Photos & Story
by R.K. Campbell
Contributing Editor

Not long ago I heard of an event that surprised me. At various trade shows, a single-action revolver was mounted in a special machine and cycled on the order of 40,000 times. That is, the hammer was cocked and the trigger released 40,000 times, the equivalent of 800 boxes of ammunition. This was unheard of for a single-action revolver based on the Colt Single Action Army design. The heavy and strong Ruger revolver was tested in this manner many years ago, but we have regarded pistols faithful to the original template far less sturdy.

The Ruger is a good, solid, modern revolver capable of taking the heaviest handgun loads, and a fine hunting revolver. But this great strength makes for a handgun that just doesn't feel like the Single Action Army (SAA). Over the years quite a bit of money has been spent attempting to make the Colt and its copies more rugged and to make the Ruger feel more like the Colt.

In the modern Uberti production, the revolver's lockwork has been changed in certain particulars. The pistol is now more Ruger-like in the action, but retains the outward feel of the Colt. The gun is not safe for loads listed in the Ruger Only section of various handloading manuals! A further caution is that the majority of single-action replicas are safe when carried with five rounds only, so be certain to carry them in this historically correct manner with the hammer on an empty chamber.

Upon learning of the aforementioned test, I thought I would give house room to one of the types of revolvers involved. I contacted Navy Arms and in due course received in hand a single-action revolver in .44-40-caliber, with a 5-1/2 inch barrel.

It would prove of interest that this was my first experience with the .44-40-caliber. I had a bin of brass for the .45 Colt but none for the .44-40, but the gun was selling so well in the .45 Colt chambering the .45 was on backorder! Rather than wait, I settled for the .44-40. This would be one of the smartest moves I have made in recent months.

The Navy Arms pistol as delivered is termed the deluxe model. The barrel and cylinder are finished in a beautiful deep charcoal blue and the frame in color case-hardened splendor. The grip frame is of German nickel silver. The result is an eye catching revolver. It is SAA all the way, and handles and balances as well as any of the breed.

My initial appraisal showed the action was smooth, with the characteristic four-point cocking motion that is said to spell C-O-L-T. The sound is there for those that listen. A pleasant surprise was that the pistol is delivered with a sweet trigger. According to my ever-handy RCBS trigger pull gauge, trigger compression was 2.5 pounds. The trigger showed no trace of creep or backlash. The gun was so nice, frankly, I was loathe to fire it with sweaty hands, in the midst of a southern summer, but found that nickel silver does not tarnish.

The pistol was ordered with a 5-1/4inch barrel largely because I did not have much choice-sales were brisk and the "gunfighter" or 4-3/4 inch guns were back ordered. Again, I found that this was providence in action. I have quite a bit of experience with the 7-1/2 inch barrel SAA and the guns are accurate. The 4-3/4 inch guns clear leather quickly. The 5-1/2 inch barrel guns are accurate and fairly quick in handling, and may be the ideal barrel length. Perhaps I was swayed by an exceptional gun, but this is a fine shooting revolver.

Ammunition
Ammunition was not a problem. I turned to two well-known suppliers of the cartridge, Ultra Max and Black Hills. Both originally made their reputation as police suppliers and now are riding the tide of Cowboy Action. Once Starline brass offered .44-40 brass, it was a simple matter to tool up for the .44-40 and mass-produce this round at a reasonable price. These loads use a 205-grain bullet at about 750 feet-per-second (fps), plenty for good accuracy in Cowboy Action tournaments.

A few words on the .44-40 are called for. The original chambering of the SAA was the .45 Colt. The .44-40 cartridge came along with the Winchester 1873 lever-action rifle. The round is slightly bottlenecked for good feeding in the rifle action, looking much like a .45 case necked to .44-caliber. Simple convenience called for chambering the round in the Colt revolver. In those days, our ancestors took deer and bear with the .44-caliber rifle and did not need .300 Magnums.

