1859 Sharps Cavalry Carbine

[meak99]

Hi all -

My father in law had a replica 1859 Sharps Cavalry Carbine. He passed away several years ago, and now my brother in law and I are considering shooting it. I have no experience with anything other than modern inline muzzleloaders. There is no paperwork in the box and I haven't a clue where to start. Here are some questions... if anyone is familiar.

Anyone know of a reasonably priced Lee design I could cast up for this?
Is a paper cartridge necessary? I've seen brass cases online for it, but don't think they are required.
What kind of paper, is there special cartridge paper?
I have FFg Pyro, is that sufficient?
What kind of caps?

So many questions, I know... please bear with me. Thanks in advance for any info at all...

[montana_charlie]

You can download the Pedersoli manual here http://www.davide-pedersoli.com/supporto-dettaglio.asp/l_en/idsu_11/general-hints-for-the-use-of-firearms.html

It covers all of their firearms, so you have to scroll down watching the listing on the left to find the section for the 1859 Sharps.

CM

[meak99]

Thank you montana - I don't know that it's a Pedersoli, but I assume it doesn't matter!

[5.7 MAN]

If its a .54 cal you can get sharps bullets from midway or dixie. Black powder will give you the best ignition and if you are inclined paper cartridges can be made from cigarette papers. I think the original charge was around 70 Grains. You do not have to use paper cartidges. Musket caps are the correct size.

Dan

[Baron von Trollwhack]

Slug the barrel, find oversize round ball big enough to seal the grooves. Drop a lubricated ball into the chamber and seat to engage with a length limited short starter. Add 40 grains of FFFg, with barrel pointing down, close breech, cap and shoot. That will get you started the easiest way.

Clean well, including breech block removal. Oil well. Practice disassembly and cleaning before you shoot.

BvT

[NickSS]

All paper cartridge sharps rifles have two things in common one is the gas check that is mounted on the front of the breach block and second is that they need to be cleaned as soon as you get home from the range. Black powder works best in all of them. The substitutes are harder to ignite and will lead to many miss fires. This is due to the two right angle turns that the flame from the cap must go through. I have had best luck with RWS and CCI musket caps. There is two different 54 cal bores if yours is a 54 ( there are other callibers out there but 54 is the most common). One like the pedersoli is 52 land to land and 540-545 groove diameter. The siles, IAB, Army Sport ones are ,540 land to land and 550 or so groove diameter. I have used 54 cal minnie balls as well as lee real bullets in both and they work. Better is a ringtail sharps bullet of the correct size as they have tappered driving bands that align the bullet in the bore. You can make paper cartridges out of either treated paper or none treated paper. There is always some left in the bore from time to time whichever I have used. So I always run a brush into the chamber before loading another round. If you do not want to spend the time making paper cartridges you can load the gun by dropping a lubed bullet into the chamber and seating it into the rifling with a short dowel stick then point the muzzle down and pour your powder into the chamber. The Sharps is the exception to the rule about no air space. Because of the way the sharps breach seal works it is impossible not to have air space in one so just load what ever amount of powder you like up to a heaping full chamber and close the breach block. Cap it and fire away. Some secrets on cleaning and lubing are if your rifle has a movable chamber sleeve (some do and some do not) always pull it out as far as it will go and clean it as well as can be. Then lube it with Copper never seize before pushing it back in. This will make it easy to remove in the future for cleaning. Second always pri the gas seal plate off of the breach block and clean it completely every time you shoot the rifle. I made this easy to do by grinding a small groove on each side of the plate to make inserting a screw driver to aid in its removal otherwise you need to use a knife blade. Also remove the breach block clean out screw from the left side of the block and the nipple from it location on the right top of the block. Clean the flash channel be running hot water through it and then use a pipe cleaner to really swab it out. Lightly oil the flash channel with a light oil on a clean pipe cleaner. I put never seize on both the clean out screw and nipple threads to aid in removal next time I need to clean the rifle. When you reinsert the breach block liberally lube the sides and bearing serface with either Crisco or bore butter. All of this will give you more shots before the gun starts getting hard to open. If that happens you can free it up by spraying some windex with vinigar into the action. This will loosen fouling.

[Grapeshot]

Hi all -

My father in law had a replica 1859 Sharps Cavalry Carbine. He passed away several years ago, and now my brother in law and I are considering shooting it. I have no experience with anything other than modern inline muzzleloaders. There is no paperwork in the box and I haven't a clue where to start. Here are some questions... if anyone is familiar.

Anyone know of a reasonably priced Lee design I could cast up for this?
Is a paper cartridge necessary? I've seen brass cases online for it, but don't think they are required.
What kind of paper, is there special cartridge paper?
I have FFg Pyro, is that sufficient?
What kind of caps?

So many questions, I know... please bear with me. Thanks in advance for any info at all...

Ok MEAK99 here it is from an old N/SSA shooter. I found that using Pyrodex was an iffy thing with Musket Caps on my 1863 Sharps. It did not matter if it were Pistol or RS grades Pyro. However, the following instruction will give you better than 99% ignition. First, Since you did not mention caliber, I will assume it to be .54. Find a wooden dowel that will fit into the chambe but not quite enter the rifling. Nitrated paper can be bought from Dixie Gun Works, along with a paper cartridge kit that includes a metal mandrell for either .50 caliber or .54 caliber guns. It helps if the bullet is hollow based.

Get some papper eyeglass cleaning tissue. Cut the sheets into squares about .75 inch on a side. Form this square around one end of your mandrell. This will be the end of the tube you are about to make.

Cut your nitrated papper so that it wraps around the mandrell with about .25 inch overlap and just long enough to fit into the chamber with a fully covered bullet in it. Use a glue stick to glue one short end of the papper and the overlapping papper to the body of the tube, this will give you a closed ended tube. Then slide the papper tube off of the mandrell and let dry. Repeat for as many times as you want for the number of "cartridges you are planning to make.

Once dry you can drop about 10 to 15 grains of 4Fg into the open end of the tube. Then add the amount of Pyrodex you want. Using your mandrell, lightly compress your powder and then add your lubed lead bullet. the bullet should enter the tube to cover all the grease grooves and slightly above so you can apply a bead of airplane cement around the circumfrance of the powder tube and bullet. The fit should be snug, but not so much to rip the papper.

The length of your cartridge should be such that it should fit all the way into the chamber and flush with the chamber end of the barrel so that it does not interfer with the closing of the breech. DO NOT worry about cutting off the end of the cartridge as stated by others. With the breech block closed, cap the nipple, aim and fire.

The fire will go through the tissue on the end of the cartridge and ignite the 4Fg, which will ignite the pyrodex.

[meak99]

:shock:

That's a lot of info! Thanks to each of you. I'm going to need to re-read that and take some notes. I'll have him leave it here next time they visit and practice assembly/disassembly and cleaning some.

Yes, it's .54 cal. I'll probably check out midway for a box of bullets to start with, then if we enjoy shooting it, find a mould and go from there.

Thanks again everyone!