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1859 shiloh sharps carbine
- Thread starter spud
- Start date
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SPUD said:
Note to moderator, might want to move this thread, not appropriate here.
Except for the ease and convenience, loose powder works fine. One can also get a larger charge using loose powder.
If this is one of the replicas, the floating gas seal is where trouble appears, It does not seal completely and the breech to seal will leak and gas cut the seal face. Back in the 70's I had a .54 Sile with a stainless steel floating seal, it worked better than some of the others, but did eventually start the gas cutting, and things went south fast from there on.
I made up combustible paper cartridges and cast the original style bullet with the tail for tying on the paper cartridge. Worked great and accuracy was really quite good. I later machined out a breech block, reworked the hammer, cut off and sleeved the barrel for a turned down Ruger #3 in .45-70.
Here are a couple pics after conversion.
I'm still sitting here trying to figure out why this post is not appropriate here.
The 1859 Sharps was a percussion fired gun, and although it wasn't typically loaded from the muzzle, it could be.
In my opinion, the old paper cartridge Sharps, the Hall, Smith and several other "breech loading" guns of the Civil war era which are fired with a Percussion cap are not only a part of our history, they are interesting.
They also deserve a place on the Muzzleloading forum as much if not moreso than the Cap and Ball revolvers so, I think I'll let this ride, as I did when folks were discussing the rubber/metallic cartridge Smith some time back.
zonie
The 1859 Sharps was a percussion fired gun, and although it wasn't typically loaded from the muzzle, it could be.
In my opinion, the old paper cartridge Sharps, the Hall, Smith and several other "breech loading" guns of the Civil war era which are fired with a Percussion cap are not only a part of our history, they are interesting.
They also deserve a place on the Muzzleloading forum as much if not moreso than the Cap and Ball revolvers so, I think I'll let this ride, as I did when folks were discussing the rubber/metallic cartridge Smith some time back.
zonie
Ah, that explains a lot! :grin:
zonie
zonie
Russ T Frizzen
70 Cal.
- Joined
- Nov 9, 2004
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The Shiloh Sharps rifles are supposed to be accurate copies of the originals with full parts interchangeability. They are more continuations of the early guns than replicas.
howdy -
i have an italian sharps replica in .54 - some had "floating" or removable chambers (mine seems kinda "Stuck") and most have the floating breechplate. I have found a number of civil war websites that describe easing the tight fit of the breechplate and installing a rubber o-ring beneath it, which improves the gas-seal considerabley (when firing mine without the modification, it sometimes blew my hat off!). The o-ring mod is highly recommended, and easily done. Paper cartridges holding 60-70 grains make for a very consistant measured load and work very well, if the paper is nitrated. One ends up with the "equivalent" of a .54-70 .
"loose loads" can give you as hefty a load as you want - just gently seating the bullet, I am able to get a measured 95 grains of 2-F behind my conical bullet!
Regarding accuracy, an aquaintence named "Iron Hand" has a .54 Sharps carbine replica and with his tang sight was able to consistantly hit the 3 foot gong at about 600 yards at the Angel Fire, New Mexico rondy some time ago.
best
shunka
i have an italian sharps replica in .54 - some had "floating" or removable chambers (mine seems kinda "Stuck") and most have the floating breechplate. I have found a number of civil war websites that describe easing the tight fit of the breechplate and installing a rubber o-ring beneath it, which improves the gas-seal considerabley (when firing mine without the modification, it sometimes blew my hat off!). The o-ring mod is highly recommended, and easily done. Paper cartridges holding 60-70 grains make for a very consistant measured load and work very well, if the paper is nitrated. One ends up with the "equivalent" of a .54-70 .
"loose loads" can give you as hefty a load as you want - just gently seating the bullet, I am able to get a measured 95 grains of 2-F behind my conical bullet!
Regarding accuracy, an aquaintence named "Iron Hand" has a .54 Sharps carbine replica and with his tang sight was able to consistantly hit the 3 foot gong at about 600 yards at the Angel Fire, New Mexico rondy some time ago.
best
shunka
Russ T Frizzen said:
The originals had the same problems, and were not perfect by any stretch of the imagination. The percussion Sharps has to seal in two places, the internal cupped portion, with greater area (force is pressure times area) sealed inside the breech block by expanding while also driving the floating seal forward to seal the thin breech face of barrel, which has less area.
If fired a few times without cleaning, the resulting fouling will seize the floating seal in the breech block and the more than normal escaping gas is more than a little disconcerting, if not downright dangerous.
