Enfield 577

[danyboy]

Anybody knows where I could find any info on reloading this caliber, i.e. where I could get brass, bullet mold, loading info ?
danyboy

[MtGun44]

I think you have embarked on a major project there. I looked into this
a bit when thinking of buying a .577 and it put me off. Apparently the
brass is difficult to get, but the main issue is that you have to load with
BP and the need to fully fill the case combined with the huge boolit and
huge case apparently leaves you with a really hard kicker. One fix done by
the Brits was to put a large thickwalled cardboard cylinder into the case
before forming the bottleneck to permit reduced loads without air
space. I have read of some fully machined brass with ultra thick case
walls to keep the powder capacity down.

Best of luck, keep us posted. These are interesting rifles but the project
seemed a bit beyond my interest level. A lot of neat history in those
rifles.

Bill

[Morgan Astorbilt]

Is this the .577 Snyder-Enfield? If so, Frank Barnes's "Cartridges of the World" has loading info. They also state BELL Basic Brass .577 Nitro Express brass can be used to make this case. (Is BELL still around?) Lyman's got four different #575213 minnie ball molds, (one a Parker-Hale), two of which should work with this cartridge. Barnes is showing 30-31gr. loads of IMR 4198 with these bullets. Good Luck
Morgan

[Cap'n Morgan]

Anybody knows where I could find any info on reloading this caliber, i.e. where I could get brass, bullet mold, loading info ?

http://britishmilitariaforums.yuku.com/


http://britishmilitariaforums.yuku.com/topic/2615

[mag44uk]

Buffalo arms for brass and moulds.Lee make die sets for Sniders and Martini`s.
Both are not too bad to shoot. Just think 45-70 with BP. Use chunky BP to keep density up and weight down!.
Sniders seem to shoot better with round balls.
As said the british militaria forum has all the info.
Good luck.
Tony

[dromia]

I'm assuming you mean the .577" Snider-Enfield rather than the muzzle loading .577" Enfield as you refer to brass.

Rick Kalnyuik makes a fine 350 gn .590" Paradox/Collar Button mould that is designed for the Snider, and shoots really well.

You can go to Ricks site from here:

http://kal.castpics.net/

Buffalo arms is good for supplies as already advised, I wouldn't personally touch Jamison brass with barge pole no quality control or product support.

Here's a link to the Paradox/Collar Button thread, it has load info for that particular round:

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=31451

[Buckshot]

................Pretty important is the twist. Military Sniders came in 2 flavors. A 72" and a 48" twist. The later is most desireable, but the slow twist will also shoot if fed right.

http://www.fototime.com/A473EABF318E515/standard.jpg

Lee makes dies, and you can use the Mag-Tech 24ga brass shotshells for cartridge cases after cutting to length. They use a large pistol primer for ignition. These cost about $20 for 25. Or there is Jamison brass and Bertram brass for considerably more.

http://www.fototime.com/AD10AA21E7DA774/standard.jpg

These are REALLY ugly, huh?:drinks: These are in the trimmed 24ga brass shotshells and they work great. They're loaded with 1Fg BP in various charges and an 'active' filler, ie: COW/BP in a 50/50 mix by volumn. Since both my Sniders are the slow twist, it's easier to get them shooting well with a round ball. I use the Lee .600" RB mould to make'em.

After loading they get a mild crimp. Then each gets dunked nose first into some melted BP lube. Not a long term means of doing it, nor would you want to carry a bunch around in a pocket:bigsmyl2:

http://www.fototime.com/AAA154F8ADB8308/standard.jpghttp://www.fototime.com/35572699B1D8361/standard.jpg

The target was shot at 50 yards from my carbine. Got a big Oopsie high left! Compared to other shooting done with the carbine and the 3 band, this is match grade accuracy, HA! I hate to say it but they're so much fun to shoot it doesn't seem to matter a whole lot if you hit anything or not.

As Cap'n Morgan posted, http://britishmilitariaforums.yuku.com/ is the place to go for an in depth and wide look at the feeding of the .577 Snider.

I have several loose actions http://www.fototime.com/D72A587F8500876/standard.jpg like this Mk II **.
The idea is to eventually have the fine folks at the Oregon Barrel Company http://www.thegunworks.com/GunIndex.cfm make a barrel for me. They custom make them to your land and groove dimensions, and you can also specify the twist. My thinking is to make a half stock sporter with a half octagon to round barrel with a 40" twist, maybe 28" long. The only problem is coming up with a chamber reamer.

.................Buckshot

[danyboy]

Wow, this caliber seems like quiet the challenge to reload. I thought starting with the 71/84 Mauser was a challenge, looks like I haven't seen anything yet !
Picture of the rifle is attached.
Thanks to all,
Danyboy

[Bad Ass Wallace]

Yep nothin quite like busting varmints at 10 feet with a 577! :Fire:

Mine is a J.C. lord sporting rifle that was issued to guards in India. I use Bertram brass, 73gn FFG with a Lyman Parker Hale mould. This requires cornmeal filler over the powder to fill the void.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v152/BAWallace/Lord_A.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v152/BAWallace/IMG_0108.jpg

[Cactus Farmer]

sportingorting and 577 sounds like an oxymoron to me.......nice rifle though. I need to find an action,I have the reamer so a barrel,brass and dies just seems to follow,right? Am I hearing a yes?:bigsmyl2:

[Bad Ass Wallace]

These folks have proper 1:70 twist barrels!

http://www.longrifles-pr.com/gmstraightoctbarrel.shtml

http://www.whitacresmachineshop.com/

[Buckshot]

sportingorting and 577 sounds like an oxymoron to me.......nice rifle though. I need to find an action,I have the reamer so a barrel,brass and dies just seems to follow,right? Am I hearing a yes?:bigsmyl2:

.............Yup! Next you'll need a lock to set her off, and a stock to hold it all together :-) Where did you get the reamer, and what kind of chamber does it cut?

.................Buckshot

[Cactus Farmer]

I made the reamer for a project rifle...58 Zouave barrel on a big Martini action. It shoots well,kicks a might but well. The fellow I did it for had a guy in El Paso do the wood and finish as I got "0" for my time. Now he tells everyone that he build it or that it was restored by him from a rifle he got on a clansestine trip to South Africa back when he was in the "alphabet people's" employ. Strange fellow. At least I got to shoot it with an old military stock and a cobbled up set of sights.
I shot 58 minni bullets with good results,sub steel chicken groupps at 50 meters. It's a little rough on the chains holding the chicken though..........