.44-77 and paper patch?

[Distant Thunder]

Kurt,

Ideally the bullet would be in the case about .080" (IMHO) just like my .45-70 and my .40-65.

Kurt, this next stuff is not directed at you, but you give me an excellent opportunity to be very clear on an important point.

It is important for everyone to understand that I am just playing with numbers on paper right now! Only numbers on paper! Those numbers will probably change once I have the rifle and do a chamber cast. It's very important to know EXACTLY what YOUR chamber looks like before designing a bullet to fit YOUR rifle. That is a good rule that I will follow here and anyone else should do the same.

Even if I had a reamer drawing and I do not. Even if I had a chamber drawing and I do not. It would be very risky to have a mold cut or to cut one myself without a chamber cast. So I'm just trying to show my thought process as I design a bullet for this rifle and how I did for my other rifles.

So I will adjust that base band height to match my chamber once I have the rifle. At this point I am not even 100% sure what chamber the rifle will have. I have not spoken to anyone at Shiloh and they won't be starting my rifle for a fair while yet.

Once again, the numbers I'm putting on paper are only to show the process and anyone using MY numbers does so at their own risk!

It took me months to perfect the ppb design for my .40-65. I did a chamber cast, I slugged the barrel and I put a lot of thought into the OAL and two diameters before I machined the mold. I was lucky in that case to have an old Lyman mold to experiment with to get an idea of how different base band heights and diameters affected the performance in my rifle. The final result was worth the effort and time.

With my .45-90 and .45-70 I made no less than 8 different molds in my search for the best design and altered most of those more times than I can recall. In the end I went back to the 4th mold and tweaked it just a bit more to get the bullet I've been shooting the past 2 years and it works very well for me, better than any of the other designs or molds I made and tried.

Anyway, if there remains anyone who doesn't see that this is a process and that the perfect bullet mold for your rifle probably isn't just sitting on a shelf somewhere waiting to be ordered....., well it's not for lack of effort on my part. And I can NOT give you the dimension for that perfect bullet for your rifle either, all I can do, all I'm trying to do is to show you how I got here from where I started and the process I use. I hope it helps some of the readers to understand the process and help them through it.

It sure is a whole lot of fun. I am looking forward to working with my .44-77 and just maybe finding the perfect PPB for it too.

Also it is important to note that of the six rifles I have owned and worked with using PPB one has steadfastly refused to shoot paper patch bullets with any consistency. So not every rifle will accept PPB. Some day when I have time I'll revisit that rifle once again and give it another go. With each rifle I learn a little more and just maybe I have the answer for that one just ahead of me. It's a journey and I'm along for the ride!