Recovered 2-diameter PPB.

[Distant Thunder]

Kurt,
The mold I have waiting at KAL is exactly the same design as my .40-65 bullet, which is really just the same as the old Sharps .45 caliber long range paper patch bullet. I just changed the dimensions appropriately for .44 caliber. I don't think there is anything magic about the design, but it has shot very well in a number of different rifles and is very easy to get to shoot well, at least it has been for me.

I have a new BACO .44 caliber adjustable PP mold and two grease groove molds from Brooks that I had bought years ago for my .44 Remington Straight, a rifle I no long have. I will be selling those grease groove molds later this summer once I'm sure they serve no purpose for my .44-77. I may use one or both of the greasers for fire forming cases, maybe.

I've cast some bullets from the BACO mold, it casts very easy, and I find that patching that bullet with some Southworth 25% 9# paper I have the diameter is right at .438" and I have die that will size them to .4375". That will get me started for paper patch bullets.

I also have a variety of ppb I got from you and Don that I can play with.

I am trying real hard not to buy too many molds before I have the rifle, but being a moldoholic like I am it's not going real well. In looking around at what's available in paper patch molds I looked at the tapered Gibbs that Rick shows on his website. I emailed him asking about a .44 caliber of a similar style, the Sharps style. He asked for some kind of a drawing before he would say he could make what I wanted. I sent him the only thing I had at home at the time and offered to send a better drawing the following week after I would have time to draw one up on my computer. He told me if I had a CAD file that he could work with it would be even better. I'm designing bullets on my computer at my shop all the time so I made and sent him a good clean file and he sent back some 3-D models he made from my file. Pretty cool really. His models look just like mine so I am reassured that he will make exactly what I want.

This is the kind of thing I'm used to in tool & die. Toward the end of my working for a living that is all I ever got from customers was a 3-D CAD file of the part to work with, no drawing, no dimensions, nothing else. We took their part and designed and built a die to make the parts.

My Dad used to laugh and say that, "Some day you'll just have to feed the blueprint into the machine and a die will come out the other end!". He died before CNC really got started and just as NC was getting going, but he would not believe how close to right he was. He just didn't know the drawing would be in the form of a computer file.

Anyway, I may want to take you up your offer of using your mold later, after I have a rifle, but for now I think it's best not to have too many things belonging to other people just laying around and in danger of getting lost. That sort of thing happens around here all to often.

I do plan to try a number of different designs in PPB through my .44-77, I see this rifle as a Grand Experiment. So hold that thought and I may be asking for your help down the road.

It's been 8 month since I sent my rifle to Shiloh and I have no idea when it will fit into their system or when it might be done. I have a lot of money and time already invested in molds, brass, dies and other miscellaneous paraphernalia. I can only hope that some of it will prove useful!