44-77 brass

[Nuclearcricket]

I wish, but no. I do have a very nice Shiloh, but its a #1 with a heavy barrel in 45-70. It does shoot well, and I have had it throated but don't know what angle it was. 11 deg sticks in my mind but don't hold me to that. I have a pedrosoli roller I picked up years ago as a kit from Cape Outfitters. Since I all ready have 3 45-70's that pretty much cover all the action options, bolt, lever, Sharps, I figured that roller would be much better as a 44-77. It is a pistol grip action with an octagon receiver ring, it looks like a creedmore rifle and should be in a creedmore caliber.
I got brass, got some more on the way, got the bullet mold on the way, have a barrel, now to scratch up the cash to get it all put together. I am hoping to have it all done by fall. The butstock needs a little refitting as the lower tang warped a little when it was cased and the forend will need to be glassbedded as the original barrel has no taper on it. The final step will be to have one of my site bases redrilled to fit the holes in the tang.
Sam

[Kurt]

The .44-77 is a good choice for the roller. I really like the .44 calibers.
I just got the barrel and the reamers made for my new project. It will be a .44-75 Ballard on a CPA action.
I have a .44-100 Rem st barrel on one of my Shiloh's that is going to be pulled off and the original .44-90bn Shiloh barrel put back on that rifle and I might put the .44 Rem barrel on a Hepburn action.

When you get your rifle put together post some pictures of it. I would like to see it.

Kurt

[Don McDowell]

I would like to find the money laying around someplace to get that highwall 44 C Sharps has laying around waiting for somebody to choose a chambering for it.
That Bridgeport they have would be another good candidate for a new 44 xx

[Nuclearcricket]

The looks of the roller will not change much, the barrel will be a little bit thinner and 2" longer. The stock could use a few more coats of finish but I can do that any time I get around to it. Here are a couple of pics I took this morning, the quality kind of sucks but it will give a fair idea of what it looks like. The rear sight is a marbles and the base isn't correct for the rifle, I had to move one of the mounting holes and the staff is way too short. This is the standard staff and I need the next size longer. This one may reach 100 yards but no way will it go up far enough to get to 200. Maybe with a blade front you could get out a little farther I don't know.

[Nuclearcricket]

Don, I think we are all looking for that money tree that the government seems to think that we all have and they continually love to harvest from it.

[Kurt]

TNX. Sam
Who did the case on the action?

[Don McDowell]

Sam that should make a fine rifle when it's all done.

[Nuclearcricket]

Thank you Don, I hope so. Kurt, it was a local smith that was building a few 74's at the time, He has long since left the area. I had some other work done by him, some of his stuff was quite good, other areas he was lacking a bit on.
I am hoping in a week or 2 to take my roller and the barrel to the smith and get things started. I would guess he will rent reamers for this job. Anyone have any suggestions other than PTG?
Sam

[Nuclearcricket]

Received 60 new 44-77 cases from Captech and set up and measured the new cases as well as some Jameson brass I had on hand. The new case rims ran .071-.074 and the Jameson brass ran .074-.077. I called Captech and was told that the max rim thickness was .080 and the minimum was .072. I told them that I had a few cases that were .071 and they told me that they should be ok and shouldn't cause any problems. I will get out my gage block one of these days and do a double check to make sure my setup didn't change.

I guess my next big question is, will I need to buy a set of loading dies? I have a neck size bushing die and it will also deprime the cases. I have a compression plug that can be used to expand the case mouth, and i have made a stem that will screw into the top of the bushing die and push the bullet into the case. If need be I can make up a tapered bushing to remove the flair from the case mouth. Do you good folks feel I might need anything else?
Sam

[Don McDowell]

You should be good to go with what you have. I wouldn't worry a whole lot about thinner case rims, once the thing is fire formed it will actually be headspacing off of the shoulder , so the rims main function is for something the extractor can get ahold of.