44-77 Sharps paper patched load

[Kurt]

OK Eric.

It's been raining cats and dogs so I heated up the lead pot and got busy casting some bullets for you AND me When I started the mould was set for some heavy 507 gr and cast some for my .44-90bn and reset the mould for the .44-77. I normally use a 485 gr @ 1.330" for the .44-77 but the mould has hot when I re set it and they ended a little short at 1.315" but they should still shoot good. The pot was full of 1/18 tin/antimony/lead so they dropped out around 470 gr. I use this alloy for my match loads so it will be a little to hard for a hunting bullet unless you want to make a frontal head shot and have it knock the tail off when it exits but they shoot well punching holes or busting bowling pins, rocks if you don't have the pins.

Here is my load for the .44-77 with this bullet.
73 gr of 2F OE
Win LRP
butcher paper wad over the powder with a thin .012" poster board wad, the pretty florescent pink and yellow stuff
1/8" lube wad and a around .028 or .030" ?? plastic wad cut from a ice cream bucket.
I use 1/8" bullet seating depth for busting pins with just enough taper crimp to hold the bullet from falling out when I turn it upside down in the ammo box.
!/4" for a hunting load with a little tighter taper crimp so when I pull a bullet it pops. I also reduce the powder load to keep the same compression.
If you have any 2F KIK left I use 75 grs of that and it was a very good load with the same wad stack above.
I did a bunch of ladder loads using 1F KIK and 1.5 OE and never got a load that outshot the 2F KIK or OE. 3F OE also shoots quite well with this bullet 485 to 507 gr.
Don't worry about the lube migrating into the powder using the thin wads over the powder, I have never had this happen and my lube is very soft.
So if you want to try some of these bullets I will send you a 50 tray to try.

Kurt

[Eric Johanen]

Thank you Kurt. I'll PM you details. My last target shot was with 440 grain bullets and OE 2 fg. Pretty good results for the first time with that load. I have a very good supply of KIK 2 fg so I'll give it a try. 1/18 will be good as I am casting some 1/20 with the Brook's mold for steel banging. I'm using 3/16 grease wad of either SPG or DGL and both are working well, nice lube star on the muzzle with no leading observed. Also observed is the powder is combusting very well in the bottle necked case. When washing them up the water is a whole lot cleaner than the straight cases. Venturie effect? I am liking this rifle!

[Eric Johanen]

    Here is the comparison between the bullets Stephen sent me and the ones Kurt was nice enough to let me try. Both are from Brook's molds and when I sent Mr. Brooks 2 of Stephen's bullets he got them spot on with my exception of a slightly larger meplat, I'll be testing these with OE 2 fg. (It's possible that another mold my be in my future) Proud member of the "Mold of the Month Club"!!!

[Don McDowell]

When you really get serious about this. Have Brooks cut you one of the dual diameter bullets in the nose pour adjustable. Base diameter at .435

[Kurt]

Stephens bullet does have a longer nose radius then mine. I have one mould almost identical to it. When BACO started making moulds that design is what Dave and I worked on just mine is base poured. Being a member of the mould club of the month is OK. I think we all have a membership in it

[Eric Johanen]

Nice to have photo's for comparison. Kurt, it look's like the 14-1 and 16-1 take the rifling to the top of the patch. 12-1 seems just a might bit too hard. Must stop for now and load some food for" Lucrezia". I'm going to run those with 1 fg Swiss. 625 grain BACO Creedmoor's and Accurate 590 grainer's.

[Eric Johanen]

    Comparison between the bullets Kurt sent me and the bullet I'm currently using based on one Stephen sent. Stephen's design uses a patch width of 24/32" and Kurt's with a 26/32". Both have 3/32" folded under the base. Both are wet patched. I'll give them a side by side try later in the week.

[Kurt]

Eric Mine are dry patched. I don't wet patch mine.

[Eric Johanen]

[quote='Kurt' pid='20314' dateline='1491771055']
Eric Mine are dry patched. I don't wet patch mine.


Noticed that Kurt. I will test your dry patched bullets but I wet patched a few of them because I have not got that dry patch loading worked out yet. Noticed a lot of shooter's in our area dry patch....I'm a bit slow and still wet patch. Main purpose of the photo was to compare the width of the patches with the two different bullet styles. The location of the ogive on the bullets are very apparent in the photo. OAL of these bullets are really very close but the round nose packs on 38 grains more weight. Those Medford like bullets are like the after effects of a successful diet plan!

[Kurt]

Naw they are starved because they didn't get the game down to get a rounder belly