New bullet

[Distant Thunder]

Don,

I remember you telling me about the original .44 PPB being 1.300" and I am not surprised at that length being used then. I am sure they understood the whole length/twist thing pretty well.

It does somewhat matter on velocity in that the faster you can drive a bullet the longer that bullet can be and still be stable. So you can shoot a longer bullet if you can push it 1400 fps or more and if recoil is not a concern.

I really studied this length/twist a bunch when I had Shiloh rebarrel my old 1874 and I decided to go with a 17 twist. Unfortunately I got that rifle back from Shiloh right in the middle of the China pandemic and I didn't get to shoot it as much at matches as I would have liked to last year. Being I live in the wooded hills and bluffs of northeast Wisconsin shooting any real distance around here is limited and shooting at matches at longer distances is where the lead meets the paper.

This year is starting out very slow match wise and there just haven't been many matches so far, like one! If I had known I wasn't going to shoot very well I would have used my .44 2 1/4 and at least I would have learned something. I did pull the .44 out on Sunday at 800 yards, last relay of the match, and it did fairly well for me in some not so easy winds. At least well enough to give me some hope for this cartridge.

I had the BACO JIM430520 loaded over 86 of 1 1/2 Swiss a bullet which is close to Medford's design. Medford's bullet had a nose that was a little shorter at a bit over 37% of the length if you don't count the short and very slight angle before the actual nose starts. I'm not sure if that angle is really part of the nose and I've seen similar angles on other old designs. As near as I can tell they patched up over this angle and to the start of the ogive. I think it may have been a way of preventing the leading edge of the patch from catching and folding back as the cartridge was chambered. Medford's design would be very stable in tough winds if the OAL matches the twist. My bore diameter bullet is 1.457 long and weighs 518 grains +/-. My calculations say a 1.480" bullet would be stable at 1300 fps from a 17 twist. I always like to be just a bit shorter than the maximum length figuring that more stabile is more better and this bullet is good just as it comes from BACO.

I always use 1300 fps when calculating bullet length and that helps keep the numbers in relation to one another. 1300 fps is easy enough to get with the cartridges I use, .45-70, .44-77 and .40-65. Any velocity over 1300 fps is just a plus in stability the way I figure it. I'm pretty happy and comfortable with a velocity between 1300 and 1350 fps for all my shooting.

Using my numbers for a 19-twist .44 the maximum length would be 1.320". Staying a little short of that would put it right where you are with your 1.300" and would give you very good bullet stability in the hard winds.

The other BACO mold I have for my .44 2 1/4 is the JIM441505EPP. That bullet is a 2-D elliptical PP bullet that Arnie Seitz and I designed for my 17-twist .44-77 and it has shot very well for me out to 600 yards. I shot it once at 1000 yards last year but I had way too many other problems to know if the bullet was doing any good.

The one mistake I made on this bullet design is the length of the base band. I was worried about being able to get enough powder if the 2 1/4" case and I kept the base band as short as possible. That results in 90 grains of 1 1/2 Swiss being needed to fill the case. I could not get that much powder to work with minimum compression and adding more powder wasn't something I wanted to do.

With the the JIM430520 being a bore diameter bullet I've just been seating it deeper and using less powder with very good accuracy. So I now have some of the JIM441505EPP bullets loaded up with 85 grains and just seated deeper in the case. I will test these at 500 yards on Saturday at a gong match. That will give me an idea of how well it shoots with less powder and more compression. Not as good as paper but it's what I have.

If it looks good I'll load more the same and try them at a paper match in August. Yea, August! My match schedule is not too good this year. Too many matches on the same weekends and I promised the local guys I would be there if they had a match. I intend to keep that promise and I'll have to pass on some paper matches farther away to do so. I prefer paper though.

I do have an adjustable BACO mold and I have shot bullets cast from it in my .44-77 ranging from 1.100 to 1.420" and all have shot fairly well from my 17-twist. The problem with this mold is it is a shade too small in diameter for my rifle and paper. I need to open it up .002" like I did the 430520 which now shoots much better. I'm not sure when or if that will happen.

When it come to bullet length and twist it can be interesting as to what works and what doesn't. There are other factors in play that I don't yet fully understand, such as nose shape and velocity.