Pictures! Bubba decided that if it could not be blue, it would be all white, so all the finish has been removed, you can see the faint lines of the emory cloth? (Wire wheel?) But at least he made the effort to preserve the markings. I knew this going in, it looks to be a fine shooter, everything there. I might have it rust blued as per a proper armory refurbishment, and steam out some of the dings. The numbers do not match, the best you can ever hope for with these is that the bolt match's itself. This one does.
The .44-77 case is in fact the proper case, sized in my Lee .43 Spanish Dies, then neck sized in a .44 special die. The only difference between the .44-77, .43 Spanish, and .42 Russian is the bullet diameter. .446, .439, .431 respectively. The .42 is the oldest, and clearly the parent case for all three.