44-77 Sharps paper patched load

[Eric Johanen]

    Just loaded a few more rounds for fire forming and settled on 3.118 OAL. This will clear a fouled bore and allow for dirty shooting. 74.0 grains of OE 1.5 fg, card, lube , card for the column and the 440 grain bullet at 1.285 length, patched short of the ogive. I should be able to load 76/77 grains in the fire formed case. I'll work with 2fg Swiss and OE for starters.

[Don McDowell]

Chip Mate was shooting his 4477 at Phoenix using OE and a geese groove bullet much like the one I had built at 1.3 inches. He said he could see no difference in accuracy between fire formed and non formed cases in his rifle

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[Eric Johanen]

Don, what is the bullet weight at that length? 470 grains or so? Your rifle is running a 1X19 twist standard for Shiloh? At 440 grains I think it should shoot well and is plenty heavy for game shooting. Can't wait to get a good load worked up and put to use on steel and hunting in the fall. I'm going to use the 50-70 Sharps Military Rifle and this 44-77 Hartford for gong matches this year. Open barrel iron sights and "Kentucky windage"!

[Don McDowell]

Those bullets are 455 gr.

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[Eric Johanen]

    Yesterday fire forming more brass. 25 yard pistol target at 100 yards shot from the bench. Six O'clock hold. 34 degrees and over cast with low humidity. Lawrence rear, Hartford front. Just load and shoot, no fouling control. Rounds 8 and 9 fouled out and landed at 8 just off the 7 ring and the 5 at 6. Wiped the bore and noticed fouling at the chamber mouth and muzzle. 2'nd string again 7 shots and fouled out on 8 and 9. 6 at 4 and 5 at 5. Cleaned the bore and held a bit more front sight and fired the last 8 shots. 7 in the black and the 8th shot landed at 6 in the 8 ring. I am going to put the target sights on the rifle for further load work up. This should cut down on sighting errors. I'll try 74.0 grains of OE 2 fg. and wipe between shots and see if the rifle will shoot.

[Don McDowell]

77 gr of OE 2f or 78 of 1 1/2 seems to be where both my rifles like to run with most bullets.

[Eric Johanen]

Thank's Don! We will get there soon. Kurt mentioned he runs the 74 grain load so I thought I'd start with that and then work up. Look's like 7 rounds down the bore is good enough for deer hunting! Hope I never need more that 2 but it's nice to know that up to 7 will tear the plumbing up on critters in front of the gun. On this target I paid no attention to the wind.

[Don McDowell]

Running the tank buster bullet I've shot into the 90's with some x's at 2 and 300 yds, using just a blow tube in midrange prone matches. Also ran the 36 in. gong at Alliance at 500 yds. Once you find that sweet spot the ol 44 will run and run hard.

[Eric Johanen]

    Things tightened up a bunch today. 25 yard timed and rapid fire target at 100 yards off the bench. Fire formed brass and 74.0 grains of OE 2 fg. The Hartford front sight is exactly as wide as the bull at 100 yards so a slight error in alignment shows up on the target. I have a 3/64" shim under the rear sight and the POI is now on the front sight at 100 yards. Initial shots on the left of center so a slight windage adjustment was called for. Centered up and shot the rest of the ammunition. The 9 at 9 and the 8 at 8 poor sight alignment. X's held up just a bit too much front blade. 9 at 3 again sight alignment. Those 2 6's at 5:30...well I really don't know. They looked good when I started to break the trigger. Tried 2 shots at 200 on the SR target and the bottom notch will require adjustment once I have "the Load", Things are starting to come along nicely. Good deer hunting load!

[Kurt]

Eric.

I never got the accuracy shooting the MB like your using in the .19 twist .44-77. It does OK, not great, in the larger capacity .44-90 BN with the 19 twist but in the smaller .44-77 it falls short. I have that bullet in PP and GG.
Send me your mailing address through the PM here and the next time I start the lead pot I will cast you some what I use in my .44-77. Right now I'm working on my Daughters loads getting them to shoot at the Q so it might be a while before I will cast some.

I use these for everything and they will shoot as far as your sights have elevation. I don't shoot matches with my Hartford and I don't use a tang sight, it's a hunting rifle only for me.
I played with this rifle at the Q and Baker as well as other places where I can shoot long range to see what it can do and I once had the tang sight on it and this rifle is very accurate. Using the Lawrence and Hartford front sight I made 18 consecutive shots on the 800 yard buff at the Q during the week days on a calm early morning. Sometimes I ask myself why don't you use it for the gong or silhouette shoots.
I use this bullet and a tapered Gibbs from a mould made by KAL up in Canada. The Gibbs mould drops a bad bullet but cleaning it up it does well. I think a bullet from a good mould it would also be very good. I would send you some of those also but it is one of 3 moulds missing from my drawer I loaned out and forgot to whom and they never sent it back home.

Kurt