Time to continue load development with my .44-77.

[Don McDowell]

Jim my thoughts on dual diameter bullets, run based on trials and tribulations using adjustable's. What I've came up with in my mind, is the base diameter prior to patching needs to be bore diameter, and the base length seems to be best when the base length is just short of caliber, IE 44/45 base length should be .4 and 40 cal works well at .375. And yes a person ends up sizing cases to keep the bullet from falling out. We've seen the difference quite often when testing here at the house, a bullet that falls out of the case before you can get it in the gun will almost always go out of the group. Neck tension is just as important with patched as it is with greasers.
Base diameter at bore diameter before patching should in theory help keep finning of the base and nose set back to a minimum, provided the paper doesn't get to thick. Altho there is a fly in the ointment with paper, as sometimes the same bullet in the same rifle will shoot better with the 55w than the 55Y, and sometimes you see absolutely no difference in accuracy so then it's up to you to decide which you feel like wrapping on any given day.
I also learned from close examination of that pull down bullet that it was seated way deeper in the case than we are often lead to believe a patched bullet should be seated. So what I do when seating bullets I mess around with a dummy round until I get the seating depth to where it will just chamber with minimal thumb pressure. Most times that gives an OAL that when you eject the loaded round you'll need a rod to push the bullet out of the bore.