How I load the sharps 45-3.25

[Desertbuck]

Okay everyone I just had to do this for those of you that may own one of these behemoths. I hear a lot of talk about the cartridge but there are no pictures or good how to's for that matter. So I thought I might share the method I use. I hope it will help any new comers to this cartridge get started. Now mind you this is how I do it. Yes my rifle does shoot good with this method. Does that mean your rifle will shoot with this method? No it does not! But I believe it's a good place to start.
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Start with a fire formed clean deprimed case. Don't forget to make sure your cartridge is not stretched past recommended safe limit.
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Place a fresh primer in the priming arm I use a small piece of newspaper to place between the primer in the flesh hole. I just recently started doing this. Its purpose as I understand it is to prevent any kernels of powder from resting on the very top of the primer itself supposedly it helps with consistency. And some place it in the bottom of the case itself I'm trying this method first.
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[Desertbuck]

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I weigh my powder charges for this cartridge. Many use volume metric measurements. But I prefer to weigh my powder charges 110 grains is what my rifle likes. Sorry I tried and tried but this picture kept coming up upside down.
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Charge the case with the powder funnel if that's all you have and just tap on the table about 15 to 20 times to settle the powder.
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Beings that the lube grooved boolits I use do not carry sufficient lubricant I find it necessary and it was common practice anyway to use grease cookies in these long bp cartridges. And I use small pieces of wax paper to protect the powder. Why do I use wax paper? Cheap, easy and takes up little space.
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Using a wooden dowel of the same size as your case press the wax paper down firmly on to the top of the powder.

[Desertbuck]

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After pressing the wax paper down on the powder it should look like this. If done properly the powder won't dump out when you hold the cartridge upside down. You want that as that means there is little chance of lubricant squeezing itself around the paper into the powder. And my theory is that the paper will be forced up against the cartridge wall tighter under hydraulic pressure.
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Next cookie cut a desired amount of lubricant into the case.
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Using one of my boolits which has been sized .458 I use them to press lubricant to the top of the wax paper disc compress sufficiently by hand enough to ensure that it will slightly compress the powder and ensure it does so at my desired boolit seating depth.
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[Desertbuck]

Now for good measure I lube the grooves of the boolit that will be inside the case neck in this case the bottom 3. I have lube sizer but it's filled with smokeless powder lubricant. And the lubricant I use is my homemade all natural and smells quite pleasant. And is actually good for the hands. When I first made this bullet lube I was a teenager still living at home my mother thought it was a hand cream of some kind. Lol
I warm a small amount of the lubricant with the heat of my fingers and smear that into the lube grooves. The nice thing about this lube is it softens up and becomes sticky when warm but it does not creep or flow anywhere. If interested look in the lube section under my name and you will find the recipe there.
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Now just press the boolit into the case and allow the case to cut the excess lube off.
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Using your thumb nail scrape the excess lube off from the case and save for later.

[Desertbuck]

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Place in press.
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Seat and slightly crimp the boolit
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Done!

[Desertbuck]

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Enjoy [emoji102] [emoji92] [emoji14]

[MT Chambers]

Quite a bit more complicated than my procedure, however I use a drop tube and a veg. fibre wad in my 50/90Sharps......the orig. intent of the "primer wad" was to reduce the flame, so that the primer alone would not get the charge "moving" before ignition.

[country gent]

I use a aluminum foil wad under the primer I have yet to recover one when depriming. WHen I started using them the deviation of my loaded ammo dropped some. Im not sure if its the lowered blast pressure or the added hot particles from the disc. I Modifed the shell holder to make this easier. Ink back side of shell holder with marker or layout die. Set a pair of dividers from top of shell holder to where case head sits surface. Scribe a line around shell holers outside edge. Cllamp in a solid vise securely and use a dremil tool or die grinder with a .030 cuttoff wheel. cut bottom of slot to scribed line up thru to roughly 3/8 wide X .030 slot thru. This allows for a strip of material 3/8 wide to be slide thru and wads cut .

[Red River Rick]

Somehow the lack of "neck" tension in your fireformed case makes me wonder how much variation are you getting in your velocities. Have you chonographed any of these loads?

