Bore wipers

[Kurt]

Sam, I think most wiping technique that carries enough water to soften the fouling with one push through with a dry is good.
I like the Dewey Jags like the Parker Hale that is long enough that a 3" patch makes full contact on the jag and bore. That carries enough moisture to soften the fouling and the dry patch is enough to take out enough fouling and most of the moisture.
Here at home when when I'm not pushed like a match I use a bore brush with a large patch. The dry patch shows that the first patch did a good job.

[Nuclearcricket]

Sam, I think most wiping technique that carries enough water to soften the fouling with one push through with a dry is good.
I like the Dewey Jags like the Parker Hale that is long enough that a 3" patch makes full contact on the jag and bore. That carries enough moisture to soften the fouling and the dry patch is enough to take out enough fouling and most of the moisture.
Here at home when when I'm not pushed like a match I use a bore brush with a large patch. The dry patch shows that the first patch did a good job.

In working as the Range Officer for a big number of Silhouette matches I get to see a lot of things. One thing I do know pretty much for sure, there is not hard fast absolute best way to manage things between shots. I see shooters using blow tubes. Wet and then Dry patches, bore pigs, the Remington squeegee jags. Different solutions for solvent. It all boils down to what really works for you.
The bore pigs I have seem to work ok in what little I have used them. I don't think they are the last word on anything, I do know they seemed to work as they were designed to. I don't think you can ask for much more than that.
All I do know for sure, the 44-77 they were being used in shot well. PP bullets made the barrel quite hot. Other than that, things just seemed to work quite well that day.
Sam

[Kurt]

Sam, It don't take much to make the .44-77 or the big Brother .44-90bn shoot well.

[Nuclearcricket]

To be quite honest, I was surprised at how easy and how well the 44-77 shot. A friend wanted to try it so I just put powder in the case till it was up just into the neck a bit, a .03 ldpe wad, paper patched bullet. Also loaded up some 480 gr gg bullets. My friend had no problems hitting all the animals all the way out to the rams. Just seems to me that those BN cases just don't shoot worth a hoot, they shoot like a house afire.
Some day if all goes well I will add 2 more BN rounds to the stable. I would like to have a 44-60 just for a bit less recoil and I just picked up a set of dies for a 40-50 sbn. Cute little critter to say the least. The dies are Reading and to be honest I don't know if they were ever used as none of the lock rings were tightened down. Down side, thats a very long way to trim a case with a Forster case trimmer. The lathe is set up for a job otherwise that would shorten the cases quickly.
Sam

[Kurt]

I have 2- .44-77's and 2- .44-90bn's and they all shoot very good with out any problems getting a good load.
I retired the 2 90's because I been getting eye damage from heave recoiling rifles during high heat from what the eye Doc. thinks. I favor the .44 calibers over the .45. I like the .44-75 Ballard. That uses a ..45-90 case necked down to the .44, it's a 2.5" case and the 2- .44-100 Straight's.
The .44-77 took two Bisons as well as the .44-90bn. The 90 dropped him fast with 1 shot. The 77 I had to make a follow up.
I don't understand why the .44's are not to popular.

[Nuclearcricket]

I don't know why they are not more popular either. A lot of different case configurations are available from the straight taper like the 44-70 to the full bottle neck of the 77 and 90's. Good bullets are available in any style you want these days. The big drawback these days is lack of available brass but a lot of that can be worked around.
One thing that kind of gets to me, they all say that BN's are hard to get to shoot well but I have been researching on the 40-50 bn and general consensus is that its about as easy to get to shoot well as you would want. Go figure on that one. OH well, I guess its things like this that helps keep life interesting.
Sam

[Kurt]

Yes Sam finding the bottle neck .44 brass is a problem. Bob Watts told me that he was ordering a .44-90bn Shiloh but said he could not find brass so I just gave him 100 cases so he could shoot the rifle.

Yes there are a lot of negative discussion about the BN's especially the fouling but I cant see that it's any more than the .45's.
Back in the 70's I found a .40-70 BN roller and I had a problem getting it to shoot well but I think it was mostly matching the bullet for the twist the rifle had.
The .40-50 also has been pulling on me to take home A friend has an original Hepburn with that chamber but at 85 years old I have too many BPCR in two iron boxes now LOL but it's pulling on my arm pretty hard.

Kurt

[Nuclearcricket]

Yea I understand, a friend just picked up a Ballard re-barreled to 44-77. He is making brass from .375 flanged, The rim is thinner but once they are fire formed he should be ok. I am not sure what would be the harder pull on your arm, the caliber or the rifle itself. If need by, and you get the rifle, I can form the brass for you. Its a pretty long stroke but the full length die I have from Reading can do it in one shot but I prefer to pump it a bit. Talk about a case with a damn long neck, 45-70 necked down before its trimed, heck of a looking thing.
Sam

[Kurt]

Sam,
Let that rifle pull my shirt sleeve a little more. That Hep. is a fine looking shooter and it comes with two stocks. One is sporting and the other is a Swedish hooked buttplate. We have schuetzen matches up in Wisconsin 5 hrs from me and I been working getting a rifle for this game. I more or less want a 1/4 bore but that little .40 would do just fine. He has a couple hundred cases and die that will go with the rifle so TNX for the offer making them for me.
I will see him soon enough and I will ask him to bring that rifle to the range. Man that will be the wrong thing for me to ask LOL.

Lurt

[Nuclearcricket]

Kind of sounds like that rifle is set up and all ready for you. I see no reason it shouldn't be competitive at schuetzen. a 265 gr PP bullet and what ever powder makes your socks go up and down. Larry Potterfield had a video out showing how he makes pp loads for a 40-50. If you watch him shoot it from the bench, there is almost no recoil. The rifle is a #1 rolling block target model. In a 10 pound rifle I can't see where it should make much more recoil than my low wall in 38 wcf with a #1 barrel.
Good luck on your choice
SAm