can 44-77 cases be used in a 43 Spanish

[combat32]

Picked up an old South American Roller in 43 Spanish, found bullets but no brass available at this time from the usual sources. Can 44-77 cases be used, they seem to be pretty darn close except for neck size.

[Nobade]

I use 44-90 Shiloh cases from BACO. Set the shoulder back with 43 spanish dies and trim to fit your chamber. Much better accuracy than 43 Spanish cases in my experience. Holds a lot more powder too.

-Nobade

[Don McDowell]

43 is a bit smaller in the neck.

[Nobade]

One thing I didn't mention - those cases come two ways. The one called "Shiloh" is the original, and they also make one called "C. Sharps". The latter has a thinner rim and you don't want it. The Shiloh ones have the thicker rim, which isn't quite as thick as 43 Spanish, but since it's a bottleneck it will hold headspace on the shoulder and the rim doesn't seem to matter. The 43 Spanish case is 3/8 - 1/2 inch shorter than most chambers so the chamber itself forms the throat. You can imagine what is happening to your boolit as it goes from case to rifling. Making your cases the right length so there is no jump to the rifling really helps things. My little Argentine carbine went from a 8 MOA gun to a 2 MOA gun just by changing the cases. Plus there is now plenty of room in the neck for a wad stack and/or grease cookie. After they are fireformed I never use dies on them again - I just load them with a paper patched boolit that is a snug slip fit in the case mouth and shoot. Works beautifully!

-Nobade

[combat32]

Thanks for that info Nobade, I will give it a go

[combat32]

Well I ordered two sets of cases, 10 of the 44-77 and 10 of the 44-90 that Nobade suggested, well of course the 44-77 cases showed up from track of the wolf first. I noticed on their website that their 44-77 and 43 spanish cases are formed from 348 winchester, they are exactly the same except for neck size. So I ran them through my sizing die and it reduced them down no problem and they load just fine. I slugged my bore and it is a true .439, I believe this is a Remington produced gun and does not have the chamber problems a lot of 43's seem to have. So I loaded up some .439 385 grain bullets over a 030 Walters wad on top of 70 grains of pyrodex select using a Federal large rifle primer to light her off. I only made up 5 for testing, first round was safety test fire with a string and then put the next 4 on paper. I got about a 2 and 1/4 inch group at 50 yards, not too shabby. Will keep experimenting with this brass while waiting on the other to show up.

[missionary5155]

Good morning
Have a Roller in caliber .43 Spanish I picked up in Phoenix about 1980.
Best accuracy I have had with that rifle using bare boolits (40-1) is in the .442+ diameters with 2F. 350 to 425 grainers are all about the same.
Slug your throat area. Many origonal cartriges I have seen here in Peru were paper patched. A 40-1 dropped from a .439 mold shoots nicely when finished outside PP diameter is around .442 in my Roller. My chamber with my 30 year old Bell Brass will acept .444 boolits for smokeless shooting.
I have turned my necks to accept fatter boolits whether PP or bare.
The military rifles (I think) were all fat throated so to be able to keep on shooting no matter how fouled the chambers and throats became. Troopers under attack were very couragious with a rifle that would fire. Pristine accuracy in a battle was not stressed but "Keep up the fire", and "Pour it to them" was the rule of the battle.
As with all rifles, check the throat first.. fill that area as much as practicaly possible and you are headed towards accurate loads.
|Mike in Peru