Home Forums Hunting & Shooting BPCR .44/77 bullet

Does anyone make a close copy of the old Ideal #466187 bullet mould? And if you have other favorite bullets for the old Sharps .44s I'd love to hear about them.

I dont have the Ideal mould but I do use that bullets profile in a PP and it is my go to bullet for the .44-77. It closely matches the ogive profile the original Sharps used.

I might add.
I also have a Brooks mould that is almost identical GG to the 466-187 and it is also a good shooter.
The long money bullet type of nose does not do well in my shiloh past 500 yards with it's 1/19 twist.
What .44-77 are you using?

Want some?

I don't have a .44 just yet but it is in the mill. It will have a Green Mountain barrel with a 1 in 17" twist. So I'm just looking around. And I do have a PP mould on order from Accurate Molds plus I have one of the RCBS GG bullet moulds. But the old #446187 appeals to me...

Hey Ranch, Yes, I could try a couple of those. What weight are they? Mike

Mike those are 480 grs, and .447 diameter.

Good doin's, Ranch. I would be glad to get a couple of samples and I could size and lube them myself. Mike

Well keep your eye on the mailbox, there's a small flat rate box left on the express riders mochilla this morning. Inside you'll find 20 of those postells,10 of Kurts original bullet from the Brooks mould, 10 tank busters from the old west mould at 1.35, and 10 from that same mould at 1.1, along with a small handful of those BACO reformed 348's that are to big in the web to chamber in my gun.

BRAVO!! I'll sure let you know when it gets here. Of course, then I'll be chewing my fingernails while waiting for the rifle. Mike

Hey Mike, If Don is sending you my bullets they ain't any good or he would have melted them back down LOL

No actually it almost hurt to send those 10 bullets, and I have comtemplated many times calling Steve and asking for one of those moulds of my own. lol
That bullet shoots as well or better than any other 1.1 inch bullet I've tried,altho yesterday there was a big glimmer of hope come from the shortened tank buster...More testing is definetly in order, as they landed so tight on top of each other at 300 yds, I'm really looking to see how far back from the target before they fall apart.

Those tank busters shot good in mine. I liked the tighter base they have and that held the ES down in the lower single digits I think by sealing the gas from blowing by before they completely fill the bore when the charge goes off. Kind of like a bore riding GG set tight on the lands.

That Brooks landed many 10 straight of the 1K iron while playing around in the mornings when the wind isn't doing it's square dance yet.

I was worried about that base diameter not being long enough to give it good balance, but when 3 of them hit the same spot at 300 yds, I guess that worry is for naught.
I am curious/anxious to see if they loose stability at greater distance or not.
The longated version shoots alright to 1k, but the accurate bullet takes quite a bit less elevation and shoots really well at that distance.

Ranch, Hey, the bullets got to me today. Now please tell me about that "tighter base." Questions, questions....

Those bullets are from an Old West mould that was taken from an original sharps round. It's nose pour adjustable and will go from the 1.1 inch to almost 1.6 inches making an extremely heavy bullet.
I've been wrapping those in 8lb paper for use in the 44-77, have some light copy paper that wraps them up nicely for the 45's but with that thicker paper they don't get a good enough rifling grip for long range shooting but out to 300 yds they work rather well, and have shot minute of antelope and elk.

The .44 caliber tapered paper patched mold from Accurate Molds has arrived! The single bullet I have weighed tips the scales at 402 grains (already patched) and so far I've loaded 10 of them over 75 grains of KIK 1.5Fg in .44/77 cases. None of those have been shot yet, of course, because I won't get my rifle from C. Sharps for another two days!

Pictures, without pictures, it didn't happen......

I know but let me comb my hair first...

Get a buzz hair cut and you wont have to comb it

And here ladies and gentlemen is the long awaited debut of Mikes bullet

Very nice but seated to deep for a target load. Might be fine for a hunting load though and that bullet looks well suited to that purpose.

Ranch, Thanks for posting the picture for me. I would have certainly stumbled it I had tried it.
Brent, Yes, those bullets are seated a bit deeply but please remember, I don't have my new rifle yet. I want to be fairly sure these cartridges will chamber easily for my first try.
And Kurt, I got a "buzz job" once, that was in boot camp. Yes, I've combed my hair ever since growing it back. (Of course, that was back in the "dark ages.")

You're welcome Mike. Will you be able to shoot this rifle when you get it Saturday, or are you going to have to suffer a few days before busting it's first cap?

Ranch, I don't know but I'll have the ammo with me. After all, I'll be at my brother-in-law's place and he does have his own range... But we have other doin's too, such as looking at some property. And so far Sunday is free and clear. I really should have a shooting report by Monday.

Sounds good Mike ,looking forward to your reaction to the rifle/cartridge and all.
I'm thinking that bullet might be a great one to shoot lube cookies or lubed wads under , and just using the blowtube, it might be a very good candidate for a "Quigley" bullet if it'll hold muster to 800 yds.
I have a tapered gibbs bullet from KAL that looks great shoots to 600 but by the time it gets to 8 it really stinks and if it land on target at 9 or 1k it's sideways..

Here's a picture of the Accurate 44-400b bullet our 44 fanatic from down under Gavin Dingham had Tom make up.
Looks to me like a pretty good bullet, might go ahead and have Tom make one of those up.

You might as well have Accurate make two of those 44-400B moulds. I'd better have one too.

I think that bullet would make a very good flat shooting hunting bullet for the .44-77 or the 90bn. The grooves are a little deeper then they need to be because most comes off the with of the exposed lube and not the depth of the lube. A groove .005" deeper then the land is deep enough anything more and you just wast the lube.

I assume you are talking about the short bullet on the right.

That is an interesting front driving band Never seen anything quite like it. But then I don't often peer at groove bullets. Is that taper doing something special, like significantly better aerodynamics, or better feeding into the chamber, or???

Seems that it might not scrape out the fouling of a previous shot quite so well. Not sure if that scraping thing really works anyway, but it was all the rage once upon a time.

Anyway, looks like it will work, but I'd be interested to hear about that front band.

Brent it is a crimp groove with the tube magazine in mind for the lever rifles.

Okay, that makes sense. Although with lever guns, I crimp behind the first band to keep the bullet from being driven back into the case. Admittedly, lever guns are a bit of a mystery to me however.

Yes that bullet traces it's roots to a bullet Accurate makes for the 444 Marlins. Gavin just had him up the sizes to be closer to the 44-77 barrels.
The bullet on the left is the copy of the postel bullet that Brooks makes for the 44-77. Same one as I had him make last year, it's a pretty decent bullet for a greaser.
I've been pestering BACO about getting their slicks up in size a few thousands for a bit better results in these Shiloh and other barrels. Guess we'll see if they want to mess with it or not.

My order for #44-400B went to Accurate this morning. Maybe soon I can brag about performance.

Which alloy on the blocks did you choose this time?

We'll have to do the bullet exchange thing. I won't be doing the Accurate bullet, BACO is building the .434 bullet I asked them to.. My mould of the month club money just got spent.

Ranch, I stayed with aluminum blocks but double cavity this time. I thought about going with brass but the brass moulds are so heavy it would wear out a little guy like me. And my three other aluminum moulds from Accurate are doing just fine. And I'll want some of those BACO .434s too. I got that box of their swaged .432s with the cup base but I'll save them for a little while.

It'll be 2 probably 3 weeks before that BACO block gets here. But that's all good that gives plenty of time to work with it, before anything major comes around.
I sure do appreciate them making that bullet mould. I also suggested a 1.1 in bullet but didn't request them to make it.

My new Accurate mould probably won't be here for about four weeks. Tommy has been busy!