The Sig 277 Fury at 80,000 PSI

[CowboyTutt]

That's not a misprint, it uses a 3 piece case with a steel head. I'm surprised I hadn't heard of it sooner. Its going to burn up barrels pretty fast I'm thinking as more pressure ='s more heat ='s more erosion.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FaGwccUSHes

277 FURY SAAMI (voluntary) Maximum Average Pressure (MAP) chamber pressure of 80,000 psi (551.6 MPa) enables a 135 grains (8.7 g) projectile muzzle velocity of 3,000 feet per second (914 m/s) from a 16-inch (406 mm) barrel.

Still pretty amazing though! -Tutt

[CowboyTutt]

It sounds like Sig is coating the barrels with something:

"They told us the preliminary numbers, though, and we had to ask again to clarify because it didn’t sound possible. We can say that with specific barrel coatings the barrel life with the .277 SIG Fury is better than the speculation in the forums and better than you’re imagining.
Way better than you’re imagining. Can’t wait for SIG to finish testing and release the final numbers."

https://www.gunsamerica.com/digest/277- ... mystified/

[Bill in Oregon]

I saw something on this a few months ago. Time and technology march on, and yet here I am contemplating what chamber to have reamed in my new .40 rolling block barrel ...

[CowboyTutt]

I get you Bill, I get you! I've already over-hauled the 11mm Mauser with a ultra long range bullet and load, and now I'm working on doing something similar with the 303 British in a 1942 Savage #4 Mark 1* for shooting it at 1538 yards at FoBD (Friends of Billy Dixon). Its taking longer than expected but it's moving along. Then there is the 375 H & H Ackley project with new Hornady 390 grain A-Tip bullets and RL 26. And a new 454 Casull load with Alliant 300 MP. Or the 416/284 McPherson project on a Win '88 levergun (Mic is not actually doing this build for once as he has retired from gunsmithing but Aria Ballistic Engineering is doing it for me and they are very competent and highly recommend them!) So many projects, so little time! But this new tech is interesting to me. I will keep an eye on it. Its designed for tech hunting so far, for the hunter who packs in for miles and packs out and it would fulfil that role very well. But I would truly like a larger diameter cartridge so may have to wait a while. Something in 35 would be my first choice but 30 might work. -Tutt

[Grizz]

80k! just so you can kill a deer a mile away! you still have to walk over to where it fell and pack it out from there. might as well walk over there first, drop it with Blaine's Airweight 22, and then pack it out.

just kidding you know that, right?

i would love to shoot that gun a few hundred times. take it out to the anchorage and shoot starfish at low tide, and clam shells on the beach, and the deer that peeks out to see what's going on . . .

this technology is mind boggling. i wonder which caliber the army snipers are using?

[piller]

I wonder if they might be using Stellite lining in the barrel? The M60 got Stellite chambers and a couple inches of barrel lining. It made them last much better.

[KWK]

80 ksi and a 16” barrel sounds as if the concussion will be rather unpleasant.

[wvfarrier]

Thats A LOT of pressure for a bolt gun. I would imagine a barrel life under 1500 rounds.

[Bill in Oregon]

Tutt, love those 11mm Mauser and .303 long-range projects! Let us know how you do in the Friends of Billy Dixon shoot. We had something similar at the Central Oregon Shooting Sports Association range out in the Oregon high desert east of Bend. That's where our friend Earl shoots.
I have been to the site of the Second Battle of Adobe Walls, where Billy Dixon made the shot, and where he is buried. Holy pilgrimage. Highly recommend the biography "Life of Billy Dixon," by his wife, Olive.

[CowboyTutt]

80 ksi and a 16” barrel sounds as if the concussion will be rather unpleasant.

Could be, all relative though. My 375 H & H AI cartridge is longer by .25 inches and has no muzzle break. It does have a 25 inch barrel IIRC. The blast standing 10 feet to the side rocks you on your feet! Its not so bad to the shooter when standing.

