Development of PP loads for the .44-77.

[Distant Thunder]

Chris,

The short answer is yes I have. When I was first working with my Shiloh .45-90 (standard chamber) I use a good bit of the same Goex 2f. I was working with different bullet designs, wads and seating depths.

It goes back to my first .44 caliber back in 2003-2004, it was supposed to be a .44-77 and I got talked out of it because of brass. It ended up a .44-100 Remington straight. I went through a lot of bullets of different designs and almost an entire case of Swiss 1 1/2 ($$$) trying to make it shoot at long range. I learned a lot from the rifle, ROT and bullet length was one thing. I also learned that a 2.6" case holds a lot of powder with shallow seated paper patch bullets. The rifle did eventually did shoot well for silhouette and mid range. It had a 18-twist barrel and short, blunt bullets were the only thing it shot well.

So when I finally made the successful transition to PPB in my .45-90 I wanted to avoid all the mistakes I made with the .44-100. Once I got pretty good accuracy using Goex and had what I felt was a workable bullet design I switched to my usual match powder, Swiss 1 1/2. I feel I saved at least several pounds of my good Swiss by doing the early work with Goex. The .45-2.4 with hold 100 to 105 grains of 1 1/2 Swiss, it does not take long to burn through a pound of powder, only 66 to 70 shots. And with that rifle I wasn't fireforming, my cases had already been in use for a few years.

The BIG mistake I've made here is in trying to combine the much needed fireforming that the new .44-77 cases require and any attempt at load development. I guess I was just too excited to get going after waiting 11 months for this rifle to get done.

It would be best if the readers of this thread didn't read to much into the load development as described here. I don't see how any real development can happen until these cases are fireformed. If you've ever seen a new, unfired .44-77 case and one that is fireformed completely there is a BIG difference! It's not like your .45-70 where the case blows out another few thousandth of inch. It is a radical change in case configuration! That can't be good for accuracy. In fact, the cases I have fireformed require 10 grains more powder to fill to the same level! 76 grains vs. 86 grains. That a big difference in the cases!

Just to be sure, this Goex 2f has shot well for me in my .50-70, .40-65, .45-70, .45-90 and .44-100. Not as good a Swiss in all cases but pretty darn good. I did find I had to use a grease wad in my .44-100 with bore diameter PPB to get the best accuracy and I was happy to use it because it reduced the powder charge and recoil to something manageable. That is the only time I have used a grease wad for target loads and there it worked well.