Continuing development with the .44-77.

[Distant Thunder]

I had started a thread under Reloading/ Black Powder Cartridge in which I was hoping to start a discussion about the evils of the transonic zone (1350 to 900 fps), but nobody seemed to want to pick up on that conversation. It turned more to my continuing load development for my .44-77 and being I shoot only paper patch bullets in my BP rifles I thought I'd move it here.

My .44 shoots pretty well out to 400 yards using a BACO 431520 bullet, but I have had some troubles at 500 and 600 yards. As suggested it could just be me and poor shooting. I really don't know but I was thinking of trying a bullet a bit shorter and lighter just to change something and see if the results changed.

The 431520 is 1.460" long, well within the range a 17-twist can stabilize. With 86 grains of Swiss 1 1/2 it leaving the muzzle at just over 1300 fps. I was thinking that with a shorter, lighter bullet and the same load it would gain some fps and be a bit more stable because it was shorter and faster. More stable should be good.

Over the past couple of months I have testing loads to find the compression and seating depth this rifle likes. That has proven to be. 100" compression and seared .180" in the case. 86 grains has been a consistent sweet spot and with my current lot of Swiss it all lines up good. I also retested primers and Remington 2 1/2 large pistol remains the best of what I have on hand. Federal 210 large rifle are a close second.

I picked 1.375 as a good shorter length to start and I figured it would give me about 480 to 490 grains. Setting the mold to 1.375 and casting with my 18:1 alloy, 18 pounds of lead to 1 pound of 95/5 lead free solder they turned out right at 500 grains.

I then loaded 8 as noted on the target and set up at my bench and shot a group. It actually looks pretty good at 2 3/8" ctc which at 220 yards is very close to 1 moa.

Now the plan is to load some more and bring them to the mid range match Wisconsin Rapids in a week and a half and see how they shoot at 300 and 600 yards.

I really can't see any reason that they shouldn't do well.