577 Snider

[Shanghai Jack]

So looking at youtube and the various British military historical shooting sites and talking with Martyn at X-ring services I see a lot of people recommending a .600 diameter bullet after fire-forming cases with a barrel-sized round ball. Although I see them shooting, I am still leery of loading a boolit that is nominally .023 over bore diameter and setting it off right next to my ear. What are you guys shooting?

[Thundermaker]

.600 is a bit over groove diameter. The lands are .577.

[Bad Ass Wallace]

My 577 Snider (by J.C.Lord ) slugs .575"/.585" and I use a boolit that casts 0.588". When I do my bit it shoots very well at 50 yards. I to am puzzled by shooters using those oversized boolits.

https://i.imgur.com/l5VdvCLl.jpg

[martinibelgian]

Very simple, you fit the bullet to the throat. Even when using a smaller bullet, what do you think will happen upon ignition? That bullet will slug up to fit the throat.
BAW: did you take into account the odd no. Of lands when measuring?

[Bad Ass Wallace]

The dimensions were determined from a chamber casting rather than 'slugging' and was measured using an anvil micrometer. The boolit that I use is 589-420CCBB per the attached link.

https://www.castbulletengineering.com.au/products/rifle-moulds/577-snider.

[SteveOKo922]

Well, fireform your brass and see how big of a bullet you can fit and custom order a mold. Those guys on the BMF have been using that oversize bullet to good effect for a long time, myself included. I also use an over size .440 in a vetterli that is a slip fit in the case mouth. The same holds true for the Martini Henry bullet they use as well. I have used xringservices Martini mold in a mk3 with at least 1,000 rounds fired.
The bullet is sized to fit the large .470 throat and squeeze down to nearly .45 caliber.

Seems those who continue to try minie style bullets and resize thier brass to .577 have dismal results, unable to reproduce the strange ballistics of the hollow nose, hollow base orginal bullet that went through several iterations, critical to performance. It was, after all, a transitional rifle of imperfect design.

[SteveOKo922]

Very simple, you fit the bullet to the throat. Even when using a smaller bullet, what do you think will happen upon ignition? That bullet will slug up to fit the throat.
BAW: did you take into account the odd no. Of lands when measuring?

Didn't even see your comment before I posted my response. Your are entirely correct. Most military rifles of that era relied on obturating projectiles to fill the way larger throat immediately upon firing, ultimately swaging them down significantly. I also fire a french Gras with a .451 groove diameter with a soft lead, paper patched .440 bullet with good effect. The rifle otherwise will not shoot worth a damn.

[Thundermaker]

Also take into consideration that those barrels have tapered bores.

[pworley1]

I use a .580 hollow base bullet that performs well.

[Dante]

I have used many different bullets in my Sniders. I have had little success with any of the bullets which are to expand upon ignition to fill the bore. So, I purchased a Lyman .589” round ball mould and my accuracy improved. I then had access to a mould which cast round balls at .600”. These were amazingly accurate and they are all I use now. They work equally well in the slow twist three band rifle as they do in the faster twist Sgt. rifle (two band). I use black powder (FG) in these big cases as well as duplex loads. Dave

[Bad Ass Wallace]

Try 3FG in the short stubby case as it burns cleaner. I also built my "Super Snider" on a Martini Henry frame, 92gn FFG and a 620gn boolit certainly gets your attention.

https://i.imgur.com/l5VdvCLl.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/0b7mFCpl.jpg