Continuing development with the .44-77.

[Distant Thunder]

The Wisconsin Rapids mid range match is over and all participants survived despite the presents of many firearms including some high capacity ones! I'm still trying to figure out how that is possible because I know the guns out numbered the people!

As to my continuing development with my Shiloh .44-77 I think some progress was made, but I still do not have all the answers. I tested two bullets, one was my BACO 430520 (Metford) cast from 16 to 1 it weights 518 +/- grains and was wrapped with my 9# 100% cotton onionskin paper and then sized to .438". This mold was modified to cast at .432" diameter.

The other bullet was also from a BACO mold, number 431ADJ. This being an adjustable mold it was set to cast at 1.375" long which weighs 500 +/- cast from 18 to 1. This bullet was wrapped with SC 55W, the mold has been modified to cast at .434" diameter.

It was around 77 degrees with the humidity in the 70% +/- range and winds at 5 to 10 mph with some gust in the 15 to 20 range. Thunderstorms were in the forecast for the afternoon and they did not disappoint! The light winds were about as squirrely as I've ever seen, changing every 5 to 20 seconds and making it difficult to get a shot off in the condition you wanted.

This was scheduled as a practice match with one relay at 300 and 2 at 600, but with the T-storms coming we opted to start at 600 and decided to just stay there for 3 relays. I think most shooters kept score, but I know not every shooter finish all the relays. The last relay was cut short by rain as we pulled our equipment back under the covered line. That kept us somewhat dry until the wind hit. When that happened not everything stayed under the cover and anything that did was hit by the horizontal rain anyway. At a guess the wind gusted to 40 mph and several things went flying of the benches and into the rapidly growing puddles. My container of bore pigs was one of those and I ended up scooping them out off the mud and water. My shooting mat was submerged in a puddle of water even though it was under the cover. I had put my rifle in my car before the wind hit and a few other small thing but everything else was dripping wet when the rain and wind finally slacked off a bit. Not the way you want to end a match. Oh well!

The load for both bullets was exactly the same:

.060" LDPE wad
86.0 grains of Swiss 1 1/2 lot #040313
BACO converted .50-100 brass
Remington 2 1/2 primers.
Both bullets were seated .180" in the cases.

I started with my Metford bullet for 4 sighters and 5 record shots. Once centered the windage easily held 1 moa, but the elevation was from the 7 ring at 12 to the 7 ring at 6! I decided half through the string to try the 500 grain bullet from my adjustable mold and that did much better. I finished that relay with a 75-0.

For my second relay I just went with the 500 grain bullets. With things switching rapidly I just had my spotter tell me what the mirage was doing and I held 2 to 3 minutes left or right depending on what was needed. That worked at times and at other times I would have been better off to just hold center. We had avoided shooting in a boil, which of course was the predominate condition. At one point I decided to see what would happen if I did shoot in a boil. If I had held center it probably would have been a 10, but I held at the bottom edge of the black thinking it would go high because of the tailwind and where I held is pretty much where it
went, 6 ay 5! I finished with a 76-1X.

There were obviously other things in play and not just the mirage, but without wind flags it was hard to tell. We did have a couple of ribbons on a stake at 200 yards and I guess that worked for some, some of the time. I couldn't make it work when I was spotting, not any better than the mirage anyway.

My 3rd relay I used the 500 grain bullet again but I only shot 2 or 3 shots for record when the rain started. I didn't see any reason to get everything wet so I started pulling things off the line. Little did I know that getting wet wasn't going to be avoided!

At this point the 500 grain bullet seems to shoot pretty well compared to the other two bullets I have. I am now thinking through whether I want to shoot my .44-77 or just give it a rest and go to my .40-65 for the Lodi mid range match in two weeks.