BACO bullet at 1000 yds

[Don McDowell]

Shot the BACO 434470 at 1000 yds on Sunday. Load was 76 grs Olde Eynsford 1.5 with a felt wad and rubber cork wad , bullet seated .5 in deep in a Jamison 44-77 case, primed with br2
Had some tricky wind to contend with and the tempture went up about 20 degrees while we were shooting these rounds.
Wife shot a few rounds loaded with the bh209 and the saeco 645 bullet in her hiwall 45-70
All in all I believe both loads shot fairly well.
http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f358/Ranch137/001-8_zps0002cb01.jpg

[John Boy]

Don - Thumbs Up. Good shooting

[Don McDowell]

Thanks John, this 44 is really coming together for me with the patched rounds. That's 2 loads using 2 different bullets and powders now that I can count on to go all the way to the 1k line wiping 2 wets and a dry in hot weather and 1 wet and a dry in cooler conditions. Have 1 other patched load that'll shoot to 800 with no more fouling control than a blow tube. That will be my Quigley load.
Then of course there's the greaser,,,

[bigted]

good to see your 44 doing well. it is heartening to me as the 44-77 will be my next cartridge.

just cant make up my mind yet whether to get my Hartford re-barreled to this that I would shoot more often then the 120 or get a #1 or a roughrider...then I made the mistake of looking at the c-sharps 1885 in this 44 chamber so now im all %*@%# up with so many choices.

really leaning towards re-barreling my Hartford tho as both the heavy barrel now on it and the chamber are neither one conducive to any amount of shooting and I really love that rifle. I think I would get a 28 inch regular weight octagon ...[instead of the heavy 30 that it now wears]...so I could feel like carrying it around a bit easier. the recoil would be non-existent compared to my current 120 chamber...LOL...[smilie=1: I called and talked to Lucinda and the rebarrel job will be around $650 shipped...not too bad I think. probably a bit more with another forearm to match the liter barrel configuration tho.

if the 44 is anything like my roller in 43 Spanish then I will really get along with the 44 as you have mentioned.

good shooting Don and thanks for posting and nudging me along towards my own goal...:wink:... that boolit...is it the hollow base swaged boolit of buff arms or a molded boolit from one of their molds?

[WARD O]

Don, I'm noticing the seating depth you're using - 1/2" - sure goes against the popular wisdom! Should also make for a great hunting load that won't come apart in your pocket.

Are you shooting the standard weight barrel or the heavy weight? It is a 30" isn't it?

thanks for the information
ward

[Don McDowell]

Ted if and when my fun money account gets healed up , my next rifle will be a standard #3 with a 30 inch barrel and sling swivels, in 44-77.

Ward this rifle is a roughrider with a heavy 30 inch, weighs a touch over 12 lbs.
For a hunting load, I'll use the Old West .435 bullet (aka tankbuster) probably in 1.1 inch length unless going after buff or other big stuff, then I'll load it at 1.35. Both of those bullets shoot quite well, to distances well beyond what a person would use in hunting and with that dual diameter , the large base gets a good grip on the case wall and the smaller diameter nose lets you shoot dirty. I've shot as many as 12 rounds with only blowing in the chamber and didn't loose any accuracy. Matter of fact I shot 13 of 14 hits on 2 and 300 yd targets at a match the other day and didn't clean between targets only used a blowtube. The one miss was the first shot at the second target and I had to bring my sight down a couple of points from earlier in the morning. then we were back on track.

[725]

Great shooting. I just have to ask, however. Is that an inflatable tire just under the 1000 yard bullseye?

[Don McDowell]

Hehhehee, lets just say that those tires used to be inflatable and hold air...LoL But the rims are about shot.. hardyaharhar har...

[Lead pot]

Yellow slime will keep those tires inflated :D

I think the .44-77 is a great cartridge that is greatly over looked. It is flatter shooting then a .45-70 and it makes a great hunting and target round.
Dont be afraid of a standard light weight barrel. My last Shiloh was build that nobody wants. It has a narrow cressent butplate, single trigger, and a light weight standard 30" barrel. I stayed with a 30" barrel for the extra sight radius because it will only ever have the Lawrence and blade front sight on it and it will hit more then it misses of the silhouette targets from the chicken line to the rams and it will also hit a Buffalo target past 1200 yards.
This rifle weighs in at under 10# and it is a plesure to shoot and easy to carry in the field. It will be baptised with Buffalo blood this fall.

[Don McDowell]

I'm not even worried about the recoil from a standard rifle in the 44 2 1/4. Heck my Italian #3 clone rifle with it's not quite 45-90 chamber pushing 80 grs of goex 1f and a 550 gr bullet is alright to shoot for long strings as long as you don't go prone with out a shooters friend pad on it. That's where I came up with the 30 inch barrel, the 32 on the CIJ is great for sitting around dingin stuff, but it's a techh long when you get into the deep dark spruce timber where the elk live.
I think the 30 inch barrel gives you the best of both worlds, long enough to burn most of the powder and get the velocity ,and give a good sight radius, but short enough to still be manageable.

