Development of PP loads for the .44-77.

[Distant Thunder]

As far as my own development work goes I have checked my notes from my .40-65 and have decided on the steps that I will follow.

1) Test several different wads or combos and find the two that give the best results.

2) Test different primers with the two best wads and see which two are the best.

3) Using the two best wads and two best primers start increasing the powder charge a grain or two at a time looking for the sweet spot.

4) Take the best looking powder charges and retest each until the best one can be determined by results on target.

I may not go through all the steps with this bullet because it is not the bullet I plan to use in the end and I'll just have to go through the whole process again once I have my long range bullet and again for my silhouette bullet. I am leaning toward a lighter bullet for silhouette.

The whole process took two shooting seasons to go through with my .40-65 and there I started with a nose pour adjustable mold just as I am with my .44-77. With my .40-65 there was the question of length for the twist rate, but I also used the adjustable mold for my early load development. The results were very good.

With the .44-77 the adjustable mold will help me decide what bullet weight I want to shoot and what powder charge works best with that weight. For long range I would like a bullet about 520 to 530 grains. For silhouette I'm thinking more in the 450 grain range.

Over the next week I will start working my way through the 4 steps above using this adjustable mold and see how far I get before I have to put loads together for the Wisconsin Rapids match on the 25th.

I remember 4 years ago when I went to Rapids with my early paper patch loads in my .40-65, it was a disaster but I learned a lot and improved my loads using those hard lessons. It will probably be the same with this .44-77, but always having room for improvement is what keeps me going.