.44-77 PP bullets.

[Distant Thunder]

Arnie,

I am a little math challenged so I'm not allowed to play with real numbers unsupervised and anyone taking my word for it may find themselves wondering where things went wrong.

So if you keep a close eye on me I'll see if it might be possible to fit this bullet to my rifle, a rifle I don't even have yet by the way.

The drawing shows .443" at the base and .433" above that. So far things look good. Now the tricky part, I'm going to do some addition and that's where I can easily get into trouble.

If I use SC 55Y which will add .005" to each diameter it looks like this, .443 + .005 = .448" at the base and .433 + .005 = .438 on the bore ride section. That looks like it should, maybe, fit my .438" bore and may or may not need to be sized a wee bit to fit my fired cases.

Please look that over and see if it is correct, I think it is. I have used 55Y successfully in my .50-70, though I do find it harder to wrap than thicker paper and there is to whole idea of two layers of paper being equal to the rifling depth or you get leading thing. I also have had occasional problems chambering snug fitting bullets with 55Y. It can crumple the edge of the paper at the corner along the top edge.

If my barrel, which I've never even seen yet, is true to the advertised .438" bore size I might be able to try some of Matt's bullets.

As far the freebore being longer that may not be that big of a deal and seating the bullet to just touch the rifling would put it at only .200" in the case. That could still shoot well and if the brass fits the chamber properly paper rings should NOT be a problem. Remember, I don't know for sure what my freebore will look like.

The .44-77 brass I have would still hold about 82-83 grains of 1 1/2 Swiss with that seating depth and minimal compression. The bullet base and wad would still be well up in the neck. It could possibly work.

I need a rifle because I apparently have way to much time to think about this stuff and I need to be shooting.