Development of PP loads for the .44-77.

[Distant Thunder]

I know Swiss has had it's problems and it is not now the same powder it was years ago but I have to say I have worked with two on thw newer lots in this .44-77 and they shot pretty well. The 2016 lot seems to be shooting really well with this 2-D bullet.

I even got exceptional accuracy in my .40-65 from the lot that Brent had all the trouble with and that was with no load development. I just increase the compressive to around .200" and it shot very well. The old Swiss shot well with only minimal compression. This 2016 lot has done well with about .060" compression up to about .150". To get the 86 grains to fill the case enough to have some compression I'm just dumping the weighed charge into the funnel on my 14" drop tube. If I pour too slow I don't have any compression at all or the wad never touches the powder.

My old shooting partner Glenn put his offhand loads together by just dumping 1 1/2 Swiss through a short funnel and seating a wad on top followed by the bullet. I called it "fluffing up" the powder and it worked well for him. It gave him a reduce load with less recoil and plenty of accuracy to knock down chickens at 200m.

I've spent most of my time trying to get more powder in my cases, with this .44-77 I'm actually trying to put less powder it the case. It's working, maybe because it's a bottleneck case.

I do believe I will get to a point where this rifle shoots 1 moa at 200 yards and beyond. That will take some time and a better understanding of the .44-77 case but I'll get there. I've only had this rifle for a month and I've only spent two days developing a load with this 2-D bullet! I'd say it has gone pretty well so far. I'm smiling all the time I'm working with it I can tell you that.

Dave Gullo told me that the most accurate rifle he owns, and he owns a few, has this same barrel on it. I believe him.

I still need to put that shim under the trigger spring like you told me, just haven't had time yet.