Armi-Sport 1863 Sharps .451

[senormik]

Hi all,

I'm brand new to this site, cast bullets, and black powder shooting in general, but I'm interested in giving it a try. Hope this is the right place to post this question and I appreciate any guidance you can give.

Several years ago, while stationed in Germany, I purchased an Armi-Sport 1863 Sharps paper-cartridge rifle. I've never gotten around to shooting it, but was thinking about giving it a try. My biggest concern is that the bore is marked ".451" and I'm not sure what boolits I should be using in it. I found a bunch of .45LC boolits in .452, between 300 and 400 grains. Would these work, or do I need to avoid going with anything bigger than .451? Most of the heavy .45LC boolits seem to be hard cast, which gives me some concern about possible high pressure in a .451 bore or leading problems. What do you think? (I'd rather buy some boolits first, to try this out, before investing in the whole set-up for casting my own.)

Thanks for any suggestions.
Michael

[Buckshot]

..............A hearty welcome to the forum senormik! I am no specialist of the paper cartridge Sharps by a long shot. In fact I've never shot one! :-) I know OF them, and had a freind who had a bunch of experience with one. However that experience came from quite a bit of time spent trying to get his buddies' Sharps shooting so he could actully hit something besides (eventually) the ground. It's neither fish nor fowl. It can take a cumbustable paper cartridge, or loose powder and a Minie' type, or solid base boolit.

I'm not going to blather about anecdotal stuff I recall him talking about over time, as it may have no bearing at all on your rifle. I recall his freind's rifle was a Pedersoli. One big issue I will mention was problems they had with gas leakage around the breechblock. This was a good 10-12 years ago, and I believe hearing that various factory remedies/improvements had been made to get around this.

Hopefully someone pops up with firsthand experience. Also, this might get a quicker response on the BPC forum: http://castboolits.gunloads.com/forumdisplay.php?f=30

..................Buckshot

[Tom Herman]

Hi Michael!

A hearty welcome from me as well! You might get faster answers if you post in the Black Powder Cartridge or Single Shot Rifles sections...
I hope you find the answers. Sounds like a cool gun!

Happy Shootin'! -Tom

[mooman76]

A guy I go shooting with had a 54 he's been trying to pawn off on me. He has never shot it but he did make up some loads. I wouldn't mind getting it as the price was right but I have so many other guns (projects) that I have never gotten to and in reality will probably never get them all done. I just don't need a totally different type of gun load proccess but I wish you luck with yours.

[oldhickory]

I had one of the early Shiloh Sharps .54s. Using the Lyman Christmas tree boolit it was plenty accurate off the bench, it just didn't fit me worth a darn for shooting off the hind quarters and I sold it. I didn't roll paper ctgs, I used long neoprene tubes that held the ring tail of the boolit at the lip of the tube. Push the boolit in as far as possible, give a twist & a yank, this secured the boolit and dumped the charge in the chamber at the same time, quick and no paper to mess with.

However, we're dealing with a .451 sharps here. I would suggest slugging the bore and getting a measurement first. Secondly, find what the twist is by measuring with a rod and tight fitting patch. Mark the rod and note the rotation, (22inch bbl, 1 full turn=1:22 twist, 1/2 turn in 22inches would = 1:44 aprox probably more like 1:48 really).

Armi Sport makes some pretty good re-pops, so you should find it'll shoot with the right load/boolit combo.[smilie=w:

[senormik]

Thanks for the welcome, guys. This seems to be a real friendly board. I'll try slugging the bore as suggested, and i'll see if anyone has any recommendations on the other forums you mentioned. Thanks again!