Pedersoil Sharps
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. 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.
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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