I wonder if they might be using Stellite lining in the barrel? The M60 got Stellite chambers and a couple inches of barrel lining. It made them last much better.

McPherson mentioned the same material. I will have to look that up. Sig has not disclosed what it is yet that I can tell.

Tutt, love those 11mm Mauser and .303 long-range projects!

Bill, the Mauser project is long done and it shoots very well. Last Spring myself and McPherson (Randy Arnt was not present but Shirley Jarvis and Bernie Rowles were) the only ones to hit the FoBD target at 1538 yards in some of the worst, most mind boggling wind conditions I have ever shot in. Mic did it with an 8mm Mauser no less. So I know this bullet and load shoots.

The 303 Project is coming along. Version 1.0 was a 205 grain lead bullet designed to David at Buffalo Arms specifications and SLOWED DOWN to 1600 fps. We have found a factory load to be inconsistent, hitting one day, going completely unstable the next as it goes transonic. I didn't have enough sight to even attempt the FoBD but I could shoot it out to about 600 yards. The sight conversion was surprisingly easy, just add 50%. So now I have a sight extension being made and custom 1.5 inch bullet being designed for V2.0. I think it is going to be a round nose boat tail at about the same 1600 fps. -Tutt

[CowboyTutt]

80k! just so you can kill a deer a mile away! you still have to walk over to where it fell and pack it out from there. might as well walk over there first, drop it with Blaine's Airweight 22, and then pack it out.

just kidding you know that, right?

i would love to shoot that gun a few hundred times. take it out to the anchorage and shoot starfish at low tide, and clam shells on the beach, and the deer that peeks out to see what's going on . . .

this technology is mind boggling. i wonder which caliber the army snipers are using?

Grizz, you actually bring up a good point really. Some would say that shooting an unaware deer at long range is not hunting, just shooting at living targets. Also because of the time it takes for the bullet to get there and the deer moves....so probably not the most ethical form of hunting for the majority of people. I only know about 2 people capable of harvesting game ethically at long range (lets define that as 300-800 yards at most) but there are probably more out there. It requires a particular skill set of knowing the dope on your rifle impeccably, but also knowing the animal's behavior in the moment it would seem to me.

As to which cartridge the US military is using:

By the way, the .277 SIG Fury arose out of SIGs project to build a light, belt-fed .277 machine gun cartridge and rifle for the U.S. military. I’m not sure if they’ve won the contract or if the testing is still underway, but the civilian bolt-action rifle and ammo should become available in 2020.

The US military dictated the specs of what they wanted in a cartridge. Something light to carry en mass and powerful. The design starts to make more sense then, the ammo and the Cross rifle also. Apparently it looks like they are working on a semi-auto platform too. Wow.

The new sniper platform is remarkable and completely different. This is actually a pretty epic video by the way.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAlmlb8W_DE

Regards,

-Tutt

[Blaine]

Hathcock sez "Hold My Beer" with his 2500+ yard DRT on a NVA bicyclist....
No disrespect to Dixon, but he let loose at a group of people and got one of them.

[CowboyTutt]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longest_r ... iper_kills

It appears that many people with more modern equipment have out done Billy Dixon and his iron sights.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longest_r ... iper_kills

USMC Gunnery Sergeant Carlos Hathcock's confirmed 2,500 yd (2,300 m) kill in the Vietnam War was primarily due to the enemy soldier stopping his bicycle on the spot Hathcock had fired at while sighting in his Browning M2 heavy machine-gun.

So the bicyclist was not actually moving at the time and there was some luck involved.

I have seen Randy Arnt hit the FoBD target at 1538 yards on his very first shot last spring, much like B. Dixon did many years ago, with iron sights in his 45-90 1885 Win. Personally, I think this is the finest single shot rifle ever made.
He won the Billy Dixon Medallion for that shot. I have not seen this done before but I don't shoot competitively except in rare circumstances. I just hang out and shoot with people much more experienced than me and try to learn from them and humbled to do so. I am blessed I have to admit for the quality of my friends and teachers. Truly humbled.

Thanks all,

-Tutt