BLACK POWDER
Author Mike Nesbitt takes a shot while kneeling in the timber, and it was a hit.
production of the ’66 kept climbing because the ’73s got off to a slow start. While the ’73 is referred to as “the rifle that won the West,” if a cowboy or buffalo skinner wanted a repeating rifle before 1876, it would most likely have been a ’66 rather than a ’73. Sales of the 1866 rifles continued until 1898, although very slowly in those later years, and total production of the ’66 came to just over 170,000. WHILE I DID mention how I appreciate authenticity, we can’t overlook the fact that new versions of the ’66 are made in .44-40, plus a few other calibers. Personally, I’d love it if the new copies of this famous rifle were made in .44 Henry rimfire caliber, providing that new ammo could also be made available. But we can’t expect that to happen. And I did consider finding one of these new rifles in .44 Special caliber, mainly because I would load and shoot it with black powder loads 108
American Shooting Journal // June 2022
in .44 Colt cases, which would be fairly close to the old .44 Henry loading. That loading used 28 grains of black powder under the 200-grain pointed or flat bullet. However, getting the Short Rifle in .44-40 was a good opportunity for me and it does please me. The load I favor for my .44-40 rifles uses 34½ grains of GOEX Olde Eynsford 2F powder. (Perhaps this is a good time to mention that GOEX was acquired this January by Estes Energetics, which says that neither production nor delivery of their black powder will be interrupted.) That much powder requires compression when loading and I’ll admit that I compress the powder charge simply when seating the bullets. Doing so does not deform the bullets in this case, but handloaders must be careful while seating bullets over noncompressed charges of black powder because deformed bullets are often the result. The 34½-grain loading under
The Model 1866 Short Rifle comes with a 20-inch barrel.
