Time to continue load development with my .44-77.

[Distant Thunder]

J.B.

I have never had any trouble or problems when using LDPE wads. Keep your brass clean and your chamber dry and you should not have any problems either.

In my experience HDPE wads start to have benefits once you start to approach 90 grains of powder or more. My .45-90 is an example. With 100 + grains of 1 1/2 Swiss they worked great alone. In my .44-77 at 86 grains of 1 1/2 they are working very well but seem to require a LDPE wad under them to serve as a gas seal. Why the .030" LDPE wad works and the .060" LDPE does not I don't know and it's just one of those things that I accept without questioning.

In both cases I am shooting bore diameter paper patch bullets. I have no experience with this combo and 2-D PPB or GG. I will be trying this combo with other bullets in my .44 just to see if the good results transfer to other bullets or if it's just something unique with this one bullet. I have now shot 4 test groups with these two wads and it has worked well in each test including a 10-shot group shot prone off sticks and wiping with my new bore pigs.

The new pigs are working well, but I can see that there may be a need for a 3rd felt wad if it were hot, dry and windy. I will invest in make another set with 3 felt wads for testing later this summer when the conditions are less user friendly.

With the two felts I did push the pig up into the bore about an inch and let it sit there for 2 or 3 seconds and that worked. The humidity was about 34% that day, but it was only in the low 40s temp wise.

With my current setup I was able to hit the X-ring with 5 of the 10 shots on the MR52-C target at 220 yards, ending with a 98-5X. I had some pretty good wind to work with, 18 mph and switching every minute or so. One of the 9s was my first shot after 2 sighters and I had over corrected after the sighters. The second one was when I got caught by a reversal. The X-ring on that target is only about 1 3/4".

The big test will be on the 30th from 1000 yards. I remain hopeful that I've got something that I can work with. It's going to be a cool weekend with highs in the low 50s with about 40 for overnight lows. I'm hoping to have some good news to report after the match.

It's been cold and raining or snowing here about 3 or 4 days a week so it's been hard to get anything done outside. Better weather should, I say should, be around the corner. I hope so!