that you've deer hunted successfully with your 44-40.


Thanks,
HGunner

[Reed1911]

You can certainly load up jacketed bullets, proper size would be .001" over groove. Here comes the big crapper on the 44-40, the pressure needed to drive the bullets to a velocity where they will expand is higher than you should be going with the .44-40 so all you will do is limit yourself to a .430" hole and more expensive bullets. You are well ahead to use a middlin' hardness lead 10-11 and take the bit of expansion you will get from that rather than jack the pressure up enough to get the speed you need to expand the jacketed .44 cal bullets.

[Lloyd Smale]

good stout press and a lee push through sizer and some good lube and you can size down any existing 44 jacketed bullet. if you run into to much resistance buy two dies and do it in steps.

[calvon]

Get a mold that will make a wide flat meplat and you needn't worry about expansion. The big meplat makes a big hole and kills quickly. I use LBT Wide Flat Nose molds altogether in all my cast bullets.