Old pic from antique loading manual, lots here…

Stumbling upon old adds or articles can tender all sorts of wild and fanciful projects. I’m looking for unique toys to wow and share with friends at the CSSA shoot coming up next month in Clarksville, AR. Some great folks to share odd things and display my Reeder customs. It’s just a fun kick to me, note people’s reactions.

The .38-40 Win., an almost forgotten caliber. Starline usually makes a batch every couple years. It can also easily be made from resizing .44-40 brass to take 10mm projectiles. You can make jacketed bullets by lightly lubricating .41 magnum bullets, and using a single stage press, push through a LEE .401 sizer. It works. I have a custom Reeder OM Ruger, a Herters .401 Powermag with Reeder built cylinder, and just bought an antique 1873 rifle in the caliber. It uses any 10mm projectile quite effectively. Bunches of old New Services, SAA, and Bisley. Italians have produced quite a few SA and lever guns for it.

The .401 WSL, one of those strange guns you may pass by at a gun show. Know about, but little interest. They had a whole line beginning in 1905, first a semi-auto version of the .32-20 .(.32 WSL) and .38 Special +P (.35 WSL). Really earth shattering in 1905. 1907 they reworked it into the .351 WSL (.357 Maximum performance) and 1910 the .401 WSL was introduced. It made for a very handy hard hitting carbine. The .351 1907 rifle was popular with law enforcement all the way to 1957. Both the .351 and .401 saw military service in France. Observation balloonist used them for the good firepower and ease of handling in a tight gondola. A 250 gr. bullet at 2000 fps is not far behind the .444 Marlin that came 60 yrs. later! The modern “.400 Legend” is almost a copy of the old .401 either by cunning design, or a totally ignorant accident. The latter would not surprise me at all. I have a nice shooter 1910 Winchester .401 from the 1920’s. I’ve made shootable brass from .41 Remington, .414 Supermag, and 7.62x39. The 6.8 Remington, .30, and .35 Remington brass also can be modified. The .400 legend is a true 10mm so bullets are easy. On the old .401 I use cast oversized .410” bullets, in lieu of the correct .408” sizer.

History does repeat. It can be fun, but know where we’ve been, and come from.

Gary has the .401 GNR that is made using the .44 Mag. case. A truly modern .38-40 in spirit, really high stepping with 200 gr. 10mm bullets and H110.

Perfect brass were formed from rare .414 Supermag Starline cases.

A bit laborsome, two lathe operations are required. Batch making it’s not bad to hear a 100 yr. old hunting rifle go bang again. The blow-back action does not allow a lot of flexibility in loads but it’s easy on the brass.