Thread: Difficult to find case making 43 Spanish 11mm Mauser 44-77

These three cases
43 Spanish
11mm Mauser
44-77
Are basically the same thing with a few thou difference in neck and bullet diameter

They are a pain in the arse very early bottle neck orphan cartridge family now.

Cases can be made by sizing up then sizing down and some lathe work using 348 Winchester brass.
Hard to impossible to find.

Another option is cutting to length, sizing down necks fire forming up or swaging up 45-90 brass.

I have a 44-77 rifle incoming.
So this morning I decided to try making a set of expander dies to form up from 45-90.

I made a set of expanders to bring it up in stages.
I made a bush for my big press to keep the expanders straight with the case in the press in its shell holder.
Tap the expander in.
The shoulder of the expander then becomes an extractor on the bush .
Used the 3 expanders on a 45-70 case ( lots of those on hand ) to test the theory. And got the exact size I wanted.

So then do the same to a 45-90 case ( not many do precious but more available ) and find I only need the first expander because the case web is much heavier than the 45-70s.

So the cases do have a 0.3mm doughnut just above the rim.
But the base is now the correct size.

Now trim to length and run it into a 43 Spanish sizer die and you are good to go





Now I have ground truthed this process I need to go get my 44-77 make a chamber cast, cast some .446" bullets and go shoot a North American Buffalo