Pedersoli 1859 Sharps Rifle loads

[Brad Schuler]

If you have one, can you tell me what your loads are? Bullet? Hard or Soft lead? Powder charge? 3f or 2f? Charlie's tubes or paper tubes? Lube? Thank you.
Brad

[johnefelts]

soft lead 525 grain with charlies tubes holding 60 grains of swiss 2f.

[P.Altland]

NEI 540-490 with 35 gr 3f Goex loose powder and MCM using Shell Tubes.

[RaiderANV]

I've never used Sharps rifle in N-SSA or our 50 & 100 yard distances. That said I use a custom mold of which I can't recall who made it but it's 545 grains & I use 58 grains of 3F Goex or 50 of 3F Swiss and it's hit whatever it's aimed at from 400-600 yards. Lube is 40-60 Crisco/beeeswax. And it's been a safe queen since 1993

[gemmer]

soft lead 525 grain with charlies tubes holding 60 grains of swiss 2f.

How do you get 60 gr. in Charlie's tube, assuming it's 1 1/4"? Do you fill it to the top without inserting the ringtail base?

Duane

[Charlie Hahn]

I would suggest a lower charge for this.

Goex 2f 40 grains

Swiss 2f 38 grains

No filler if using my tubes, but a card wad to hold the powder aft

I adjust chamber lengths for those who feel the need for powder, but for our game I think you will find this enough.

I have shot through a deer at 120 yards with this load as well.

More information on my web sight, charliestubes.com

All the best,

Charlie Hahn

[johnefelts]

Thanks Charlie I didnt see his question, Duane I had Charlie set me up to shoot 60grains using the 1.5"tubes and man is she a shooter, 10"steel plate at 500 yards all day long. Love the way it shoots Charlie.

[Brad Schuler]

Thanks Fella's, I'm gonna see what happens.

[bobanderson]

I swapped for an 1859 carbine last year and spent the winter fine tuning it into my skirmish gun. After playing with ringtails, christmas trees and the like, I went back to basics. Read the Dave France articles about shooting the percussion Sharps, especially with regard to the bullet. I took the blueprint in the article and gave it to the Moose. He produced his "France Sharps" mould which has performed great for me. I took a 100 yard carbine silver medal at the Fall Nationals. It has done really well in regional individual matches as well.

Honestly, I was very put off with the prospect of nitrating paper. When I want to go load for a shoot, I'd rather do it all at once, if possible. Adding an extra step to nitrate paper and wind tubes made that job tedious. (Somewhere out there is a guy with a great shooting Garret Sharps carbine that I sold because of this line of thinking.) Charlie's tubes are a great invention, but I don't like having lube exposed to dirt and the like in shooting pouches, carts, etc. Also, the Dave France designed bullet does not have a tail that the tube can be attached to. I hear Moose is making another version of that bullet with a ringtail, but I hope he remembers that adding that extra weight will change the Greenhill numbers for that bullet. He needs to reduce the overall length of the bullet profile if he adds the tail to keep the weight the same.

The Sharps is the only breechloader I've seen that doesn't require you to remove something from the chamber before you reload. That saved motion makes it inherently faster on the line to me. Look at the plastic shell and tube loaders sold by Yore Supply. The link is www.yoresupply.com (http://www.yoresupply.com/). These are clean in the pouch, easy to load and lightning fast on the line. I load just as fast, or possibly faster than paper shooters. With this system, I am also seating the bullet into the rifling with much more consistency that you can with a paper cartridge.

The last thing that works very well for me is my lube. I got it years ago from a 1000 yard BPCR shooter to solve fouling problems I had in long shot strings with a 45-90 in an 800, 900 and 1000 match. The last 4" of my 34" barrel was like a plowed field and the accuracy fell right off the chart. Switching to "N" lube has solved all of that. I get no hard fouling, very little if any leading and great accuracy. The recipe is...

8oz, by liquid measure of beeswax (the natural stuff with bee parts inside is the best - just kidding)
8oz, by liquid measure of pure neatsfoot oil. Not the compound which has additives, but the pure stuff. You can get it at tack shops and online.
1 bar of Neutrogena soap. It's sold to people with skin problems at most pharmacies, Meijer's etc. Buy the plain version, not the foo-foo girlie ones.
Melt together and allow to cool a bit before casting into sticks for a lubrisizer or pan lubing. If you pour it too hot, it will separate like a parfait. Chuck Fugate of Chiswell's Exiles (?) says a chemist friend said to mix a few flakes of Ivory soap into the pot and that problem goes away. I haven't tried it yet, but will with the next batch.

I shoot 40grains of Goex 3fg powder, (the bulk kind I buy from Back Creek Gun Shop) and a hard lead bullet (3/1 pure lead and wheelweights) sized to .542. I don't think the powder charge is important, but the bullet shape, size and weight plus a good lube is critical for any gun. Read Dr. Franklin Mann's "The Bullet's Flight" and learn all about interior ballistics and the use of the Greenhill Formula to get the right combination for your gun.

Sorry to get so chatty. It's a quiet morning here.

[gemmer]

Bob:

Are you shooting a Pedersoli?

