.44-77 PP bullets.

[Kurt]

If you want a box for the large .44 bn's to stand the bullet up you just about have to make them. I have 20 round and 50 round plastic boxes that I can set them in base down but they are hard to find.
I spent a couple days making these and I have 4 boxes I can use on line. The large box carries stuff to reload when I'm on the road.
Originally it the large box was used with the gun cart I made but it was just to heavy to drag around.


   

[J.B.]

Actually Sam..if you dont hold a patent on the '4 block insert' system... I may give that a try myself. Even when I'm loading gg I still prefer to have them nose up in the case with some closed cell foam or similar on top to stop them bumping about. I may be able to make use of the MTM 100 box I have after all.

Gavin.

[Kurt]

These 100 round boxes need to be deeper for the 2.5 and longer cases with a PP bullet,
I have to use tape to hold the lids shut.

[Distant Thunder]

I decided to give the "making a wooden box" thing a try. I dug up some old boards I had in the basement for the past 20+ years then sat down with paper and pencil to figure out what I needed for one box that would hold 100 .44-77 cartridges loaded with ppb standing up straight. That turned out to be the easy part!

I cut up the boards, don't know what kind of wood they are, and glued and clamped them together. Wood working, especially anything fancy is not one of my stronger areas. I got enough glue on the pieces that it should hold together. More is better, right?

Once it's all dried out I will see about finishing it. If my calculations are correct and it works out half way decent I'll maybe invest in some better wood and some more skillful cutting.

If it works out I'll put up a picture, if it doesn't work out I'll never mention it again.

[Don McDowell]

LOL that'll keep you out of trouble for a while.

[Nuclearcricket]

If you are careful, you can get away with spacing your holes on 3/4" centers, if you can make a bigger box 1" centers will work well. A simple way of figuring hole spacing that has worked out pretty well for me is to divide the length of your part by 2 more than the number of holes you need. If you want 10 equally spaced holes, divide the length of the part by 12. That will give you the location of the first hole and the space between the holes. Yes I know at first blush it doesn't make any sense but what it does is to put the center of the hole #1 at the edge of the part, you just don't drill that hole. Also the same with the last hole #12 that you don't drill either.
Sam

[Kurt]

I have boxes ilike this with a 1/4" board glued above the bottom to hold the cases better from falling over and the holes are spaced 1" so I can grab the case and not the bullet pulling it out.
I also have a box with a 2 by on the bottom with 1" hole spacing. The box in the photo holds 60 rounds and that is enough for a match or plenty for a relay. Foam in the lid keeps the bullets from falling out if they are shallow seated and they don't rattle or if the box gets tipped over they stay put.

   

[Kurt]

I might add, The bottom also has a recessed hole matching the one in the 1/4" board to hold the case head from moving.

[Distant Thunder]

Sam,
That works well, but that's not what I did so I may have fewer than 100 in this first box and if so I'll adjust later. This box is just the prototype.

When I made my .44-77 loading block I made 5 rows of 10 holes .640" diameter on 1.0" CTC. It's a bit bigger block at 10 1/2" x 5 1/2", but it will work well. Then I got to thinking and that's where I usually get into trouble.

My .45 caliber loading block is only 9" long and 4 1/2" wide. It has 50 holes that are spaced 3/4" CTC in 5 rows of 10. The holes were just a little too small for the .44-77. So I took that block and opened each hole up to .630". The Jamison brass I have fit that block well now and they have the largest diameter rims at .625".

Not wanting the box to be any bigger than it has to be and still hopefully hold 100 .44-77s I decided if my box was 8"+ x 9"+ on the inside and I made 2 blocks at 4 1/2" x 9" to put inside it I'd be good. The box therefore ended up being 9 1/4" x 10 1/4" on the outside.

So now with the block the 8" way I'm looking at .630" diameter holes on 3/4" CTC. Looking at it this morning I should probably have made the box 9"+ sq. inside it would have been better doing it your way with 3/4" x 12 =9" , but I think what I have will work.

The plan is to put the first hole 5/8" in from the edge of the block. Then space the next 9 holes at 3/4" CTC which will leave 5/8" to the other edge from the center of the last hole, or 5/16" from the edge of the hole to the edge of the block. Obviously I have an inch more to work with going the other way so I may have to adjust the hole spacing to fit that or not, but that has done to allow for two 50 round blocks to fit in the box.

I've got other things to do today so I'll look at this closer tomorrow.

[Distant Thunder]

Kurt,

For some reason I like the idea of separate blocks that set down inside the box, but that is a very nice box.

After this first box I should have a better idea what works best for me and then I'll take some time and make up something real fancy, maybe. My idea here all came from the size of my .45 caliber loading block and the wood I had to work with. The wood is just the stuff they make cheap wood furniture out of around here, nothing special, probably poplar or similar.