43 spanish

[bigted]

i have found several very good deals on pristine old roller rifles...kinda sparks an interest and so i went to my cartridges of the world to compare this spanish to the 44-77 sharps...they are very similar with very few differences.

so thought id ask here is any have experience with the spanish by itself or in comparisson to the 44-77? seems like this should be a dandy and run the 44 a good race.

any info will be very welcome and invited...thanks.

Ted

[Nobade]

Well, I have a Argentine carbine in that chambering. Haven't done a lot of work with it yet, but have some observations. One is make sure you have a source for cases. I got mine on the last day Jamison was in business, and I hear they are coming back but until then brass is a problem.

My rifle isn't terribly accurate. The chamber design isn't really the best for accuracy, very long neck in the chamber where the boolit sits and no real throat. Obviously designed to be able to fire with a very dirty bore but doesn't give that boolit much guidance toward the target. I have heard of people getting very good accuracy from their rifles but I haven't seen it yet. About 4 MOA is the best I have been able to produce. Of course this is a carbine with very crude sights and a 15 pound trigger pull.

The cartridge itself is great. Holds a bunch of powder and a respectable sized boolit. In a chamber designed for accuracy it should be as good as anything else in its class. Reasonably light recoil and quite high muzzle velocity.

[EdZ KG6UTS]

[QUOTE=bigted;.....so thought id ask here is any have experience with the spanish by itself or in comparisson to the 44-77? seems like this should be a dandy and run the 44 a good race.

any info will be very welcome and invited...thanks.

Ted[/QUOTE]

My roller is the original .43 Spanish not reformado, non Argentine. The rifle is in VG or better shape with a few minor surface scuffs and a sharp clean bore. It could have been a contract production overrun, perhaps never issued.
.43 Spanish and .44-77 are darn close with minor bore dimension differences. For BPCR events the .44-77 is American so can compete and new American rifles are available for order. While it is just a stock military rifle my rifle is fun to shoot and one of my favorite toys...no slight to my 1874 Sharps in .45-70 intended.
Brass and Lyman bullet mould 439186 came from Buffalo Arms, loading dies are NOS CH4D from who knows when but looks like 1950's were a gun show find. So far all I've used GOEX powder because thats what I have here but will try some others in time. Rolling Block Parts has a trigger return spring kit for $15 that helps trigger pull on military models. They are nice folks too! They also sell Croft Bakers book "Shooting the .43 Spanish Rolling Block" and "Military Remington Rolling Block Rifles of the World", the first for shooting 2nd for history.

Good luck and have fun with the Rolling Block!

http://www.rollingblockparts.com/
www.buffaloarms.com/
www.ch4d.com/

EdZ KG6UTS
San Diego/Borrego Springs

[drcook]

here is an interesting read that I found a while ago

http://www.scorrs.org/articles/spanish43.htm

[bigted]

riton...i wondered how much of a trial they would be and that article said it very well...with enough messing you can get anything to shoot well enough...just not sure im ready for that amount of messing.

thanks for the info all and ill continue reading and gathering info before i jump into this particular fire.

[Don McDowell]

Ted I don't know about getting the 43 to shoot, but this 44-77 was the easiest rifle since my wifes 308 that I've come across to shoot iddy biddy groups with little load work up.
I'ld not hesitate to get a rifle in the 43 chambering and go to work on it. KIK 1.5, Goex 1f and Cartridge will most likely be you're very good friends.:razz:

[mdevlin53]

Ted i have a RB carbine in 43 spanish and its a hoot to shoot. I have not tried black yet but i did put together two different loadings with a modest charge of 4759. I bought a mold off the swap section a 43-370-FN RCBS and i had some .430 250 grainers that i paperpatched to .440. Each shot on a a quarter of a target at 25 yards. The sights are not made for my eyes. It is a fun gun quick to mount and not a chore to carry. I will be loading up some black for the next trial i will let you know how that works.