What about vertical stringing, any?

RRR

[Chill Wills]

Hey Desertbuck, Good job making the how to. Clearly you are getting the ammo that works for your needs. Very cool! I know that the 45-120 with BP will take any game you want it to. What kind of accuracy does this shoot? Do you hunt with this and shoot for fun? I assume you are shooting "dirty". How many shots with useful accuracy do you get before cleaning or running a patch?

Good job putting this out here! I wish there was more of this kind of post!
:drinks:

[smoked turkey]

I am just getting into loading for the 45-120. In fact my 40 cases arrived today from BACO. I can use any and all the help I can get. Thanks for posting.

[bigted]

only thing I will add is the measurement of the case mouth after fireforming. I ALWAYS use a boolit that is a bit of a stinker to thumb seat into the fireformed case mouth. this has treated me right in almost all applications I load BP with and then most smokless as well.

in inch terms ... if the slightly flaired mouth neck area is lets say .461 inch then I will load with a .460 to a .4605 inch boolit so I get no gas cutting past a lose boolit as RRR is leading up to I believe. this will reek havoc with accuracy to say nuttin of the copious lead to be mined outta the bore with any boolit that is loser then these measurements ... in my humble experience least wise.

nice presentation and thanks for the effort.

[Desertbuck]

No I have not ran this particular load through a chonograph. However I am curious with more than a couple of my loads and calibers. I keep procrastinating on getting one. Sorry.
And I don't know its exact group size. I'm a guy who takes out a target of whatever and setting it out at 100yd 800+ if I hit it with consistency I am happy.
I have taken this rifle hunting a couple of times and no the weight does not bug me it balances nicely on my shoulder. Never taken anything with it yet. Hell I've never even shot my first deer. Every time the opportunity came across it was either too late or I had hiked deep into God's country and didn't care to pack out 200 pounds of meat by myself.
But last week I was shooting some of the ammunition I made about a year ago and was shooting at garbag somebody KINDLY left out in the desert. An old shot up TV I think! Around 20 inches big I estimated the distance to be around 375 yards and was hitting it with consistency offhand with a strong 17 20mph cross wind coming from my 4 o'clock to my 10 o'clock. That's good enough for me.

By the way bigted. A problem I may run into if I use a bigger boolit I've never tried but my particular rifle is very sensitive to case bulging. So much so if I compress the powder much more than I am the cartridge will not chamber. I haven't slugged this particular rifle and have no real need to. I know it's an extremely precise chamber and barrel.
And the boolit I am using sized to .458 sits in the fired case almost as if it was machined precisely for it there is no wobble whatsoever all I can do is spin it. The boolit just slides in nicely.

Ps sorry Chill Wills I almost forgot to answer your question.
I shot as much 20rds without any problem that I could tell. They all chamber fine, accuracy stayed to my liking.
But when it is extremely hot and dry and after 4 rds I will blow down the barrel for good measure.

[Sharpsman]

Boy Oh Boy!

[Desertbuck]

http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/05/30/203498f76a052f306d32c1862c077a22.jpg
A hurried four shot group at 50 yards. The two grazes you see on top of the box are my first two shots. The one on the right was my third in the one in the lower right corner was my fourth. The ammo started giving me trouble chambering after the first two.
http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/05/30/39a90796d8f4f4853dbcd5ca5d5bc10a.jpg
I'm never going to use a rubber mat to lay on again in the hot Sun I was burning my elbows. And I don't dare lay in the dirt here there is so much glass in it. The city slicker shooters are going to get our privileges taken away from us out here if they keep it up.
http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/05/30/e7738c601395b45e84672d498e3a3755.jpg
I was having a bit of trouble with fouling with this particular batch of ammo. I could chamber the first two just fine after that I had to swab the barrel after every shot. Blowing down the barrel didn't help much. So a bigger grease cookie is in order. I wasn't getting the grease ring at the end of the barrel that I usually get.
http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/05/30/ae14aa3218daed3c1fc43ea37df38a3f.jpg
A look down the sights kind of.