Greetings A-R Forumites!

I must admit I`ve never been in Africa(someday,maybe),but I have always cosidered all those big bore,mean and nasty looking
Safari rifles(bolt & doubles)as one of the most beautiful things
on this world(on par with Chevy Corvette,a tropical beach,Cindy Crawford and a white frost
covered can of beer )

OK,now the question.
When looking at the reloading pages here I noticed that even the the hottest loads for the
.577 NE listed here,were WAAYY below the nominal
British Cordite load:750grs/2050fps/7010ftlb.
Moreover they are actually weaker even than the
.500 NE 3" energywise!
I guess that may be for the following reasons:
-The test gun used(a 28" double,IIRC)was old or
had weaker lockup strength,what precluded firing
full-power loads.(Very possible)
-.577 NE brass is weaker i.e. thinner than that
of the .500 and .600 NITROs.(Possible)
-Someone in the load developing team suddenly
said "Hey,guys!Enough of this Hotrodding!It`s
become boring!Let`s download something now!"
(Impossible.I don`t believe it myself )

So,what`s the story?
Best regards

[ 06-30-2003, 20:37: Message edited by: DARTH 44 ]

i have shot a 577 quite a bit with double rifle loads

the suggested load is 119 grns of rel 15 750 grn solid with 25 inch barrels this load will give you 2050-2075 fps and your 7000+foot pound figure

A double rifle in any caliber must shoot about the same velocity as the cordite load in order to regulate the barrels to the correct POI...so this pretty much dispels your statement that the cordite load is more powerfull....

Simple process is the cordite load x 1.19 will give you a starting load of RL-15..

Cordite load x 1.33 will give you a starting load of IMR-4831.

You will need to tweek the above loads to 2050 FPS or wherever the two barrels POI's come to together.

Another interresting point is 4350 powder creates less recoil in the 500 and 577 than either of the above and will normally regulate rather well...Always use Woodleigh bullets to discover this regulation business as they near duplicate the bullets that these old guns were originally regulated with.

My 577 3 inch (Marcel Thys) regulates at 139 grain of 4831. 2075 fps. With Reloader 15 it uses 122.5 grains.

The 1.9 for Reloader 15 and the 1.33 for 4831 are starting points, not necessarily the final load. I have found that they are always a little light.

Sorry for the long delay in responding(I`ve been
out of my town for several days,
and
thanks for the interesting replies.

Mickey1,since I have the opportunity to ask,
is your Marcel Thys equipped with extractors or
ejectors? Unfortunately,my copy of GUN DIGEST
doesn`t mention that.

Regards