PP in the C. Sharps 1875

[Nobade]

I have a C. Sharps 1875, 45-70 that I have been shooting for a number of years. With grease groove Postell boolits it is a tack driver. But PP boolits are another matter. It has a fairly long throat which allows seating the GG boolits out of the case, but I believe that is the problem with PP. I have tried bore diameter PP boolits seated out (around 1/8" in the case)with a card wad under them, wiping between shots since there is no lube, and they were useless. Then I tried groove diameter seated conventionally and they were worlds better but no better than grease groove and still had to wipe between shots, and can't get much powder behind them. Then I tried Pope loading from the muzzle, using both large charges of powder (90 gr.) and 70gr. plus COW filler. Those shot quite well, as good as my GG boolits but still have to wipe of course. (all this shooting without lube isn't because I am lazy, but trying to eliminate another variable. I figure if it works this way then I can go on to making lube stacks and such to get multiple shots.) So basically I see no advantage at all to PP in this rifle and so far have given up on that. Has anyone here gotten a C. Sharps to really shoot well with PP so that it is worth doing?

[Don McDowell]

I had fairly decent results with bullets from .435-444 diameter. They all used a 1/8 in felt wad between a .060 fiber wad and a .0330 fiber wad under the bullet.
Also got some fair results with 446 bullets with just a fiber wad.

[Gunlaker]

I have a C. Sharps .45-110 that works quite well with bore diameter PP bullets. I use the BACO .444" Money Bullet patched with 9lb paper, or a .446" bullet patched with 8lb paper. The rifle really likes a lube cookie in order to shoot well.

Chris.

[6.5 mike]

Don, is that a lubed felt wad?

[Nobade]

Thanks guys, I'll give it another try with the .444 boolits I have and a lube wad stack and see what happens. I figured the boolit was bumping up in the throat and having to be sized back down by the bore, but perhaps it is gas cutting and the lube wad stack and/or felt lube wad will stop it.

[EDK]

Do some searches here and over at shilohrifle.com/forums for posts by Kenny Wasserberger. He uses a stack of wads in his 45/1XX and paper patch boolits with extremely good results.

Randolph Wright's book, LOADING AND SHOOTING PAPER PATCH BULLETS, A BEGINNERS GUIDE, is definitely worth reading...profusely illustrated and well written....a well of useful information.

:redneck::cbpour:

[Nobade]

I got to shoot some with the 1875 today. Success! It is all about the wads and keeping that gas under control going through the throat. .030" card, two 1/8" wool felt wads lubed with Gatofeo lube, and another card. 77gr. KIK FFG droptubed and compressed to allow the wad stack to fit. Accurate 400gr. .443" slick, patched with 9# onionskin. I fired 10 rounds at 200 yards you could cover with your palm, no wiping, blowtube 4 breaths between shots. Fouling stayed soft and no fliers. Hooray! It can be done! I know this isn't a super slick long range boolit, but it sure would work well for hunting now that I can reliably hit something with it. Now time to practice and fine tune things to see just how good it can get.

[Don McDowell]

Glad you got a load that will work for you.

[Gunlaker]

Nobade, one thing I've recently started to play with is using a single .060" LDPE wad as recommended in Dan Theodore's article in the BPCN magazine. So far it looks like the accuracy is quite good, although on my last outing I stretched my cases just a smidgen, although this might not be the fault of the wads.

Chris.

[Nobade]

Thanks Chris, I have been wanting to give that a try. Do you know where to get the material to make wads from?

[Gunlaker]

Thanks Chris, I have been wanting to give that a try. Do you know where to get the material to make wads from?

I bought the wads premade from Buffalo Arms. They also sell a really nice press mounted wad punch as well as wad materials so you can make your own. I use their press mounted punch for making over-primer wads.

Chris.