Got my Sharps breech block back from some more Larry Flees magic...

[Maillemaker]

So a while ago I had Larry Flees do his magical work on my Pedersoli Sharps. He makes a custom Ampco bronze gas check plate and installs a non-floating chamber sleeve and makes the thing absolutely gas tight. Went from being able to get off 10 shots before the action seized up to being able to shoot nearly 100 rounds in a row without cleaning. It really is amazing. Not only does the gun simply work now, but cleanup is a breeze. I've heard people complain about how hard it is to clean the Sharps, but after Larry's work, all of the gas and fouling is kept inside the chamber. Basically you remove the breech block for a dunk-and-scrub and blast with compressed air, and swab the bore and chamber, give a couple of wipes inside the breech block cavity, and you're done. Far faster than cleaning any of my other BP guns.

Well the Pedersoli block as it comes stock has a lot of nooks and crannies in the fire channel for the percussion cap. That means that when you shoot it for the first dozen times or so you get a lot of misfires until the fire channel fouls up and fills in the nooks and crannies. Larry fixes this by replacing the stock fire cone and the cleanout screw so that they are precision fits - eliminating the nooks and crannies that wasted the cap flame. This results in much more reliable ignition.

I got my breech block back from Larry (super fast turnaround, as usual - I think I got it back in a week) and took the Sharps out to the range. Sure enough - much more reliable ignition! I had 2 misfires out of 35 shots, and they were in the first few shots.

I highly recommend Larry Flees' for Sharps work.

Steve

[bobanderson]

You can reduce the misfires by using a shot out musket nipple, or just drill a new one out a bit.

Lets more flame travel through all of those twists and turns.

[Eggman]

So a while ago I had Larry Flees do his magical work on my Pedersoli Sharps. He makes a custom Ampco bronze gas check plate and installs a non-floating chamber sleeve and makes the thing absolutely gas tight. Went from being able to get off 10 shots before the action seized up to being able to shoot nearly 100 rounds in a row without cleaning. It really is amazing. Not only does the gun simply work now, but cleanup is a breeze. I've heard people complain about how hard it is to clean the Sharps, but after Larry's work, all of the gas and fouling is kept inside the chamber. Basically you remove the breech block for a dunk-and-scrub and blast with compressed air, and swab the bore and chamber, give a couple of wipes inside the breech block cavity, and you're done. Far faster than cleaning any of my other BP guns.

Well the Pedersoli block as it comes stock has a lot of nooks and crannies in the fire channel for the percussion cap. That means that when you shoot it for the first dozen times or so you get a lot of misfires until the fire channel fouls up and fills in the nooks and crannies. Larry fixes this by replacing the stock fire cone and the cleanout screw so that they are precision fits - eliminating the nooks and crannies that wasted the cap flame. This results in much more reliable ignition.
I got my breech block back from Larry (super fast turnaround, as usual - I think I got it back in a week) and took the Sharps out to the range. Sure enough - much more reliable ignition! I had 2 misfires out of 35 shots, and they were in the first few shots.
I highly recommend Larry Flees' for Sharps work.

Steve
Big Steve I know you like to get even for my smart ass remarks about that smoothbore match, but these posts about the Sharps are going too far. You know that narratives about how someone made a Sharps actually fire are extremely disconcerting to me. It's like reading about how someone made Jack Elam look really handsome.

[Maillemaker]

LOL I had to google who Jack Elam was. :) I remember him from The Cannonball Run! :)

Yeah, it is a shame that in spite of Pedersoli trying their hand at a Sam Dobbins o-ring job that the gun still isn't worth a hoot as a skirmish gun until Larry gets a hold of it.

Larry could probably turn the stick I played cops and robbers with as a kid into a good skirmish gun!

Steve

[ian45662]

The difference is that unlike jack the sharps is very attractive. Some of them just need a little help and after getting a little assistance will find themselves on the top shelf with the rest of the sharps carbines;) .