What is the difference between 40-70 winchester and 40-70SS?

Troll · Post by **Troll** » Thu May 13, 2004 5:23 am

What is the difference between 40-70 winchester and 40-70SS and will 40-70 winchester dies work for 40-70SS?

Post by **Kirk** » Thu May 13, 2004 7:16 am

Good morning, Their is no real difference in the two when you are talking original guns, that I no of. If you are talking todays 40-70 there is a difference. The 40-70 in our guns is based on the 405 which has a little smaller web area than the original sharps cartridge. Hope this helps, Thanks Kirk

taw1126 · Post by **taw1126** » Thu May 13, 2004 8:06 pm

I hate to disagree, but the .40-70 WCF is quite different from the .40-70 SS.

As Kirk mentioned the .40-70 SS is similar to the .405 WCF (and probably even more closely related to the .40-72 WCF, a less-known Winchester 1895 chambering) which is essentially based on the .30-40 Krag case. The .40-70 WCF on the other hand is almost identical to the .40-82 WCF and as such is made from .45-90 brass (2.4-inch case length and the same rim as the other .45's). Main difference between the .40-70 WCF and .40-82 WCF is the bullet weight.

If you have .40-70 WCF dies they would be very valuable and very hard to come by. I would suspect that you could buy several sets of .40-70 SS dies if you sold a set of .40-70 WCF dies.

Trey

Ken Hartlein · Post by **Ken Hartlein** » Thu May 13, 2004 10:21 pm

According to my copy of Cartridges of the World, the 40-70 winchester is bottlenecked and the 40-70 Sharps straight is ,well, straight. There was a 40-70 sharps necked also. The 40-70 winchester and the 40-70 Sharps necked shot the same 330 grain bullet.

Post by **Kirk** » Mon May 17, 2004 9:50 am

Hey Trey, I'm glad you disagreed, made me drag out the cartridge of the world book and tune up. Thanks for the info.

P.S. - give me a call, I can help you get that original sharps apart without hurting it. Thanks Kirk