Another Sharps question

[keweenaw]

Been reading exhaustively about the various Sharps percussion guns and their leakage problems. It seems that the given, is, that they need to be modified to mostly eliminate the leakage from the experts mentioned here many times. However, in several posts across the net, I hear the Shiloh versions leak little and mostly do not need the breech block fix. Is this true? If so, why? Do they have better tolerances, fitting, than the rest? From what I can see, they appear very similar to the other repros. Your thoughts?

[Carolina Reb]

There's two things going on with a 59/63 Sharps breech, leakage and the breech seizing shut. Leakage is just an annoyance as long as it isn't a lot, and you don't have your hand under the joint when it goes off. Eventually it will cause erosion of the gas plate and the back of the chamber sleeve, but that takes a lot of shooting.

The main problem is the action seizing up. A lot of Sharps are only good for a couple shots before you can't get them open. That's what the breech fixes fix. With the original breech system there is a very fine balance between the gas plate being too loose in the breechblock and being too tight. Either will cause hard opening. The Italian repros tend toward the too tight side. If the chamber sleeve is good and the gas plate is a snug sliding fit in the block, and if (BIG IF!) you grease everything with the right water pump grease (CMD Extreme Pressure Lube #3 from McMaster Carr), the original breech will go 30-40 rounds before it starts tightening up. There is an "on the line" fix for that. Once the block is down, spit on the inside surfaces of the frame. Work the lever a couple times to soften the fouling and you are good for 5-10 more shots. This is a period correct fix.

If your breech plate doesn't fit the block correctly, then it needs to to go out for the Hahn or Flees fix. Also, if you want to shoot a whole skirmish without taking the breech apart, send it to Charlie or Larry.

My current Sharps has the original breech and at Homecoming it went 3 relays without cleaning. Yesterday doing load development it went 35 rounds and still opened easily.

[Ron The Old Reb]

​Save yourself a lot of cursing and bitching :mad: and get a O ring job done on it.

[tony 1st regt]

Here is my fix. I have Charlie's O ring fix, but I was getting fouling under the breech plate, from a plate that has seen over 20 years of shooting. While cleaning between relays a fellow skirmisher told me that he had the same problem and started using Red Permatex between the plate and the breech block. He said after a cleaning he put Permatex on the block face, set the plate then put it in a vice and tightened it. Leave it for a couple of days then with a razor or knife shave off all the extra Permatex, THEN put a tooth pick in the flash hole(to keep the Permatex out) and fill the hollow area in the breech block. With a razor blade cut off any hardened Permatex above the plate. lube the assembly with high pressure grease and you are good to go. If it gets a bit tight after a few relays I just splash a bit of water on it to dissolve the fouling on the perimeter of the block. I grease the outside of the block every skirmish. The Permatex lasts me a full season of practice and skirmishing, then I pull the plate off clean everything and do it all over for the next season. This process is almost like having a solid one piece block. Your mileage may vary

[Eggman]

The Sharps is the "Corvair" of Civil War carbines.

[Kevin Tinny]

Tx, Eggman:

Corvair is a hoot. I had two and loved them.
Corsa's were hot, but nasty on ice.
Love your humor.
Maybe we can christen a "Nader's Raiders" unit. Would fit our average age.
Smiles,
Kevin Tinny

[Hal]

My wife shoots an original 1859. No leakage and no hard opening. Maybe she was just lucky in getting a good one, but I suspect the guys 160 years ago either knew something we don't know today or else were willing to do something in the manufacturing process we aren't willing to do today.

[Maillemaker]

The Pedersoli folks totally misunderstand how the Sharps gas check is supposed to work. The chamber sleeve should not move freely in the barrel, as it did on my Pedersoli 1859. It was designed to be moveable, but only by using a special "buching tool" by an armorer.

Steve

[Jim_Burgess_2078V]

I purchased my Farmingdale Shiloh Sharps carbine in 1978 and it still shoots well without any modification to the breechblock. After 40+ years of hard use there is some erosion on the stainless steel gas check plate but it rarely leaks any gas. When it does it is usually on hot, dry days after many rounds have been fired and the fouling begins to get hard on the plate. That's easily fixed with a few drops of solvent on the mating surfaces. I clean my Sharps thoroughly at the end of the day and keep the breechblock well greased. It is a pleasure to shoot and it has won me many medals.

On the few Italian Sharps I have seen apart, I've noticed that the cavities on the Italian breechblocks are smaller than on the Shilohs. That creates more surface area on the gas check plate for fouling to collect and that may contribute to making it harder to open after several shots.

Jim Burgess, 15th CVI

[Rick R]

I shoot a Farmingdale Sharps carbine with only about 10 years through it however, but still no leakage without any modification.

[keweenaw]

I purchased my Farmingdale Shiloh Sharps carbine in 1978 and it still shoots well without any modification to the breechblock. After 40+ years of hard use there is some erosion on the stainless steel gas check plate but it rarely leaks any gas. When it does it is usually on hot, dry days after many rounds have been fired and the fouling begins to get hard on the plate. That's easily fixed with a few drops of solvent on the mating surfaces. I clean my Sharps thoroughly at the end of the day and keep the breechblock well greased. It is a pleasure to shoot and it has won me many medals.

On the few Italian Sharps I have seen apart, I've noticed that the cavities on the Italian breechblocks are smaller than on the Shilohs. That creates more surface area on the gas check plate for fouling to collect and that may contribute to making it harder to open after several shots.

Jim Burgess, 15th CVI

Your last comment is interesting. You are correct about the difference in the hole of the breech block plate. The Pedersoli is definitely smaller. After have read multiple posts here and elsewhere on the Sharps leakage issue, I am beginning to think that the correct mating of breech block plate and chamber are the big key, and of course, the ability of the breech block plate to move forward to contact the chamber solidly and squarely. Perhaps the guns that leak the most do not have a square, congruent lineup, i.e., the faces of both are not parallel. Possible machining variations?

Question: How loose should the gas check plate be? If too tight, it would not move forward enough? The relatively new Pedersoli I have, the gas check plate is in so tight it is almost impossible to move. (This is, I think, the first version of the Ped Sharps).

Thanks