The cartridge performed well, given good marksmanship. In the handgun, it shot a bit flatter than the .45 Colt and kicked less, becoming the second most popular chambering in the old war horse. Remember, the .44 Special was not chambered until after 1900. The .44 Special offers considerably more power in handloaded form than the .44-40, but that doesn't mean the .44-40 is an also ran. Far from it!

All Arounder
If the gun is an all arounder, as most of my handguns are, liable to be called upon for a myriad of tasks, the .45 Colt caliber is more powerful and more easily obtainable. It may well be prudent for those who purchase single-actions solely for Cowboy Action shooting to obtain a revolver in .38 Special or .357 Magnum. In a worse case scenario, if you travel across the country and misplace or lose your ammunition supply, you can make a run to the local Wal-Mart and pick up 10 boxes of .38 Special.

Perhaps the .45 Colt would be on the shelf, perhaps not, but the youngster behind the counter will never of heard of the .44-40. I enjoy the caliber very much. It is historically accurate and quite a round in its own right, being a moderately fast big bore cartridge. But, unless you are a handloader or willing to special order ammunition, this is not your caliber.

As time went on during the test, I also had the chance to fire a considerable quantity of custom, one-at-a-time loads from Lazy J. These loads use hard cast bullets and are carefully hand-assembled for maximum accuracy, and each case checked in a "go, no-go" gauge before packaging. I like that very much, and these loads proved to be worthy of the "custom" description.

Handloads
I also was able to assemble a number of handloads that showed the .44-40 would be a capable gun in the hunting field, at least for game in the coyote and fox class. The .44-40 responds well to the careful handloader. The case necks are a little thin according to most authorities, but I found the Starline brass I used much stronger in that regard than old production cases. Still, they have to taper and they are semi-bottlenecked, so caution is advised in handling these cases.

My first firing experience was pleasant. I took the Navy Arms revolver to an informal range in a copse of trees and began to work out the action with Ultramax Cowboy loads. I painted a white circle on a dead tree and moved back to 20 yards. I held the gun at my side and brought it up to eye level, firing as soon as the front sight broke the plane between my eyes and the target.

I was rewarded, upon examination, with five evenly spaced holes in the hard wood. The 5°-inch-barrel gun actually performs a bit better in speed shooting at longer range than the shorter guns; no surprise! For most of my wondering in the woods, I carried the pistol in a Murphy holster. This scabbard offers a balance between affordability and high quality and should prove popular with the Cowboy crowd or those like me who simply enjoy a quality single-action revolver.

Gunfighter
I took the time to do more deliberate shooting with the Gunfighter, picking off any number of pine combs and dirt clods. Recoil was mild and the pistol's point-of-aim to point-of-impact is perfectly regulated at moderate range. The pistol shot to point-of-aim on the horizontal plain, but 1-inch or so low.

The front sight is tall enough to file to bring up the point-of-impact, if desired. Numerous writers, this one included, have published articles on regulating the sights of single-action revolvers. Sometimes barrels have to be turned and the front sight bent. The modern crop is much better in this regard. The Navy Arms pistol seemed designed for the 205-grain Cowboy bullets and is fine as issued.

Overall, this is a revolver you cannot fire without a smile on your face. The gun proved free from binding of the cylinder due to powder fouling or buildup. The balance between accuracy and reliability is a good one; you can fire it hundreds of times without powder buildup causing a problem. This has not always been true of replica revolvers.

At a later date, I was able to take this revolver to the police club and take a more serious approach to accuracy testing. With a solid hold on the 25-yard barricade, I was able to place five rounds of the Black Hills load into a circle 1.5 inches wide. Some groups were larger, but one went under 1-inch. This is as good an average as I have qualified with any single-action revolver.

Bore Size Varies
What we have is a winner on all counts. For recreational shooting or Cowboy events, here is a revolver that will serve well, and the recent improvements in lockwork mean the gun will not be in the shop nearly as often.

