Capping Breech Loader

[Bent Ramrod]

I took the Erma Gallagher out to the range today. Managed to get 16 shots off at 50 yards, no mean achievement. The only .54 caliber mould I have is for the linen cartridge Sharps rifle, but it seems to work OK in this carbine. It can't be seated in the Gallagher cartridge case, so I drop the boolit into the chamber and seat the case full of powder afterwards.

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There are two types of cases available from S&S Firearms, the "thick" and the "thin." The "thick" cases only hold about 50 gr of powder maximum and the vertical scatter is pretty bad. The "thin" cases can easily hold 70-80 gr of powder, and around 70 one begins to see small clusters like the "core" group in the picture. The holes around it are the lighter powder charges. I blowtubed throughout the session. Some people have given up on their Erma Gallaghers and relined the barrels to .50 caliber, but my example is beautifully rifled (multigrooved like a cannon barrel) and seems to be plenty accurate to me.

The reason the 16 shots was noteworthy is that these high-capacity cases with the heavier loadings have generally given me no more than 3 shots before I get one stuck in the breech section of the chamber, and then shooting ceases for the day. This time, by dint of applying Frog Lube with a Q-tip to both the breech section of the chamber and the part of the cartridge case that sticks out of the barrel, I only needed to use my extraction tool (made from a Taiwanese wire stripper) a few times, and each time it actually worked.

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You can see there is not a lot of room to get a case out of the breech even when the barrel is tipped forward. This design was vastly unpopular with the troops in the Civil War, and at least back then it was no big deal to wreck a fired case by mangling it out of the gun with pliers or whatever. The current cases are pretty expensive for that kind of treatment. I think I'll try to make up a ring die and plunger so I can size the cases back to where they won't have the potential to stick so badly. But as an expedient, the Frog Lube worked very well.

My Gallagher has primitive sights and a fierce trigger pull, but it is one of the few Civil War carbines stout enough to fire charges beyond the power level of pistols. It impressed the guys firing their ARs at the nearby benches.

[Cactus Farmer]

Good posting. I helped a local fellow with a paper cartridge Sharps. We made some paper ammo but the best shooting was with a homemade breach seater and filling the hole with powder. A tang sight was added to the carbine and we hit buffalo targets at Raton out to 800 yards. Time of flight was incredible. We ,too, had a audience for out shooting. Now I want a Gallagher and a Smith. Any other cap fired breach loaders to look for?

[mikeym1a]

This is NEAT!

[Bent Ramrod]

A friend gave me a Maynard Civil War carbine at his cost. Kind of a wreck, but the breeching was tight and the bore was reasonable, so I loaded some aftermarket shells and checked it out. It shoots a pretty light charge, but it's quite accurate and easy to extract the shells with the fingers, since they have a rim on them and the chamber is all in the barrel. The linkage is strong enough to hold the barrel to the frame against the force of any black powder charge that will fit in the shells. It's easy to see how this one was a favorite with soldiers in the Civil War. You just keep loading and capping and it just keeps shooting and shooting and it doesn't kick much; remarkable because it's very light and handy.

The Gallagher has a linkage that pulls the barrel tight into a socket in the breech while at the same time locking it horizontal against the front of the frame. As a result, it seems to be able to handle pretty heavy loads. If Gallagher had made the barrel part of the chamber longer, and the breech part a little shorter, and put in an extractor, the gun would have given the Maynard and the Sharps a run for their money, even as a cartridge conversion. Even though it's relatively heavy for a carbine, recoil is stout with a heavy powder charge and boolit, but a "rifle" version would have taken care of that.

Another friend has a replica Smith carbine. This uses (IIRC) a plastic shell that only holds 30 grains or so of powder fired with a percussion cap. Even at that loading, the spring catch that is the only thing holding the barrel to the breech is partially popped loose with almost every shot. Kind of nerve wracking, although it hasn't come apart far enough to leak gas. But it's no more powerful than a large caliber cap-and-ball revolver. A relatively inexpensive replica Maynard would be much more gun than the Smith ever could be; I wonder why some enterprising Italian firm hasn't made one available.

I've been looking for plastic shotshells or wound paperboard tubing that could be cut and used for disposable Gallagher cartridges, but no joy so far. All the paper tube manufacturers start at the calendar mailing tube size and go up from there. I don't know if a 20 gauge would be small enough; I haven't found one yet to try. Cheap, disposable cartridges that could seal the gas for one shot, and could be pulled out of the breech with pliers when stuck would increase the rate of fire by a factor of five. When it's going well, the Erma replica is a riot to shoot, and very well done (except for the trigger pull).

[Frank46]

Don't remember if either the smith or gallagher were both made by erma but here goes. You mentioned multi grooved rifling like a cannon. I seem to remember reading about the smith and when it was made (replicas) that they used machine gun barrels for one or both replicas. Could be wrong on this though. Frank

[Bent Ramrod]

I'd heard the machine gun barrel story too. Supposedly that's why the Erma Gallaghers are .54 caliber rather than .52 or .50 (whatever the originals were).

There's a guy on Youtube who shows how to load one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9_V2gVw5jA

but so far Part II on shooting the thing hasn't come up. He is using the "thick" cases, and even less powder than I use in them, with the same boolit I am using. I would tend to doubt he would get better than minute of cavalry horse at 100 yards with his loading. On the other hand, his cases won't stick in the breech end of the chamber when he has to take them out.

He also shows a couple of paper cartridges in his video. I would like to see somebody try those out. The barrel and breech would support the case all right but if there is even a pinhole leak, that gas would be directed forward and likely burn the shooters's hand. Linen cartridge Sharps guns leak at the top of the breechblock, but the leakage goes straight up where it doesn't hurt anything.