.544 Moose Sharps

[gemmer]

I'm going to use the .544 Moose Sharps run through a .54 die to clean it up and get rid of excess lube. My Pedersoli bore is .540. Opinions are welcome on whether or not I should size it smaller than .544.

Thanks,

Duane

[jonk]

I know for me, my Pedersoli runs .538". I tried them as cast, accuracy was so so. Hit time and accuracy greatly improved by running them at .540. So I would try them 2/1000 over groove size and see. Try them as is too, of course.

[jonk]

As a follow up question or thought, my usual routine is to size the bullets, then glue them into the charged tubes; when dry, I pan lube them nose first. Which DOES indeed leave a lot of lube all over the bullet, and I'm still up in the air as to whether or not that hurts accuracy. The way you are asking, I'm wondering what you plan to do; if you lube them first, base first, keeping the nose clean then push through size them, that will leave a lot of lube on the ring tail. How are you planning on gluing them into the tubes? I tried that and the glue wouldn't stick to the waxy bullet.

Jon

[Charlie Hahn]

What vintage Sharps do you have? I have seen a few at .540 bore, and .560 groove, but they are later Garrets, and IAB carbines. Most of the Pedersoli Sharps are about .523 bore, and .542 groove. The Armi Sport carbines are also big, .538 bore, and .557 groove.

As for sizing, the seal ring can be up to .005 over for a tapered bullet, and .002 for a straight bullet.

FYI

Charlie

[gemmer]

What vintage Sharps do you have? I have seen a few at .540 bore, and .560 groove, but they are later Garrets, and IAB carbines. Most of the Pedersoli Sharps are about .523 bore, and .542 groove. The Armi Sport carbines are also big, .538 bore, and .557 groove.

As for sizing, the seal ring can be up to .005 over for a tapered bullet, and .002 for a straight bullet.

FYI

Charlie

My original post had that classic error of bore size when I meant to say groove size. And my assumption, based on Pedersoli spec was that it's .540 groove. Jonk's post saying his Pedersoli groove is .538 got me thinking
so I decided to slug the bore. First thing is that even though it has an even number of lands and grooves, they are not equal in width so I had some trouble getting an accurate read. I'm thinking .5385 is about rignt. BUT, that's at the first few inches of the bore. After smacking that .570 ball through the muzzle and down a few inches, that ball nearly fell down the barrel on its own. There certainly appears to be some choke in that barrel, which I've heard before about the Pedersoli 1874 Sharps. I decided not to try it from the breech end as I didn't want to risk damaging Charlie's fine work on the chamber. I'm going to get a .542 die from George Gompf and do some comparisons.

Duane