My .44-100 Rem St.

[Kurt]

Gary.

First a little background for me building this rifle.
I went to a collectors show and I saw two original rifles that caught my eyes. One was a #1 long range rifle in the .44-2-5/8 BN and the second rifle was a Hepburn .44-100 Rem. St. Both rifles where in a wood case with palm breach seating tools and heal sights plus loading tools but way out of my reach in price, $35 K for the Hep and $53K for the sharps I spent some time talking to the man about these rifles and the paper work he had for these rifles and I told him that I had a couple Shiloh's chambered in the .44-2-5/8. He asked me if I had some cases for the .44 bn I could share so he had some for display and I said sure I can send you a few. I also asked if he would make a chamber cast for both rifles and I would send along some cerrosafe for the casts he said be glad to do that for you. Well it took two years before I got the chamber casts with out asking because I did not expect him to make a cast anyway. I had PTG make the reamers. The only thing I changed on the Rem chamber was the bore diameter, the Rem is more of a true .45 caliber then a .44. The bore was .445 with a three thousands deep groove and the ROT was a 17.5 in the HEP. He said that twist was a little unusual. The chamber had a very flat funnel lead into the throat that was 3.5 to 4 degrees as near as Jim could measure it so I told him make it a 4/1.2 degree compound transition.
I asked Kirk at Shiloh if he could make the .44 in a 1/17 ROT and he said no I just make them 1/19 so I asked if he would mount a Krieger 17 twist on the action and he said no problem. I had a .38/.446 Bore groove barrel made 1.3 straight round 35" for a finished length to be a Tollofson rifle and I sent him the reamer and he got the work done.
The rifle shoots quite well but I don't like the extra weight to drag around and when it's in the gun cart, the cart tips over backwards unless I have a couple ammo boxes in the front to add some weight but it still has a tendency to tip back and drive the muzzle in the dirt.


This is what the rifle will shoot. I worked up several loads using Swiss, KIK and OE powder and it shot all three powders well. These targets where shot close at 135 yards with a MVA scope on the rifle. At 200 yards I have several 1.5" 10 shot groups using it.
I use two bullets in this rifle. One is a 1.464" long 503 gr elliptical and the other is a 1.455" long 477 gr prolate from Steve Brooks.
Some day I will screw that barrel off and turn it down. I left the barrel in the white thinking it would reflect some of the sun heat to keep it cooler.