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Thread: Pedersoli Sharps load workup, round 2.

  1. #1
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    Pedersoli Sharps load workup, round 2.

    Having just gotten my Pedersoli Sharps back from Larry Flees who performed an excellent modification on it to keep the breech block from seizing up, I went to the range today to do a complete load workup.

    Here you can see the results of my load workup:




    The first time I did a load workup, I thought 50 grains had produced the best group. But the shots were all high off the target and I was compensating my point of aim to try and get them on target. I have since replaced the front sight with a taller one.

    Now, it seems 30 grains produces the smallest average group.



    But I noticed with the smaller charges I was having some failures to fire or they were slow to go off. I am using a wad to keep the powder against the rear of the cartridge so that is not the issue. It may be there was some residual oil from Larry's work that I did not sufficiently blast out of the fire channel (I started shooting the lower-weight charges first).

    I'll also point out that the experiment with the 17 pound recycled vellum was a success. The cartridges burned completely away just as well as the nitrated notebook computer without the hassle of nitrating.

    Steve

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    Man, it's a hoot shooting this thing. It is really cool to use combustible cartridges - there's nothing to unload - no tubes to pick up and keep track of. You just shoot these suckers as fast as you can cram them into the chamber. I can't wait to use this sucker in team competition. The only problem is - I'll have to pack more ammo!

    Steve

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    And you're absolutely, possitividesly, unequivocally, most certainly, profoundly, dirty dog sure you wont shove a live cartridge on top of a burning ember?!?!!?!

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    Nope. But I'm moving to the 17 pound vellum paper, un-nitrated, so it won't be as susceptible to lighting up as the nitrated paper cartridges were. The nitrated cartridges were nice in that they burned more completely, but they worried be because if a tiny spark gets on them they will start to burn. Regular paper takes more heat to get going. And of course you've got a big old lube-covered bullet pushing in nose-first, which helps clear the way.

    Still, it's a possibility.

    Steve

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    Has anybody actually witnessed a Sharp's round going off due to an ember in the barrel? I guess that would be the Sharp's version of a cook off.
    Jim Wimbish

    Member of NSSA since 2000



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    Bullet lubing

    Are you saying you dip lubed the entire bullet for your Sharps? To the point that you have lube on the nose and sides of the projectile? If so, I always thought that was a no no for accuracy reasons...

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    Are you saying you dip lubed the entire bullet for your Sharps? To the point that you have lube on the nose and sides of the projectile? If so, I always thought that was a no no for accuracy reasons...
    Yes, that is how I made them up:



    I don't have a .54 sizer for my lubrisizer, and even if I did, I'd be worried about getting lube on the ring-tail and so not being able to glue them into the paper cartridge. Though it should be possible to adjust the depth of the bullet into the lubrisizer so that the lube only goes into the lube grooves.

    Lube on the sides of the bullet should not be a problem - it will be scraped off by the bore as it is pushed into the rifling.

    During the Civil War, to save lube in the Confederate arsenals they made a little scraper tool that was basically a piece of sheet metal with the bullet nose profile cut into it that could be spun on the nose of the bullet to scrape off lube.

    Steve

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    bobanderson is offline
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    Quote Originally Posted by Eggman View Post
    And you're absolutely, possitividesly, unequivocally, most certainly, profoundly, dirty dog sure you wont shove a live cartridge on top of a burning ember?!?!!?!
    The embers, if any, would be in the barrel, wouldn't they? The barrel is sealed by the next bullet, right? When I shot my Sharps, I used to blow down the breech just before loading it. Never had a problem.
    Bob Anderson
    Ordnance Sergeant
    Company C, 1st Michigan Volunteer Infantry
    Small Arms Committee

    "I won't be wronged. I won't be insulted. I won't be laid a hand on.
    I don't do these things to other people, and I require the same from them."
    - John Wayne in "The Shootist", 1976

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    The embers, if any, would be in the barrel, wouldn't they? The barrel is sealed by the next bullet, right?
    When I was using plain printer paper for the cartridges, I would sometimes find paper remnants in the chamber, before the barrel. Since the bullet is not a perfect fit for the chamber, it could be possible for something to slip past the bullet. Probably unlikely though - it will generally get pushed ahead of the bullet into the barrel.

    But once I switched to 17 pound recycled vellum for the paper it now fully consumes even when not nitrated.

    Steve

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    We had an old papa-san in our building in VIetnam that walked around with a toilet plunger and a pith helmet on his head that used to smoke that vellum in our latrine.

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