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

[GrumpyBear]

Some nice looking groups Jim, it always feels good when you get the results you are looking for, and I always enjoy your posts.

[Kurt]

Well Jim,

Looking at those targets I would not fear using that load for the creedmoor match.
When you get under a MOA at 200 it's time to give it a go at the extended ranges.
I have not had much of a problem with my .44-77 or the .44-90 bn but I was fortunate to get good brass that did not need to be made from brass close to match the BN cases. It always takes more work and several shots fired in the chamber to get them to a proper fit.

[Semtav]

What would really be interesting is if you could test the hardness of your case necks accurately

[Kurt]

It's pretty easy to stretch a case without needing a special stretching die. I trimmed some of my cases to close after the first firing and they ended up .031-.036" short. I stretch mine by regulating the amount of moisture in the chamber and proper annealing the case. It's a little tricky till you have done it a few times and you can get it pretty close.
These I stretched and a couple I got a little longer than I wanted before I got the moisture on the patch right, you can see that they pulled past the chamber end transition a little but not enough to hurt. the rest are right at the transition where the case mouth is just reduced by the .45º transition

[Semtav]

Was laying on the couch doing the what if sequence.
What if you could actually measure the hardness of the necks ?
What if the those wad rings correlated with the slightly harder necked cases?

What if those wad combinations weren't so much about how they protect the base of the bullet as they were about how they grip the case when the big bang happens.

What if the mouth of the case actually kissing the bevel of the chamber isn't a bad thing?

When you say you tumble your brass(work harden) and don't anneal much bells start going off in my head and with all that vacant area, the ringing is deafening.

Wouldn't it be great if we had the resources to actually know what the cause and effects really were.

[Distant Thunder]

Well, Brain, it wouldn't be BPTR then would it!

[Don McDowell]

Jim have you plotted the shots , so that you know what/if any affects those nasty paper rings have on group size?

[Kurt]

You wouldn't get those nasty paper rings if you had a lead bullet chamber

[J.B.]

All this talk about ldpe/ hdpe wads has me wanting to give them a try...but I have been wary given some early reports of some believing they were stretching case necks. Not something I want to experience at all and certainly not with cases that
arent so easy to come by. Have you guys found this to be an issue, essentially with the 44's but in general ? Could well be an urban myth or internet initiated bs...along the lines of 'bottleneck cases are hard work and dont shoot well'. ;-). I have ordered some of the .06 ldpe from BACo , so I'm prepared to give them a go. As for hdpe...well maybe one step at a time.

J.B.

[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!