Development of PP loads for the .44-77.

[Distant Thunder]

Kurt,
These cases have been fireformed once with the same load, but some may be blow out a little more than others due to annealing differences. Either way I've got 10 of the 80 grain loads ready to try tomorrow afternoon. That will tell me a lot more.

The groups today are only 3 shots but are in the 1 to 1+ moa area and that is pretty good if it holds up for 10 shots. Even if ten shots opens up to 3 inches it is still a reasonable load for gong and silhouette matches. For long range the only way to know for sure is to shoot it at 1000 yards. It is at least a good start. When I was working with my .40-65 developing my 2-DPPB load my first 10-shot groups were in the 5 inch range at 200m. With a little tweaking it became a 1 moa or better load and does so pretty consistently. This one will get there too, I can feel it, it wants to shoot well!

Nope no lube other than the oil in my wiping solution. I was wiping with 2 wet and 1 dry. One wet just isn't enough and the residual fouling will slowly accumulate and accuracy falls off. For match shooting I have a set of bore pigs I made in .44 caliber. With the pigs one push trough is all that has ever been needed with my .45s and .40-65.

There were a few times when the first wet patch would tighten up in the last couple of inches of the barrel, the second wet would push through smooth and even and still pushed out some fouling. The dry patch came out with a just bit of gray and was damp.

It's been real tough shooting this past week, temps up in the 90s and high humidity with almost zero wind! Nothing like having the sweat running in your eye to help with accuracy.

My rate of fire was slow enough that the barrel never really got very hot today plus I'm in the shade inside my shootin' shack.