some 44-77 questions

[Kurt]

I like the .44-77 enough that when I get a reamer ground I will have a 16 twist .44-77 for the long range and gong shoots. My two .44-90bn's and the .44-100 Rem st are more of a good thing then needed.

[Don McDowell]

I would really like to talk Kirk into doing a 16 or even a 17 twist 44 barrel and having him build me another 44-77 with his 7 degree lead reamer.

[Kurt]

I talked to him about it and he said it takes to much changing gears and the cost of a button.

[Kurt]

I have three .44 bn Shiloh's with a 19 twist and all three shoot very good as they are as long as I stay in the realm of bullets under 1.420 long. The .44-2-5/8-90 bn shoots quite well past the 1K. It has shown this at the MT 1000 a few years ago that I used that bullet. The .44-77 I use a 485 gr to 500 gr original profile bullet very good and it had downed two Bison's but I don't use that rifle for matches but it will reach past 1500 yards in fine shape. This makes me think a rifle in this caliber designed for match shooting with a faster twist so a heavy high BC PP bullet would do very well.
Some day I will use the hunting rifle and shoot a match with it with tang sights, but only in the sitting position for obvious reasons it has a crescent butt plate that does not work to well prone if you forget it has one.

[Martini2]

This may be simplistic solution for verticals. This past Sunday I experienced similar situation with my 12# 40-65 Pedi Sharps. We were shooting 100-400 hanging gongs silhouettes. At the 400 yd mark my spotter missed a few impacts due to smoke in his eyes ;-) To the point shots were in error Over and Under the Rams. This was frustrating as 1 MOA changes in elevation just seemed to exasperate the condition. I was using Don's perfect load of 60 gr OE and 422 gr GG. However as clean as it was shooting all day it did require passing a lightly moist patch down bore between shots. I'm partly convinced having to flatten the rear sight stem for cleaning and then push it to vertical may have claimed a few errors. I caught sight picture being fuzzy once and it was due to sight aperture and stem not being centered in sight stem notch. To add to predicament all the impacts that did score on Ram were center / center in tight group. Weather was prefect just those Rams had springs under their hoofs like Mule Deer ;-)

[Mike]

Hey Kurt, Bring your crescent butt .44/77 to Quigley next summer. We'll put our two crescent butted .44/77s together
for pictures. Maybe some shooting too... Shoot sharp, Mike

[Nuclearcricket]

Martini , like you the barrel was being swabed between shots but the rifle has a Parts Unknown/Red River 78 style sight on it and it kind of snaps into the vertical position. Since I was watching the shooter I am posative that the site was back in position each shot.
Due to the fact that this was virgin brass being used, it had never been shot before, that may be part of the problem with the vertical. I am thinking that only time will tell.
The guy doing the shooting is used to shooting a 45-70 and he was quite impressed with the 44. Less recoil and it did hit the animals pretty hard.
For the most part, shooting here in the north east of the US is done for the year. Come spring it will come out again and see what happens when its used with fire formed brass. Over the winter I may pick up another GG mold and I am thinking of picking up a slick to try out. I need to get paper first and then pick a mold to match.
The shooting over the weekend did show me that the gun and the caliber will shoot and will slam down those steel critters with authority. In the mean time I have a rifle and a caliber that just looks right, it looks like a rolling block creedmore and is the right caliber. Just hard to beat that cool factor.
Sam

[Kurt]

Hey Kurt, Bring your crescent butt .44/77 to Quigley next summer. We'll put our two crescent butted .44/77s together
for pictures. Maybe some shooting too... Shoot sharp, Mike

Mike, good deal! it's usually always with me going to the Q and Baker.

[Don McDowell]

[quoteI am thinking of picking up a slick to try out. I need to get paper first and then pick a mold to match. [/quote]

No not really, just pick a .435 diameter bullet in the length and nose shape you want and then hop on Amazon and get some Seth Cole 55 w, or go visit your local Staples office supply and get a roll of the 8 lb. paper from their drafting supply dept.

[Kurt]

Don.
How thick is that Seth Cole 55-W paper?
I have some Seth Cole 55-W and it is .0015 thick. It comes in a roll and it's not the easiest thing to work with stapling 12 sheets together to cut patches a roller cutter like I do. Does the 55-W come in sheets?

Also the 55-W if it comes .0015" thick it patches the .435 diameter bullet to .441" or if it's .0018 thick it would be a hard push to get the round loaded at .442+ with out deep seating it. Using a cartridge seater is not a good thing because it changes the compression of the powder if it's loaded with low compression. I never got good results using a seater because of the increased verticals I got using it.