Careful owning strange rounds is bound to lead to owning strange guns..... but I do like show and tell .

 

I've passed over some nice firearms because they were in obsolete rimfire calibers. A few months ago my LGS contacted me about a Stevens single shot rifle, heavy octagonal barrel, nickel plated receiver, butt plate and trigger guard, tang sight. The bore is perfect, trigger is light. There are a lot of good old firearms needing ammo.

Contacting Navy Arms with your wants/needs can't hurt.

 

Is that .32 S&W Long, Long Colt or .32 long rimfire? Rimfire you are screwed. The S&W is easy to find but Long Colt is not and they are not interchangeable. Brass, bullets and dies are available for the Long Colt if you reload. You could set up for simple loading for about $250 or less which is about 3 boxes of ammo at current prices.
Interesting article with possibilities and information if you have the rimfire.
https://www.ammoland.com/2017/12/32-rimfire-obsolete-round/#axzz582HeLb8c

 

My post was pretty specific in that I was talking about rimfire ammo. Navy Arms has in the past sold obsolete rimfire ammo, they brought in ammo from a Brazilian source. The Navy Arms rep said that they would soon be bringing in rimfire ammo from that Brazilian source. It might be worthwhile to contact Navy Arms with your wants, it might encourage them to get the ammo made.

 

44RF but you can get around it with a case that used a shotgun primer offset.

 

Is 44 rimfire for original Henrys and 1866 Winchesters one of the calibers? They had some made in the past a couple times. A friend has an original Henry rifle thats been in the family a long time that hed like to shoot.

I understand theres sort of cobbled up ways to make the guns fire, but its not like having actual correct functioning ammo.

 

not that hard to make it the 44 henry center fire flat, that was lengthened into the 44 colt.

Rimfire is not actually obsolete but its got limitations and the sad part is, making a rifle in a military rimfire caliber that can knock a deer down, is not on the drawing board when they can assemble guns for 50 dollars and sell them for 150$ to distributors

you can BUILD your own, but a lack of chamber reamers may be at issue, and I don't think some of the gun companies would understand a request for a barrel l

 

Appreciate the "heads up!"

 

rimfire stepchildren

I am hooked on old Stevens 44's and a few Favorite 1915's. Have had to pass on several .25 rimfires that were in great shape except for the weird caliber.
I would pick one up in a minute if ammo was available.
Rimfire ammo is far from dead as we look at the various .17's that have surfaced successfully.

Hang in there,

 

If you want to actually shoot old obsolete firearms, I suggest you look into black powder cartridges or muzzle loaders. Even my black powder (cartridge) friends, with their obsolete firearms have the option to make their own ammunition. At my local gun club, I can hear them laughing and kidding each other as they try to hit the broad side of a barn with their (not particularly accurate) guns.

I suggest you have those firearms that are in obsolete rimfire cartridges mounted for display and put them in a case over your fireplace mantle for all to admire. Then spend your money on firearms and equipment for reloading current small bore smokless centerfire cartridges or black powder. This approach will give you inexpensive, highly accurate ammunition. You will also be developing skills. Who does not like developing skills?

Thought I still own two rimfire rifles (22LR and 22WMR), I have found far greater satisfaction in building super accurate cartridges (204 Ruger, 218 Bee, 222 Rem. and 223 Rem.) on my dining room table (while looking out the window at the falling snow) than I ever experienced in testing different brands of rimfire ammunition. I cannot imagine buying a rimfire firearm (except as a collectable) for which no ammunition is commercially available. If It wasn't for the lack of ammunition options, I would probably have at least one rimfire rifle in 5 mm.

 

Giving up on the old firearms is not the point of this post. A distributer is willing to have obsolete cartridges made, why can't you support that rather that come up with reasons to do something unrelated to this post?

 

5mm rimfire (5mm Remington) is available, Midway, Graf's & Midsouth all have offered it over the past few years. Not sure if it's coming from Mexico or Brazil, but at least the Remington rifles are still shootable, and the bullet construction is better as is the accuracy now.
There's a downside to rimfire, at least for large, high intensity calibers, in that the drawing procedure makes for a weak spot in the rims, where it really needs it's highest strength !
I helped a friend make cases for an old .56 caliber Spencer repeater, time consuming, but it is now shootable. The turned brass cases are themselves chambered for .22 short blanks, positioned to be struck & fired. Only drawback is that one must be precise in orientation when loading the magazine, as there's not a lot of leeway. But his Civil-War relic is now a fun plinker....at 50 yds. even I can see the holes in paper.:bthumb:

uncle albert

 

I helped a friend make cases for an old .56 caliber Spencer repeater, time consuming, but it is now shootable. The turned brass cases are themselves chambered for .22 short blanks, positioned to be struck & fired. Only drawback is that one must be precise in orientation when loading the magazine, as there's not a lot of leeway. But his Civil-War relic is now a fun plinker....at 50 yds. even I can see the holes in paper.:bthumb:

uncle albert

Unfortunately, that doesnt work well in the Henrys and 1866s, they have twin firing pins. Theres ways to do it, like notching the opposite side of the adapter shell, but its not anywhere near as nice as having workable ammo.

I doubt anyone is going to shoot the old guns much, being they tend to sell for $30k and up I believe, but just being able to makes them much more interesting. I doubt my friend would be interested in a cobbled up method just to fire it. Ammo, even if pricey, would be. He said hed be in for a box or two when he showed me the gun and I told him 44 rimfire ammo had been made in the semi-recent past. I havent seen any at shows or online or anything since then.

 

I have some 4mm rimfire rounds but lack a gun. This is frustrating.

 

Main component of no ammunition is that companies don't want to hurt the bottom line.

If Federal can make 70,000$ of pure profit from the ammunition made on a single production machine for say 9mm or .223 or .308 hunting ammunition, they aren't going to shut that line down for a day to retool, nor spend money on tooling, to make low demand items like 44 henry.

if it costs you a loss of 70,000 to stop the current production item on that machine for a single day, plus perhaps 30,000 for tooling and setup cost, plus extra cost of components and black powder, you could easily be looking at needing to run that machine for a solid week to break EVEN.

 

Just wanted to see if my new badges show up. I'm dumping my old gun club because they think everyone should be required to give a reason why they want to purchase a firearm. Welcome NRA.

 

you need a reason to buy a gun? wow that's a new one for me.

Would "I didn't have one for Monday morning or afternoon shooting?" be sufficient reason?

 

Wow - sounds like that range needs to go out of business and become a storage repository for farm waste (of the bull variety).

John

 

It's an organizationlike the NRA. I joined several like clubs at the same time just to give a little support to as many 2nd Amendment as I could afford. I really didn't think about anyone's credibility. This one actually sounds like an anti organization.

 

It would be beyond outstanding if they would make or find some shootable Swiss Vetterli 10.4mmX38 rimfire ammo. THe rifles are asy to convert for centerfire, but with the original it would be interesting.

They too used a Winchester 1866 style lifter and firing pin (and admitted it! :bthumb:

.

 

Contact Navy Army with your wants, if no one gives them an idea that the ammo would sell they have no impetus to have it produced.

 

I was curious about this, as I'm wanting more .32 rimfire for my late grandfather's Stevens Favorite 1915. I contacted Navy Arms via Facebook's Messenger. Below is a screenshot of the very limited conversation.

 

I was curious about this, as I'm wanting more .32 rimfire for my late grandfather's Stevens Favorite 1915. I contacted Navy Arms via Facebook's Messenger. Below is a screenshot of the very limited conversation.

View attachment 143690

Patience is a virtue.