44-90 & 44-100

[charlielima]

looking for info on 44-90 Remington Special (44- 2 7/16 BN) and 44-100 Straight. tried search & nothing was found. Primarily looking for: date Remington started building Rolling Block Sporters in these two calibers.
Thanks,
CL

[oldremguy]

Remington started to made sporting rifles for the 44-90 Remington Special in 1874 and the 44-100 Straight in 1880. Hope that helps you out.

Have a good day,
Matt

[charlielima]

Remington started to made sporting rifles for the 44-90 Remington Special in 1874 and the 44-100 Straight in 1880. Hope that helps you out.

Have a good day,
Matt

Thank you sir, that is exactly what I was trying to find out. now i know which caliber my next rebuild will be.

[roundtop]

Both calibers are primarily only found in long range target rifles. The 44-100 straight in the Hepburn. In 40 years of research I have found 1 benchrest rolling block rifle in each caliber. The 44-100 straight rb may not have been original. The 44 2 7/16 rb was recently auctioned off as a buffalo rifle. The vernier rear and windguage front sights were taken off by a collector in California several years ago. The butt stock was also modified. This is not to say they did not make any. I have only handled some few over 1000 sporters and target rifles so there are still lots out there to look at.

[charlielima]

Thanks for the further info. Where I am going with this is having a "donator" action rebarreled with a 34" tapered octagon barrel, "rough & ready" rear sight and either a beach or tube & post front sight. Kinda a cross between a sporter & a target rifle. want to stay with a Remington cartridge that was around during the 1870's. Since I already have a rebarreled RB in 44-77 & want to stay with a Remington caliber the 44-90 will be it.
From what I can gather, Remington was like Sharps during this era in that they would build pretty much what you wanted if you wanted to pay for it. Since most all of the 44 caliber & up (Remington did not recommend anything smaller than the 44-77 for Buffalo) Sharps cartridges were a little long to be easily chambered quickly ( got to get around the hammer nose) I'm kinda telling myself that an old hunter that wanted a little more poop than the 44-77 & did not want to go to .50 Govt. (guvmint?) the 44-90 would have been the logical choice. At least that is my story (fantasy?) & I'm sticken to it (at least for now).

[roundtop]

I have a military long range that was originally a 44-77. Someone rechambered it to 44-90 Sharps, 2 5/8" case. They had to dish out the top of the hammer nose to get the longer case in the chamber. You might have this problem also.

[charlielima]

I have a military long range that was originally a 44-77. Someone rechambered it to 44-90 Sharps, 2 5/8" case. They had to dish out the top of the hammer nose to get the longer case in the chamber. You might have this problem also.

As I stated earlier, that is why Remington made their "Special" with a shorter, fatter case. By using the Remington 44-90 rather than the Sharps version I wont have to modify the hammer nose.

[oldremguy]

I have a Model C, Creedmoor Military stocked rolling block target rifle that is chambered in 44-90 Sharps. The hammer is not dish out at the nose and there is no problem feeding a cartridge into the chamber. At first I thought that the rifle was chambered in 44-90 (2-1/4") or the 44-90 (2-7/16") cartridge, but after doing a chamber casing the length to the shoulder matched the 44-90 (2-5/8") sharps cartridge. To see if the hammer face was modified to let the rim of the cartridge side by the hammer, I took the hammer out of the gun and replaced it with a hammer from your average millitary rolling block rifle, put it in the gun and had no problem feeding a round into the chamber.

Doc1.jpg (58.21 KiB) Viewed 9393 times

In the photo below is the 44-90 (2-1/4") next to the 44-90 (2-5/8") cartridge so you can see the differents in the length of the two rounds.
Also the photos show the 44-90 sharps round being placed into the chamber.

Doc2_Page_1.jpg (56.95 KiB) Viewed 9393 times

Doc2_Page_2.jpg (62.45 KiB) Viewed 9393 times

Don't know if this helps any or just adds fuel to the fire.

Have a good day,
Matt

[charlielima]

don't know about fueling the fire but itsure gives me somethingto consider.
Thank you.
CL

[Yellowhouse]

Charlie, anytime you think the 44-77 might be short on power just load up with 90 gr of BP pushing a 420 gr PPB. Its easily done. And hold on to your hat!.

And if Remington had recommened loading the 40-70 with 370 gr bullet as per the 40-90 Sharps and increased powder charges they might have had a different outlook. This caliber is no pansy either when properly loaded and it will hold more than 70 gr when loaded with the PP.

[charlielima]

Charlie, anytime you think the 44-77 might be short on power just load up with 90 gr of BP pushing a 420 gr PPB. Its easily done. And hold on to your hat!.

And if Remington had recommened loading the 40-70 with 370 gr bullet as per the 40-90 Sharps and increased powder charges they might have had a different outlook. This caliber is no pansy either when properly loaded and it will hold more than 70 gr when loaded with the PP.

No doubts about the power of the 44-77. My rebuilt version ( Loner Star) was done with a fast twist ( Iwas/am too dumb to ask first) barrel. It wont shoot bullets of original length or weight worth a darn, but I am shooting a 470 grain paper patch bullet with 77 grains of GOEX Fg "EXPRESS". Haven't got to hunt anything with it yet but I have no doubts of it's effectiveness on anything I may find in this hemisphere.
I wanted a 44-90 just to add to the fun. (see comments on my 1879 Argentine).
CL