Sharps lead

[Dave Fox]

I've owned an M.1863 Sharps carbine for more than 40 years and have shot it occasionally in a desultory manner. Nearing retirement, I intend to get a tad more serious. Have a Rapine ringtail mould on the way and the carbine itself is at Charlie Hahn's receiving some attention. Query: does an original Sharps tend to prefer hard or soft lead? Is there a generalism in this regard for Maynard, Spencer, and/or Burnside? Thanks.

[ms3635v]

Hi David,

I have a Shilo Sharps (Farmingdale) and I use soft lead with excellent results. I also use soft lead in my original Maynard and my original Smith carbines.

[mikea]

Dave-
I also have a Shiloh Sharps (mine is a Montana made gun). While it does very good with pure lead bullets it seems to do a little better with a small amount of tin added to the lead. Seems to be the same thing that the Black Powder Cartridge Rifle shooters experience. A lot of them use a 1 part tin to 30 parts lead mixture.
Would also suggest you try some of Charler Hahn's cardboard Sharps tubes for shooting. If he has your gun he can tell you what length tubes you need. I have the Rapine ringtail Sharps bullet mould and mine casts bullets with a ringtail that is slightly large for the diameter of Charlie's tubes. I take care of that by pressing the nose of a bullet in the tubes to flare them out slightly and then the ringtails fit fine.

[Francis J. Miller Jr, 02601]

Dave,

I also have an M1863 original Sharps carbine that Charlie worked on. Charlie also had it relined by Bob Hoyt this past summer per his dimensions, and recommended I use soft lead for the bullets.

[Greg Ogdan 110th OVI]

Kind of depends on what charge you are using. Myself, I shoot 50g of FFg Goex in a Shiloh and I need harder lead. The Shiloh guns are rifled shallow like a modern gun, and with that 50g charge the bullet will strip the grooves. I also shoot a Pedersoli Sharps Infantry with much deeper rifling that could probably use soft lead, but I'll never know because it shoots great with hard lead.
One thing you might to keep in mind if you really get caught by the Skirmish bug is that you can recycle range lead and not worry too much about it being soft if you shoot hard in your Sharps.
Another thought is that about 3 oz of wheel weights to 1 lb of soft lead hardens things nicely and stretches your lead supply.

[Southron Sr.]

I agree with mikea-a little bit of tin in y6our bullet alloywill make your Sharps shoot better! 1 in 30 is about right!

[RangerFrog]

I've owned an M.1863 Sharps carbine for more than 40 years and have shot it occasionally in a desultory manner. Nearing retirement, I intend to get a tad more serious. Have a Rapine ringtail mould on the way and the carbine itself is at Charlie Hahn's receiving some attention. Query: does an original Sharps tend to prefer hard or soft lead? Is there a generalism in this regard for Maynard, Spencer, and/or Burnside? Thanks.

Just FWIW since you asked about Maynards, I shoot the same alloy in my Romano I always used in schuetzen, 25:1 mixed from pure metals. I don't get to shoot it enough to be concerned about finding real cheap lead supplies and this alloy has always worked well for me with good accuracy and no leading. YMMV!

Froggie