I have often stated that my handguns are all arounders and should be capable of serving in personal defense and taking game. The Gunfighter from Navy Arms is an unlikely candidate for either, but could serve. I am especially interested in the challenge of taking medium game with the .44-40. The gun itself presents the first challenge.

The .44-40s vary widely in bore size, from .426 to .432, according to reports, and care in selecting components for handloading is dictated. Fortunately, most are bored for standard .429-inch .44 Special/Magnum bullets these days. In any case, Oregon Trail offers .44-40 flatpoints in either bore size, traditional .427 or modern .429, so finding a good load is not a problem.

I took to the task of assembling suitable .44-40 loads with interest. I could not have done it without an example of RCBS's new Cowboy dies, in .44-40. I was motivated by a story published in the Blue Press (Dillon Precision) of a man who killed an attacking bear with .44-40 handloads.

While he praised the reliability and quality of handloaded ammunition, by the same token I am certain he did not use weakly loaded ammunition-I think a bear may have shrugged off the Cowboy Action loads. As in most cases, Starline brass proved strong and up to the task of heavy loadings as I began my program.

I began slowly but found a number of standard loads, listed in several manuals, that gave excellent results. Even the starting loads are considerably more powerful than modern Cowboy loads. After taking stock of the best loads and weeks of experimentation, I think it is best I retain my .45 Colt and .44 Magnum loads for hunting. While it has been done, the .44-40 is on the light side for hunting medium game.

That does not mean the cartridge is not an outstanding small game and defense load, just as it has always been. The cartridge saw much service in the West with good reports. Chambered in Colt double-action Frontier pistols, the .44-40 went to war in Africa during the Boer War with Canadian units. By all accounts, it served well. Original loads jolted the 205-grain bullet to about 900 fps.

But most of all the .44-40 is a tremendous recreational shooter, a finely made revolver with a great deal of pride of ownership. As a pure Cowboy Action shooter, I seemed to detect an advantage in accuracy over the .45 Colt but much of this may be due to the fitting and crisp action of the particular example.

The .45 Colt is a more powerful cartridge but not one well-suited to efficient use of modern powders. The .44-40 is a superior cartridge when two of the three components of ballistics are considered. Internal ballistics are superior, as the cartridge makes more efficient use of powder and powder space and produces a more even and complete powder burn. Exterior ballistics are superior as the .44-40 shoots flatter with less time in the air than the .45 Colt. Only in wound potential is the .45 Colt superior and in some situations, well, that is the whole show!

Ammunition for the .44-40 is now inexpensive and plentiful, all we can ask for. As for me, I think that this revolver offers a wonderful link with the past, and a chance to own a high-end SAA clone at a reasonable price. That is something to write about.

I holstered this nice revolver in a Murphy Leather Mexican Loop holster for most of the test. This holster is designed to give Cowboy Action shooters a good value for their money, and it succeeds. The holster is well-crafted of quality materials and offered an excellent fit to the Gunfighter pistol. Speed of draw may not be as important to us as it was to Wyatt Earp or Bat Masterson, but this holster has it when needed. I suspect this one will be very popular with Cowboy shooters.

Gunslinger Rig
I received a Gunslinger rig from Tom Hancock. This is an attractive rig with a suede-lined holster and belt. This is as inexpensive a quality rig as you will find. It fit the Gunfighter's personality well. I am beginning to appreciate the nuances of Western holsters, and this is a good one. Worn low, with the hogleg tied down, I was ready for action. One of these two holsters will fit any preference.

In loading the .44-40 take care in handling ammunition-the case mouth is relatively thin and can cave in. We used all new Starline brass in our efforts, a tremendous resource for the Cowboy shooter. I am pretty certain every factory and custom round fired also used Starline brass.

An Oregon Trail 205-grain flatpoint bullet was used in all loads. These loads may not be suitable for original Colts and certainly should never be used in a blackpowder revolver. They were safe in the Navy Arms pistol, with no high pressure signs. Caution should be used in working up these loads, as SAA clones have varied considerably over the years.