Low power loads for Sharps 52 cal

[Moose]

Well, Father's day fairy brought me a Sharps 1859 repro (Pedersoli) and now I'm looking for info and help on how to feed this thing. Main focus is on reduced loads, since the full charge affair is a little much for my neighborhood. Don't have any of the paper cartridges yet, but can shoot same with the P'soli boolet and loose powder. This thing holds about 85 grains of ffg. Impressive but somewhat more than adequate. Any help on this is most appreciated.

[shooter575]

I shot a Shiloh for a few years in the N-SSA. Just about every sharps shooter used a reduced load.There are a couple way to do this.
Paper cartridges, Most guys roll there own.You can go the nitrated paper route or just use a paper that burns up easy ie cigaret papers or hair curler papers
Basicley just roll around a wooden dowel the size of the boolet,glue ,insert boolet,add filler,then powder.You can fold,glue or just twist end to keep everything in.
Another method that is used by quite a few guys is a long rubber tube that fits the ringtail snug.Then just pour in the powder.To load grab tube using it as a handle jam boolet into chamber,twist and pull.the boolet is seated,powder falls into chamber,close breech. This is done with less than full loads.I was using 36 gr fff in a chamber that would hold allmost 90 gr.I just raised the barrel to move BP to the rear before firing.
[I know this goes against everything we have been told] But 100s of thousands rounds have been shot this way in the n-ssa with out any problems.
Here is a pic of some of the cartridges I have used.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/1003/shooter575/sharpscartridges.jpg

Two types of paper shown,one is long and breech cut it off,other is made short.
The yellow tubes arthe ones that fit the ringtail.The black ones are used sorta the same but have a seprate plunger that seats the boolet,both carry the powder inside.
Here is a link to the N-SSA.They have a BB.Search there for more info

http://www.n-ssa.org/

[Moose]

Well thank you kindly, sir - got all excited and went out to the shop and measured (slugged) the bore and checked a few boolets. It's a 54 cal, not 52. My mistake. A pretty nice piece, all in all. So now I'll do a bit more research, put your experiences to work, and make me up some cartridges. And I guess this falls between the BPC and the ML catagories. Will try some more out over our monthly shoot., next weekend. Thanks again.