I thinking at buying a Cimarron 73 rifle in 38-40 (38WCF). I plan to shoot both black and smokeless powders. I am concerned about the slow twist of the rifling. Will the slow twist rifling be a problem?

Not unless you plan on shooting heavy long bullets. Very few rifles turn out to be rifled too slow particualy in the bigger calibers.

Not unless you plan on shooting heavy long bullets. Very few rifles turn out to be rifled too slow particualy in the bigger calibers.

Only have worked with an origianl and it's 1:36" twist....do not know if the repro. uses the same traditional twist rate or not.

The 38-40 was not designed for long heavy bullets; even if you managed to load them inside the OAL requirments, would find a very small powder space left in the case to push that heavy slug. Considering that the action will require an OAL of about 1.59", of which 1.305" is case lenght, that leaves all of .295" of bullet to hang out the case mouth...most of the 170-180gr. bullets are about right to fill the case neck and not have the bullet base poke into the case body...go heavier, and you'll lose useable case volume.

The 180gr. bullets work with this twist, and any bullet lighter than that will wrok, but I never had the urge to try any of the heavier weight bullets.

The slow twist seems to help somewhat with BP fouling...at least it makes it a bit easier to clean. Doesn't seem to do any harm with smokelss loads.