Reloading for 577 snider
- Thread starter drslav
- Start date
This is an old but tried and true recipe that leaves a less fouling and is accurate as long as your bullets are the right diameter.
First, your bullets should be hollow based with some sort of expander in the base. I use autobody filler. Cheap. Some fellows make up the plugs and push them in, I just fill the cavity and let it do the work of expanding the bullet skirt. Works fine.
I use CCI 250 Magnum primers under 6 grains of HS6, under 60 grains of FFG.
Nice safe load that seems to work just fine in both my rifle and carbine. Even in the winter, very few if any unburned kernels of powder on the snow in front of the muzzle.
One other neat trick I picked up a few moons ago for black powder cartridge rifles. It is cheap and very available in all of the hardware stores, Canadian Tire etc. Beeswax toilet sealing rings have just the right mixture to adhere to the bullets when you roll them in it, after they are loaded of course and just before inserting them into the chamber. The wax softens the BP fouling in the bore in front of the bullet as it progresses through the bore. Saves a lot of scrubbing between shots or other methods, such as exhaling down the bore. Helps keep the groups reasonably tight.
Pretty much coincides with Mike Venturino's article in the last Handloader magazine. The product he uses is called SGR, which looks very similar and I suspect may be the same thing at ten times the price.
First, your bullets should be hollow based with some sort of expander in the base. I use autobody filler. Cheap. Some fellows make up the plugs and push them in, I just fill the cavity and let it do the work of expanding the bullet skirt. Works fine.
I use CCI 250 Magnum primers under 6 grains of HS6, under 60 grains of FFG.
Nice safe load that seems to work just fine in both my rifle and carbine. Even in the winter, very few if any unburned kernels of powder on the snow in front of the muzzle.
One other neat trick I picked up a few moons ago for black powder cartridge rifles. It is cheap and very available in all of the hardware stores, Canadian Tire etc. Beeswax toilet sealing rings have just the right mixture to adhere to the bullets when you roll them in it, after they are loaded of course and just before inserting them into the chamber. The wax softens the BP fouling in the bore in front of the bullet as it progresses through the bore. Saves a lot of scrubbing between shots or other methods, such as exhaling down the bore. Helps keep the groups reasonably tight.
Pretty much coincides with Mike Venturino's article in the last Handloader magazine. The product he uses is called SGR, which looks very similar and I suspect may be the same thing at ten times the price.
That trick came from Smellie; it's a British Army thing.
I used a box that welding rods came in; Liquid Air IIRC. Non corrugated cardboard(0.30" thick) cut into 1 3/8" x 1 5/8" rectangles
Wrapped it around an 8 x 57 mm case and inserted it into the case. I liked it because the HB bullets ( HB filled with wax ) wanted to drop into the case slightly. The cardboard provided a perfect lip for them.
I suppose COW method would work just as well.
The cardboard tube just worked well for me...and the British army as well as the US apparently. I recall that 45-70 carbines used the same trick to reduce the loads. Cases retrieved from Little Big Horn still had tubes in them, I read somewhere...don't recall exactly though.
Good luck. Remember...no air gap, full case always. No matter what method you use.
stevejones
Regular
- Location
- Courtenay, BC
I'm under the impression that toilet seals are made from a synthetic wax now? I work in the plumbing industry and to my knowledge bees wax has not been used for some time. However, if it works who cares lol. I'm definitely going to give it a try! Magnum primers are the way to go as it burns the powder more efficiently. I use corn meal as a filler for two reasons: 1st it scours the bore each shot and reduces the fouling significantly. 2nd I believe that when the cartridge is fired it becomes a solid plug that causes the hollow base of the minnie to expand.
Cheers all.
Cheers all.
I don't know if it's synthetic or not. It smells like beeswax and sticks like you know what to the bullet. It doesn't take very much either. Just a bit smeared around the ogive and all is well.
At less than $5 per ring, it's as cheap as it gets and is easily stored in a different container or forced into a tube for easy carry.
I just use the short cases and the powder seems to fill the case and be slightly compressed. The autobody putty in the base just makes sure it works better. Without it, the rifles aren't nearly as accurate.
I see a lot of hype about measuring powder by volume. Not sure why. I have always loaded by weight when reloading off the bench. Even with muzzle loaders, I take along plastic vials with measured charges in them. I do the same for 45-70 in my 1874 Sharps. Whether it really makes a difference or I'm just being anal I don't know. I know it works for me.
At less than $5 per ring, it's as cheap as it gets and is easily stored in a different container or forced into a tube for easy carry.
I just use the short cases and the powder seems to fill the case and be slightly compressed. The autobody putty in the base just makes sure it works better. Without it, the rifles aren't nearly as accurate.
I see a lot of hype about measuring powder by volume. Not sure why. I have always loaded by weight when reloading off the bench. Even with muzzle loaders, I take along plastic vials with measured charges in them. I do the same for 45-70 in my 1874 Sharps. Whether it really makes a difference or I'm just being anal I don't know. I know it works for me.
Buy a copy of Lyman's BP Handbook and Reloading Guide. I think there are .577 loads in it.
BP is loaded by volume because the manuals give data in grains by volume not mass. The amount of powder by volume isn't the same as the mas weight either.
BP is loaded by volume because the manuals give data in grains by volume not mass. The amount of powder by volume isn't the same as the mas weight either.
If it's BP and a full case; whether displacing the extra volume with a cardboard tube or COW / Cornmeal, you won't have a wreck. Smokeless or BP sub...I wouldn't go there myself. Hard to tell what the outcome will be.
I run 90 gr of 1.5 Fg in my S-E loads and it's a pussy cat to shoot. Don't go with any less than FFg IMO.
Personally I'd stay with a volumetric measure, but in the end you will decide what advice you take and what you discard. Just wear safety glasses please, you only get one set of eye's.
I run 90 gr of 1.5 Fg in my S-E loads and it's a pussy cat to shoot. Don't go with any less than FFg IMO.
Personally I'd stay with a volumetric measure, but in the end you will decide what advice you take and what you discard. Just wear safety glasses please, you only get one set of eye's.
My Lyman Cast Bullet Handbook 4th edition only goes up to the .56-50 Spencer and the .50-70 Government.
The 3rd Edition goes up to .50-140 (3.25").
No .577 Snider or .577/450 in either.
You might try over at; http://britishmilitariaforums.yuku.com/ and; http://britishmilitariaforums.yuku.com/forums/2/SniderEnfield-Forum/SniderEnfield-Forum#.U_oBdZUg_IU
The 3rd Edition goes up to .50-140 (3.25").
No .577 Snider or .577/450 in either.
You might try over at; http://britishmilitariaforums.yuku.com/ and; http://britishmilitariaforums.yuku.com/forums/2/SniderEnfield-Forum/SniderEnfield-Forum#.U_oBdZUg_IU
