Beaten without pleasure. (43 Spanish rangeday)

[ohland]

144119

This is about the only thing significant...

But on to the RB.

5gr 5744 under 70 grains FFg, .060 card over powder wad. Cases came out quite clean compared to the straight 2F rounds I touched off last week. Little smoke coming out from breech, cases popped out upon opening block. With the 2.5x scope finally tight in the mount, she pretty much followed the scope adjustments.

The boolits are a dog's breakfast, some VERY old .445-ish that were sized down to .439 (probably didn't help). Jameson brass looks good, easy to pop out the primers when depriming.

Still slapped me around like a 50 cal shooting Maxi-Balls. Really bounces off the front rest.

[Skipper]

Re: the breech smoke, have you annealed the case mouth/shoulder?

[ohland]

Re: the breech smoke, have you annealed the case mouth/shoulder?

I mean that AFTER you drop the breechblock, THEN the smoke comes out. I see no gas escaping the breech when firing.

[Southern Son]

Your pup does not look happy about you using the roof of it's day bed to make all that noise. Perhaps you should take it inside.

[ohland]

Your pup does not look happy

No, she isn't pleased. I can only figure that she is used to sitting next to us dove hunting. The old retrobate did try to get her to come over to him, but it doesn't work all the time...

[Don McDowell]

This is about the only thing significant...

But on to the RB.

5gr 5744 under 70 grains FFg, .060 card over powder wad. Cases came out quite clean compared to the straight 2F rounds I touched off last week. Little smoke coming out from breech, cases popped out upon opening block. With the 2.5x scope finally tight in the mount, she pretty much followed the scope adjustments.

The boolits are a dog's breakfast, some VERY old .445-ish that were sized down to .439 (probably didn't help). Jameson brass looks good, easy to pop out the primers when depriming.

Still slapped me around like a 50 cal shooting Maxi-Balls. Really bounces off the front rest.

This duplex load could be a large part of your case separation problems. 5 grs of 5744 would already be a 1/4 of the maximum smokeless charge, then combine that with the pressure of the blackpowder.....

[ohland]

This duplex load could be a large part of your case separation problems. 5 grs of 5744 would already be a 1/4 of the maximum smokeless charge, then combine that with the pressure of the blackpowder.....

Well, I'd buy that for a dollar. At roughly $3 per hull, it's not cheap.

Any suggestions for a sensible duplex for a 370 or so grain boolit in a 43 Spanish? FFg main charge, most likely in the 75 grain FFg range...

I4227, I3031, I4198, I4831, Unique, and a few more are available to be part of the duplex charge...

[Don McDowell]

I wouldnt' have a clue about duplexing for that cartridge, can see no need for duplexing.
I have the first 200 44-77 cases off the Jamison assembly line. They have been reloading dozens of times and the only ones I've lost have been to careless handling.

[ohland]

can see no need for duplexing

Simple, the BP rounds left lots of fouling in the cases.

[Dan Cash]

Simple, the BP rounds left lots of fouling in the cases.

Don't know what your definition of "lots" is but things like powder charge weight, compression, wad, brand of powder etc. have much to do with fouling. I would suggest you increase the BP charge and associated compression of the charge and see if that reduces your fouling. BP will leave residue in the case but smokeless excursions in these guns can leave residue of metal and meat on the range.

[Don McDowell]

Simple, the BP rounds left lots of fouling in the cases.

Well haven't had that problem shooting the thousands of rounds in my 44-77 with straight black.

[ohland]

Don't know what your definition of "lots" is

Well, the BP fouling was compounded with tumbling media... It was a good 3/32 thick covering the entire inside of the case.

Part of the fix for that is dropping the fired cases into a small jar with water and soap to cut the fouling.

I have not found the reference that the old retrobate got the duplex load out of, but my suspicion it was for a falling block, not the somewhat loose rolling block.

Measured a few more empty cases, they sat about 2.260-ish. I need to score on an original Forster case trimmer and get a #4 collet. The original trimmer will take a 43 Spanish, but the collet housing has to be opened up to @ .610 (all originals were changed to .610 in June 2010).

UPDATE: Ordered original trimmer kit and #4 collet. I have a pilot that is obviously not factory which should be pretty close to the case mouth. Close enough for now.

[ohland]

Or something like that. Old retrobate stuck a 2-6 LER scope on, I had to have my eye about 2" in front of the buttplate in order to get the scope to resolve.

Belle did pretty good under the bench. OR put a butt pad on with duct tape, and that REALLY cut the masochism down.

The LER scope is poor.