After using my heavy .44-77 at the 1,000-yard match down by Bend, Oregon, with bullets weighing about 405 grains and not doing quite as well as I had hoped, a new heavier bullet was seriously contemplated. Posted on 03/18/2020 9:32:43 AM PDT by w1n1
After using my heavy .44-77 at the 1,000-yard match down by Bend, Oregon, with bullets weighing about 405 grains and not doing quite as well as I had hoped, a new heavier bullet was seriously contemplated.
Actually, such a bullet had been on my mind for several months, but it was that 1,000-yard match a while back that told me I had better do more than just think about it. My thoughts included how a heavier bullet, heavier than the 405-grain original Postell style, should be more consistent at the longer ranges. But at the same time, I didn’t want to go really heavy.
A bullet with a weight of 470 grains or just a little more would be fine. Part of the bullet’s nose would be bore-riding, just a very tiny bit smaller in diameter than the bore diameter of the .44’s barrel. And the bullet was to have four lube grooves with no crimp groove so it would carry the needed amount of lube for shooting without wiping between shots. Finally, it was to get a double radius nose so it might look more like a bullet cast in a nose-pour Sharps mold. Authenticity in appearance means a lot to me and I do like my Sharps ammo to have the "flavor" of traditional Sharps cartridges.
Just a few hours after letting Tom Ellis at Accurate Molds know about these desires, he sent me a note saying the mold had been added to the catalog as the No. 44-470N. My order for a double cavity with aluminum blocks was placed just a minute after that.
The new mold was received a short time later and casting with it began almost right away, using a 30-to-1 alloy. A quick weight check showed 480 grains for the new bullets. That was just fine with me, and a small number of them were sized to .446 inch, lubed with BPC, and loaded in .44-77 cases over 70 grains of Olde Eynsford 1F powder. Read the rest of 44-77 sharps bullet.
Pull the trigger. Brew an espresso. Have a nap. Bullet strikes target.
470 grains. What is the recoil like?
doesn’t the extra lube grooves affect accuracy due to a little more turbulence, or do you use a harder lube alloy to try to keep some of it in place while traveling the wild blue yonder?
Black powder, so recoil is not as sharp as smokeless.
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