.577 Snider

The Goose

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OK so here is another of my whacky projects. I occasionally hear folks complain about how time consuming reloading can be. Check out what it took to get some shootable .577 Snider rounds.

I picked up this Snider at Zero Hour about a month or so ago to an abundance of shop jokes about how pre ban hi caps are tough to find for these old Sniders. Very funny. I wanted to bring the old girl back to life and make it shoot again (well). This rifle started it's life as a muzzle loader in 1863. In January of 1867 it was converted to a breech loader by installing a mechanism designed by Jacob Snider from New York. The British government had an ubandance of P-1853 Enfields. Much like the US had Springfields that were adapted to trapdoors by the Allin conversion. Somewhere over the years, a long time ago, someone bubba'd my rifle by shortening the barrel and the stock. They even carefully filled in the cleaning rod channel and checkered it (sort of). However, the action is tight and the bore is very good.

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I bought some Lee dies and 24 gauge brass. I shortened the brass to 2", annealed it and formed it in .577 sizing die. The picture below shows a 24 gauge brass case, a newly formed case and a fire formed case after being shot. Note how the newly formed case almost has a slight bottleneck that all but disappears when it is fire formed.

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I slugged the bore of my rifle and got .590. However, the Lee expander die will not expand beyond about a .580 bullet diameter. The original muzzle loader fired a .577 Minie ball designed to expand from the rear on firing. However, loading a Minie into a brass case inhibits that expansion so you end up with a .577 or so projectile wobbling out of a .590 bore. See Minie below.

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Regardless, I made up about 40 pieces of brass and loaded it up with Minies from a Lee mold. They measured .578 and I loaded them over 75 grs of Goex 2F. I will describe the loading process a bit further on. At 50 yards I hit a 4' X 4' target about half the time with tumblers and fliers galore. I just wanted to fire form the brass. While I was going through this I ordered a custom mold from Accurate molds that would throw a .590 bullet. When cast with pure lead the bullet measured .592 and weighed just over 500 grs. Just what I wanted.

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Now after many hours of work I had 40 pieces of fire formed brass and a hopefully suitable bullet. HOPEFULLY! So now here is the loading process. The 24 gauge brass takes a large pistol primer. I used CCI. Next I measured out 75 grs of Goex 2F black powder and poured each charge down a 24" drop tube into the case.

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Then a regular size cottonball to take up air space with a 24 gauge shotgun wad over the cotton and pressed down with a punch.

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Next is agrease cookie of SPG black powder lube with a .030 vegetable fiber wad over the grease cookie. I picked up a C. Sharps ribbon lube extruder which is a great tool.

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I hand lubed the bullet. In the future I may try pan lubing, but this worked fine for this bunch. I then seated the bullet and just pushed it down to the desired depth. Lastly I ran the round up into the sizing die (with the decapping pin removed) just enough to get neck tension to hold the bullet.

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And VOILA! The final product.

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I hit the range and blasted off my 40 rds. Unfortunately my camera crapped out and I have no photos. The Snider, like most old military rifles shoots way high, especially at 50 yards. Once I figured out where to aim I was able to get 3" - 4" five shot groups. I did manage to shoot one touching five shot group. I call that success for an almost 150 year old rifle in a long obsolete caliber. I will continue to experiment and find out what this old gal can really do,
 
Great job! I've had my Snider for several years now, and without the correct bullet I resorted to loading with a lead ball. Strange looking, but it worked.

I joined a group buy on the British Militaria forum and got a Lee bullet mold - .590 Semi-Wad Cutter. Haven't tried it yet (well, haven't started casting yet, either), but some day.

Here's a link to a shoot I went to several years ago - see post # 36. I'm the guy in the white pith helmet firing the Snider!

http://britishmilitariaforums.yuku.com/reply/50211/2008-New-England-Shoot#reply-50211


Enjoy!

*
 
Great job! I've had my Snider for several years now, and without the correct bullet I resorted to loading with a lead ball. Strange looking, but it worked.

I joined a group buy on the British Militaria forum and got a Lee bullet mold - .590 Semi-Wad Cutter. Haven't tried it yet (well, haven't started casting yet, either), but some day.

Here's a link to a shoot I went to several years ago - see post # 36. I'm the guy in the white pith helmet firing the Snider!

http://britishmilitariaforums.yuku.com/reply/50211/2008-New-England-Shoot#reply-50211


Enjoy!

*

I found those guys also. In fact I recently attended this years New England shoot. Most of those guys have forgotten more about British service rifles then I can ever hope to know. I also have a Nepalese Snider that I have shot .60 round ball with decent results. You are right, odd looking, but it works. If I can be of any assistance in the casting department let me know.
 
Awesome! Reloading for my Swiss Vetterli was similarly challenging. And yes it does shoot way high as well.

Now that is intriguing to me. Did you convert to centerfire ( I assume)? That is definitely on my list. When I was in the 7th grade in Athol, MA. I bought a Vetterli from a classmate for $5.00. After school I went to his house accross town and picked it up. Walked back through town with it over my shoulder and as I passed the Junior High School I noticed the car of one of my teachers, Mr. Bramhall, who i knew liked to shoot. I walked into the school with my Vetterli and found him. We examined it together, took it apart and discussed it at length. He was my history teacher and we discussed it from a historical perspective. One of my great memories. Left there with it over my shoulder and walked the 3 miles home. Different world then.
 
As always, great writeup. I will need to use the PC to view any pics unfortunately.

-tapatalk and Devin McCourty blow chunks-
 
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