Duane

[jonk]

I'd be interested in Dave France's article, but google turns up nothing. Anyone post a link?

To the question, I am shooting Pedersoli carbine I bought off of Dom Infante this year. I shot up some 400 rounds of Goex 3F 40 gr with paper cartridges and the standard ringtail bullet. I wasn't overly impressed by accuracy or hit time, and Dom told me that in fact he had had better luck with 2F in the past. For the same length tube, that gives me 38 gr. 1/3ww, 2/3 pure for the lead mix.

I've played around with it in off time, with the ringtail and LEE REAL bullet, and found the ringtail shot better. I have a mold for a .54 minie on the way that I'm excited to try, but that would be problematic with a paper cartridge of any sort. I think. Yet I know that both Dom and the guy who owned the gun before him did very well with it with paper cartridges and this load.

So if you figure anything out, do let me know, I'd be most interested.

Jon Klein
Sherman's Bodyguards

[Maillemaker]

Read Dr. Franklin Mann's "The Bullet's Flight" and learn all about interior ballistics and the use of the Greenhill Formula to get the right combination for your gun.

What is the "Greenhill Forumula"?

Steve

[johnefelts]

Jonk that .54 Minie may cause you pressure problems as it did for me, the skirt of the bullet would expand in the chamber on ignition causing over pressure, a hell of a kick resulting in the bullet being pushed down the bore instead of grabbing the rifling and making for some really poor accuracy.Also the over pressure caused an excessive gas leak that cracked the forstock, the gas leak I have corrected with Charlie's mod, but the minie I have decided to save for muzzle loaders.

[Maillemaker]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rifling

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miller_Twist_Rule

Steve

[gemmer]

I'd be interested in Dave France's article, but google turns up nothing. Anyone post a link?

To the question, I am shooting Pedersoli carbine I bought off of Dom Infante this year. I shot up some 400 rounds of Goex 3F 40 gr with paper cartridges and the standard ringtail bullet. I wasn't overly impressed by accuracy or hit time, and Dom told me that in fact he had had better luck with 2F in the past. For the same length tube, that gives me 38 gr. 1/3ww, 2/3 pure for the lead mix.

I've played around with it in off time, with the ringtail and LEE REAL bullet, and found the ringtail shot better. I have a mold for a .54 minie on the way that I'm excited to try, but that would be problematic with a paper cartridge of any sort. I think. Yet I know that both Dom and the guy who owned the gun before him did very well with it with paper cartridges and this load.

So if you figure anything out, do let me know, I'd be most interested.

Jon Klein
Sherman's Bodyguards

What diameter ringtail does your Pedersoli like?

Duane

[Bullseye54]

What have you found that works best to mold the lube for a sizer?

[Ron/The Old Reb]

I just heat it enough until it becomes liquefied and pored it right into the lubersizer reservoir and let it cool.

[Maillemaker]

Yup, I do what Ron does, or you can feed chunks in.

Or, I saw a tutorial on youtube for making molds out of 1" PVC pipe with a dowel rod core.

Steve

[jonk]

What diameter ringtail does your Pedersoli like?

Duane

Well, I'm shooting them as they drop from the mold... I admit, I've been lazy. I got into this sport just this year and was caught a bit, and played catch up all season, and with 400 loaded sharps rounds given to me, I didn't bother to load any until just recently. Over the winter I'll play around with this.

As they drop from the mold I'm getting about .547 so sizing them may or may not be in order. For a breech loading gun I'd want them to be a little over groove diameter anyhow, and while I might take a thousandth off I wouldn't want to do much more.

As to the Minie balls... well we'll see. I got a good price on the mold so I couldn't say no, and at some point wouldn't mind a .54 musket, and said mold would be a good point for starting there too.

[Maillemaker]

The Sharps is the only breechloader I've seen that doesn't require you to remove something from the chamber before you reload. That saved motion makes it inherently faster on the line to me. Look at the plastic shell and tube loaders sold by Yore Supply. The link is www.yoresupply.com (http://www.yoresupply.com/). These are clean in the pouch, easy to load and lightning fast on the line. I load just as fast, or possibly faster than paper shooters. With this system, I am also seating the bullet into the rifling with much more consistency that you can with a paper cartridge.

Well, I just picked up a Pedersoli P1859 Sharps Carbine, so I'm searching the forum threads for advice. Re-found this one!

So I'm very intrigued with this Sharps loader device. Is this allowed in N-SSA competition? I remember something about no tubes being allowed that let the charge and bullet be pushed straight through with a ramrod, but I imagine that applies to front-stuffers not breech loaders. I just wanted to make sure that rule was made to outlaw this particular device some time ago or something.

With this type of device, obviously your powder falls to the front of the gun during loading. Do you have any ignition issues because the powder is not forced to the rear of the chamber? Or do you point the muzzle up prior to shooting to get the powder back to the rear of the chamber?

Thanks,
Steve

[P.Altland]

Yes, they are legal for use. Been using them for years. Just started experimenting with Hahn Tubes this year. Still like the simplicity of shooting loose powder. Ignition depends on powder charge your using, size of your chamber and design of your breech block.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk