The Sharps Paper Patch Chamber

[KCSO]

I am currently working with an original Sharps Bridgport rifle trying to work up an accurate load. The gun still has good rifling and very little pitting, but it will not shoot any of the lead cowboy loads. When I did a chamber cast i found out why... The gun is marked 45 2 1/10 Sharps, but a chamber cast show that the gun is chambered for 45-80 in a 2 1/10" case. The throat is so long that a 45-90 will almost fit. So far the best accuracy has come with a 500 grain paper patch bullet wrapped with 2 turns of Buffalo Arms patching paper. Final diameter is 459. The patches are lightly lubed with tallow and bee's wax and a 1/10" cookie of lube is seated under the slug. This load will group 3 shots into 3" at 100 yards with the factory ladder rear and silver blade front sight. The sights leave a lot to be desired for my eyes, but for some strange reason the owner of the gun won't let me change them. After 3 shots the groups open progressivly unless i run the Fischer cleaner through. When loaded to best advantage the paper patch just lightly engraves the rifling. I am loading with 75 grains of Swiss FFG dropped from a tube and well settled and am using milk carton wads between the powder and the base of the buller. Thihs keeps the lube from contaminating the powder adn from sticking to the base of the bullet. Tails are tucked into the base of the bullet. My patch template came with the gun and is a two wrap.

Now the funny thing is that the chamber looks a LOT like the IAB chambers, but not quite so long. I wonder if they got a P/P 2 1/10 rifle for a sample.

[45 2.1]

Have you tried either the NEI or LEE 405 gr. hollow base, cast very soft, as cast or sized down and patched back up. They produce pretty good results with BP in stubborn guns at times.

[KCSO]

I am actually gettng very close with the tapered soft lead slugs and paper patch. I have yet to find any paper patch slug that will shoot straight black powder over 5-6 shots without loss of accuracy. I have been pretty lucky to have known a couple of old time Sharps collectors and have been able to shoot several of the old guns. I have managed to take chamber casts from several of these rifles and find that the markings on the barrel are not the whole story when it comes to shooting. My best paper patch gun so far was a Uberti Hi Wall that I cut to a custom chamber with a long tapered leade.

[Digital Dan]

I have yet to find any paper patch slug that will shoot straight black powder over 5-6 shots without loss of accuracy.


You may never find that. There's no lube to speak of that will keep the fouling soft. If you wipe between shots, or at least now and then....it'll work. So far as I know, just about any rifle will shoot PP better with a shallow leade...probably more so with BP.

[405]

New here so am lacking in knowledge of what has been posted in previous threads. But, will add what I know about ppboolits in Sharps type rifles. From what I've read, heard and measured the chambers, throats, groove diameters, etc. can be all over the place in the originals. Even the Sharps factory loaded ammo mics out at something different from what I expected- usually smaller dia.

About cleaning... I've found that there is probably no way to shoot uncleaned between shots and maintain tip top accuracy for any long string of shots. If I clean with moose milk (Ballistol + water) between shots the accuracy of the pp loads is truly outstanding if everything else is right.

My best loads are normal pp types using a pure lead swaged, tapered bullet, twice wrapped with the Buff Arms paper to just over the break of the ogive. Then the load column (OAL cartridge length) should engrave (seat) the leading edge of the paper patch about 1/16-1/8" into the rifling. The bullets are sized so that once patched, the total diameter including the patching approaches but just under the groove diameter of the bore. The paper type doesn't seem to matter much as long as the total diameter is right and the patched portion of the bullet engraves into the rifling a little. I usually load 2F under a .030" card under a grease cookie under another .030" card topped by the bullet. I lightly lubricate the paper patch with SPG or Rooster after wrapping and drying- not that it's need for shooting but seems to ease the entry of the bullet into the rifling when chambering the round.

This system seems to work equally well with the 3 BPCRs I shoot- an original Sharps 40-70, a Shiloh 45-70, a C. Sharps 45-110. In the two modern Sharps I sometimes load according to Matthews and Lyman... a duplex with a small amount of 5744 or 4759 under the BP charge. Seems to keep things a little cleaner. I don't play around with the duplex loads in the original Sharps and stick with the BP only. Cheerio!