Continuing development with the .44-77.

[Distant Thunder]

Kurt,

Nobody ever wants to hear from other shooters how their bullet are performing. I have told people that I pulled target for that they bullets are tipping and most do want to hear that. They will either get mad at me or simply say it's not possible and that I'm wrong. So I know what you're saying about alloy tests and I'm not disagreeing with you. You know I always appreciate your testing results whether or not understand them and I think about the things you've said all the time when I trying to figure things out.

I am at a bit of loss to explain how my .44-77 is performing farther out, beyond 300 yards or so. I will test a shorter, lighter bullet which has a much shorter nose than my other two .44 caliber paper patch bullets. No harm in testing.

I will also test 16 to 1, lead to 95/5 solder, with my 430520 BACO bullet and likely with my 441505EPP BACO bullet just to see if there would be something to be gained from a harder alloy. The 16:1 might be too hard, I really don't know and I won't know for sure until I test it in my rifle with my bullets and loads.

If I have learned one in the 30 years I've been shooting BPCR it's there are too many variables in this sport to set very many hard fast rules. I take in information from any availbe source and compare it with what my experiences have been, if the info seems reasonable I'll test it in my rifle(s) and if it's not reasonable I toss in the sh!t can. The testing and proving or disproving never ends and this sport never get boring.

There are a lot of things that are different about this .44-77, probably all bottlenecks, from the .45-70 and this .44 is proving to be one of my favorite cartridge as I work through getting it to shoot like I know it can. Even then each step I take, each thing I test is my own unique experience and the next guy with a .44-77 will probably have a different story and result in some ways.

I post my efforts here because I hope it will help others who are working with a .44-77 or a similar cartridge and may in some way learn from my experience. I never expect everyone to agree with what I do or what I conclude from my efforts, that ain't going to happen. If some one disagrees with me and what I say that is fine, I don't argue with them or tell them they're full of it. Their experience and my are just different and there's nothing wrong with that.

There is a lot of valuable information that can be learned from your snowbank shooting and the bullets you recover and not everyone is going to see it the same way, but please don't stop posting your results, please. I find them interesting and vey useful and I know others do too. So just keep posting what you have done with your snowbanks and pay no attention to the critics, there are plenty that are learning from your efforts.