It's been quiet here

[Distant Thunder]

Gavin,

Congratulations! I'm a happy guy if I can place in the top 3 and I can feel like I made a good showing for my efforts. If we finished in 1st place every time what would be the point? Just gotta try harder is all.

My .44-77 continues to keep me busy and I am enjoying working with and shooting it. I have only had it for 4 months! It seems like it's been a year and 4 months! It was a bit of a long wait but that's the way it is with these Sharps rifles. The good news is that it was worth the wait.

Gussy,

I've been recutting molds for years. In fact my paper patch mold that works so well in my .45-70 Hepburn started life as a .40 gg mold. I have used it to win all but two of my Creedmoor matches so recutting a mold can be very successful. It's all in the step up. I even successfully recut several grease groove molds to change the nose shape before I made the jump to paper patch. That is a lot trickier than cutting an old to a larger caliber paper patch design.

I have used both my lathe and my mill to do these molds and either will work. The biggest problem I have in cutting any mold is that I never really know what I have inside until I break the setup and open the bugger up. And to know what sizes I have ended up with I have to cast a few. It can be a lot more work to set it up again when I only have to take .001" or less out in one place inside a long cavity! That has proved fatal to a few for me. Oh well, they sell new molds every day.

[beltfed]

Kurt,
Where did you buy that WM210V lathe?
Arnie

[Kurt]

Kurt,
Where did you buy that WM210V lathe?
Arnie

Arnie I ordered it from Amazon.

I looked at a bunch in thee size I wanted and settled on this one.

[Kurt]

It was a fine day, bright sun out a little cool in the mid 40's and just a whisper of wind. Good time for another range day so I took the .44-77 farmer and 4 ladder loads using the new Swiss lot-05-11-2018 and the reworked DD bullet.
I almost hesitated posting these results because for a ladder load of 80, 81, 82 and 83 grains of 1.5 Swiss I don't see much difference in the results of the 4 loads. I have room in the case for maybe another two grains but I think all that would do is just burn more unneeded powder.
I been thinking expanding the shank but I think I will hold off till I see what is going on when I get some snow.
I did have one wander out of the group that is unexplained, the 80 grain load but again Henry my Gremlin buddy must have been with me. He does that on and off.
The 82 grain I fat fingered that one with cold fingers, but a good natural point of aim kept it in safe dirt and not in a Farmer sitting on a tractor picking corn.
One thing about this new case of Swiss, It makes the patches awful black but it keeps the group pretty tight. I only have one can used so time will tell if it's worth loading match loads with it.
   

[beltfed]

I sure would not complain about those groups.
That 80-83 gr range appears to be a Node/sweet spot area
arnie

[Kurt]

Arnie, Strange enough that is the same load I use in my .45-90 and the .45-70 also. But the .45-90 I use 2F OE but it's a little lighter than the Swiss but the compression is close to being the same. Brent uses 82? grains in his .45-70.
80 grains in the .44-77 is a very lightly compressed load without using a lube wad.

[Distant Thunder]

Kurt,

For years Brent used 82 grains of 1 1/2 Swiss in his .45-70 with two different paper patch bullets in two different rifles. One is a Winchester high wall with an 18-twist barrel (GM?) and the other is an Axtell 1877 Sharps with a 16-twist barrel (also a GM?). In the 18-twist he uses a prolate (fancy word for 3D elliptical) pp bullet at around 515 grains primarily for silhouette. In the 16-twist he shoots a 530-ish grain prolate pp bullet that is 1.520" long. The 1877 is his Creedmoor rifle.

About 4 years ago he started having all kinds of trouble with the fluffier lots of Swiss 1 1/2. I believe this year he has been shooting 2f Swiss but I don't know if it's still 82 grains or what it is. He has done fairly well with the 2f.

Both of Brent's rifles are cut with a tight paper patch chamber using a reamer of his own design. I used his reamer for the chamber in my Hepburn with an 18-twist Badger barrel. I shoot the same modified prolate paper patch bullet in my Hepburn that I first started using in my .45-90 back in 2010. That bullet weighs 528+/- grains out of my 17-1 lead/solder alloy. I had to open the mold up to .445" to shoot in my Hepburn because of the slightly bigger bore diameter in that Badger barrel. I also shortened it from 1.460" to 1.435". It shoots pretty well for me as it is now.

[Fogman01]

7/8" vertical is pretty good! Might test that one some more to confirm. Have you chrony'd that load? I would be interested in what the ES is.

[Kurt]

I seldom set the chronographs up anymore, they seem to make me chase circles. I look at the holes through the paper.
Actually I have ten loaded of all the above because they all looked very good to me. I might get to the range again today.

I used that center paster to warm the barrel and I think that there are 9 or 10 shots I fired on it and those were a 78 grain using the a=same bullet but I used a lube wad and a .030" plus a .060" fiber gasket wad stack to take some room up for slight compression with this new powder and look good shot with a cold barrel.

[DirtySteve]

I can not see the picture. Signed up a few days ago. I tried getting on Shilo's board but not authorization to post after several months..