Farmingdale 1874 Sharps

[Stoneke]

I'm looking for a suggestion for a 500 gr. or so Grease Groove bullet that might be suitable for my chamber as described in the previous post. I'm initially looking for a suggested commercially cast bullet and then look for a suitable mold for casting.

[Lead pot]

If you indeed have a shallow 2-1/2 thousands deep groove in that rifle a paper patched bullet patched to bore diameter would serve you better then a GG. A PP bullet seems to favor the shallow grooved bore. I have a rifle with a three thousand deep groove and it shoots the PP a lot better then a GG. The original 74 Sharps I have looked down the bore have very shallow grooves and they shoot very well with the patched bullets. Also a duel diameter patched bullet that fits the freebore and bore would also be something to look at. But this would take a custom build mould.
Kurt

[Stoneke]

My error: The bore measures .450 with a .457 groove. The twist is 1:20. Would I be best served with bullet weight of 425 to 500 grains? I won't be shooting at distances over 600 yards.

[BrentD]

I think that is a fine bullet weight range to be in. Something without too much of a pointy nose will be short enough. I would look at whatever will fit in that freebore.

[Gunlaker]

I would definitely want a bullet that is the same diameter as the freebore, or as close as you can find.

I had a rifle with a .463" diameter freebore but it was a much shorter than yours. I was able to make it shoot reasonably well with a 0.460" bullet that had reduced driving bands up front to help align the bullet. It shot smaller diameter, hard, bullets quite well with smokeless though, as long as they were seated to engrave the rifling.

Chris.

[Stoneke]

This shows my lack of knowledge, but if I was to use a .460 bullet, would that not be exceeding the size limit for a .450/.457 bore?

[Gunlaker]

With a soft bullet and black powder, going well over groove size won't hurt safety wise. It will get swaged down to groove size. The problem accuracy wise is that the black powder will bump up the bullet to the diameter of the freebore anyway. If the bullet is small in diameter this bumping up is likely going to cause the bullet to be unbalanced which will result in poor accuracy. Think of it like this, if you have a .457" bullet say 1.4" long, you'll have most of that bullet entirely unsupported by the chamber, or the rifling. Maybe 0.7" of the bullet will be the nose, and another 0.375" will be in the freebore. That's 1.075" of your bullet that is not supported or aligned if it's seated out all the way. If the bullet is the diameter of the freebore, or very close, say 0.001" under, then it has little room to get bumped up out of balance, plus it is more likely to be aligned with the bore.

I believe that Brent has shot one of these freebored early Shiloh rifles. I'd go with whatever he recommends for a bullet.

Chris.

[BrentD]

I"m no expert with those early freebores, but I shot mine with fat bullets. As long as I could chamber the bullet so that it would reach the beginning of the lands, it wasn't too fat. The bullets I started with were made by Bruin and were .452" before patching. After patching they were easily .459+

bobw over on the shiloh forum has some experience with these chambers and has a bit more luck with them.

[flint45]

I have a Shilo sharps very simlair to yours its at its best with a .460 boolit, barrel is .458 .525 grs. 64 grs of Goex ctg. wlr primer over powder wad and 1/8 in. compression.