[bigted]

yepper...my roller in 43 Spanish...2 1/4" case is a 35 inch barrel so it weighs not too bad...around 9 lbs...but the thing is so un-wieldy that I hesitate to use it anywhere that a twig may deflect my barrel and scare me and all game around. may hack it shorter as the value is already ruined as for a historic or collectors value. I shoot a 409 grain accurate boolit greeser with it and it seems to like it ok. my chamber is large and accepts a .454 inch boolit so my paper patch's are .450 and greesers are .452. so they fill the mouth without having to re-size em at all...just crimp slightly and shoot.

[Don McDowell]

Ted sounds to me like you need to call Shiloh and plead your case to Lucinda.:wink:

[country gent]

Good Shooting there Don Im hoping someday to try that distance. Arnt that many thousand yard ranges other than military ( and they get just a tad upset if you show up and use thier ranges un announced) here in Ohio / Michigan area. Last I had heard the 600 yd range in michigan had closed to non members. Just curious here But what is the time of flight for that round at 1000 yds? But very good shooting there.

[Don McDowell]

CG if you go over and look on the Shiloh page in the upcoming shoots, there is a bptr match in Michigan coming up here just shortly. If nothing else it might be worth your time just to go take a look at it. Also they shoot quite a bit of Creedmoor at Lodi Wisconsin, and at Camp Atterbury, and believe it or not at Quantico.
Tof on that runs about 3.5 seconds.
Thanks for the compliment, I know I am quite fortunate to be able to have a setup right in my back yard on my own property to do this sort of shooting. That's part of the reason why at times we might blow thru a case or 2 of powder, but never make it to more than 3 or 4 matches in a year.

[country gent]

I will look at that as the one in michigan might make a nice trip for me and a couple friends doing this right now. I can get around 800 yds at Dads but thats across the whole farm and no backstops other than nieghbors houses behind. I have to go to a private range in the area to shoot safely. Normally Sunday mornings. There are always 4-5 others (Before Hunting seasons up that to 20-30 on weekends). The club I belong to is 15 mins away. There is another with 500 yds but its 1 -1/12 hrs away and requires driving thru Toledo. You have a great benifit being able to shoot at home. To put that time of flight in perspective My M1A in 308 at 1000 yds was around 1 3/4 seconds. ( And I thought that was rough.) Again Thanks for everything. It is appreciated

[Don McDowell]

Keep us posted if you do go up to one of those matches.
Always glad to help if I can.

[littlejack]

That's nice shootin for sure Don.
Correct me if i'm wrong, but wasn't the 44-77 cartridge one of the main cartridges used in the old rifles to take a big amount of the buffalo?
My dad found one of the original bp 44-77 cartridges still intact and loaded when I was a kid in Concord, California. Dad worked at a rock crushing plant, and found it lying on the ground. He pulled the boolit out, poured out the bp and stuck the pp'd boolit back in the case. I had wished that that cartridge could tell it's story. My brother has the cartridge to this day.
Jack

[Don McDowell]

Thanks Jack. Yes the 44-77 was the most chambered cartridge in the sharps until the 45-70 took the country by storm. It's a good one.

[LAH]

Love that target. Nothing like custom stuff.

[Don McDowell]

Lyn , that "target" I believe was a truck bed extension, it was in a pile of stuff I bought at an auction for 75$, didn't care about that other stuff, but I could tell that piece of steel was a needed item..
The frame is an old Merril 7 wheel rake that had outlasted it's usefulness, and had been setting around not doing much for the last 7or8 years.
Built it with the idea of it being "movable" but we ended up parking it in that draw and it works pretty well right there.

[LAH]

Sure makes a nice target.

[Boz330]

I will look at that as the one in michigan might make a nice trip for me and a couple friends doing this right now. I can get around 800 yds at Dads but thats across the whole farm and no backstops other than nieghbors houses behind. I have to go to a private range in the area to shoot safely. Normally Sunday mornings. There are always 4-5 others (Before Hunting seasons up that to 20-30 on weekends). The club I belong to is 15 mins away. There is another with 500 yds but its 1 -1/12 hrs away and requires driving thru Toledo. You have a great benifit being able to shoot at home. To put that time of flight in perspective My M1A in 308 at 1000 yds was around 1 3/4 seconds. ( And I thought that was rough.) Again Thanks for everything. It is appreciated

It is a little bit of a drive but you might keep an eye on the NMLRA website under alternative range use. The matches at Camp Atterbury are listed there. There is a match coming up in Aug. They allow cartridge guns as well as the MLs in order to fill the ranks. There is a 1200yd match in Oct I believe. My shooting buddy has won it the last 2 years.

Bob