Getting started with a percussion breech-loader Sharps?

[Ragnarok]

I picked up a nos Sharps 1863 military .54 carbine made by IAB Italy and sold by Sportsmans Guide. The box is dated Jan. 2005 and the carbine itself appears as new.

IAB? Are they even in business still?....I've been surfing the net gathering whatever knowledge I can and the IAB made Sharps appear to be the the dregs from the bottom of the 'Sharps repro barrel'! That's all right as I got the thing cheap enough.

Anyhow...my new Sharps carbine don't look too badly made. I do see some internal machine-burrs/chips that need cleaned-up. Some crude grinding on the trigger leg of the sear inside the lock...and I think the rear leaf 'carbine sight' is rather crudely made. I can't move the chamber sleeve either, however I haven't tried too hard.

I put a 2"x2" piece of paper towel over the muzzle with the gun vertical and popped a CCI musket cap. The thing has enough blast 22" inches of barrel later to knock a hole in the paper towel! Should be able to ignite powder...I guess reliable ignition being an issue with loose powder Sharps.

The breech plate/obdurator plate thingy-bob seems to fit well..and I removed it and greased it up. I cleaned the bore of dust with Hoppes and a patch or two....stuck my pinky in the chamber sleeve and could not move it around(I read you should be able to move it??)...but the rear of the sleeve does seem to fit well with the breech plate. I lubed the lock innards and think it's ready to go.

I just need some bullets now. I probably should slug the bore(and likely will)...But I thought I might just order some .54 Sharps compatible and try the gun. Will probably order some Sharps 'ringtails'...but am open to advice. Does anybody have any bullet suggestions to help me get started?

Any other advice or pointers about running a .54 Sharps?

I've made paper cartridges before(for revolvers and front-stuffers)..plus the manual gives sparse advice but does have dimensions for the paper. The destruction manual also states a max. charge of 80gr(I could see the chamber holding every bit of that behind a bullet!)...This Sharps carbine looks like fun!...can't wait to get some bullets and try it!

[59sharps]

I picked up a nos Sharps 1863 military .54 carbine made by IAB Italy and sold by Sportsmans Guide. The box is dated Jan. 2005 and the carbine itself appears as new.

IAB? Are they even in business still?....I've been surfing the net gathering whatever knowledge I can and the IAB made Sharps appear to be the the dregs from the bottom of the 'Sharps repro barrel'! That's all right as I got the thing cheap enough.

Anyhow...my new Sharps carbine don't look too badly made. I do see some internal machine-burrs/chips that need cleaned-up. Some crude grinding on the trigger leg of the sear inside the lock...and I think the rear leaf 'carbine sight' is rather crudely made. I can't move the chamber sleeve either, however I haven't tried too hard. Because they do not come out on the IAB.

I put a 2"x2" piece of paper towel over the muzzle with the gun vertical and popped a CCI musket cap. The thing has enough blast 22" inches of barrel later to knock a hole in the paper towel! Should be able to ignite powder...I guess reliable ignition being an issue with loose powder Sharps. Should not be an issue. If you have a problem. try raising the barrel a little tap the side so the powder falls against the breach.

The breech plate/obdurator plate thingy-bob seems to fit well..and I removed it and greased it up. I cleaned the bore of dust with Hoppes and a patch or two....stuck my pinky in the chamber sleeve and could not move it around(I read you should be able to move it??)...but the rear of the sleeve does seem to fit well with the breech plate. I lubed the lock innards and think it's ready to go.

I just need some bullets now. I probably should slug the bore(and likely will)...But I thought I might just order some .54 Sharps compatible and try the gun. Will probably order some Sharps 'ringtails'...but am open to advice. Does anybody have any bullet suggestions to help me get started? Moose mold has several designs. Brooks too. I like them both. I know Moose thru the N-SSA so I now tend to buy his molds. he has several designs.

Any other advice or pointers about running a .54 Sharps? With factory sights it will shoot high.

I've made paper cartridges before(for revolvers and front-stuffers)..plus the manual gives sparse advice but does have dimensions for the paper. The destruction manual also states a max. charge of 80gr(I could see the chamber holding every bit of that behind a bullet!)...This Sharps carbine looks like fun!...can't wait to get some bullets and try it!
see nots in red

[Ragnarok]

Thanks! So the chamber sleeve is fixed in an IAB?

The flimsy 'Sportsmans Guide' owners manual has a schematic/exploded parts view of the IAB Sharps..and I note that mine differs somewhat from the illustrated pieces. The manual lists a 'chrome chamber'...well?..they ain't any visible chrome to my chamber sleeve. My carbine's sleeve appears blue and roughly machined. Then too the parts illustration shows a leaf-spring and screw for the lever tension...my rifle has a big coil spring and detent for the lever. These parts will fall out when you remove the breech block/lever assembly! The forearm isn't milled-out for the lever leaf spring either...so I guess I need not worry about accumulating loose powder and blowing my front wood apart(something my destruction manual warns of)!

[curator]

Ragnarok:

I have had an IAB Sharps for about 20 years and am very familiar with its good and bad points. When I first bought it a friend told me IAB stands for "its always broke." Some of this is true. The internal lock parts are quite soft and I did have a lot of problems until I reworked it and hardened them correctly. Also, miss-fires are very common unless you keep the flash channel in the breech block very clean of fouling and use powerful musket caps. I use RWS musket caps with good results. My IAB has a rifling twist of 1 in 48, newer ones supposedly are faster twist. Mine would not shoot any of the .54 caliber Sharps ring-tail bullets with any accuracy. It does, however shoot .575 round balls quite accurately. Simply drop into the chamber, add powder and shoot. It does help to swab the bore every 4 or 5 shots to reduce the effects of powder fouling. Don't worry too much about a bit of air space in the chamber as these guns were designed to work with this. Paper cartridges are a good idea that doesn't really work with my gun. The breech block is not sharp enough or has too much tolerance to actually cut the paper. Using the .575 round ball and 60 grains of loose FFg black powder I can clear the board of clay birds at 25 yards, but have to clean the gun after 10 shots if I want to operate the breech. Yes, it does shoot about 8 inches high at this range. I use a 10 to one water/balistol spray on the breech block sides to keep things running but is it messy. Don't wear good clothes doing this!

[shunka]

IAB is now long gone... :-(

Indeed, back in the day IAB sold a number of cheap sharps models both completed and in kit form in 45-70, as well as the percussion models in .45, .50, and .54 . They were sold via a number of distributers, Dixie sold a few models (including the .54 business rifle kit) as well as EMF, Tri-Star and a few others.

On this website, which is defunct (if you wish to save the info I suggest you download it asap) you will find nearly all the particulars:

http://www.brenzovich.com/sharps_rifles.htm

we see a veritable copy of the page that used to be posted on IAB's website.

I had a "failure to ignite" issue with my IAB 1863. The first thing I did was replace the #10 cap nipple with a musket cap nipple. That worked much better, as the musket caps have considerably more pop. However I began tinkering with the breechblock, desiring to make the famous "O-ring" modification which tightens up the gas-plate/ breech face gap considerably. Whilst mucking about with the breechblock I finally decided to completely strip it down. I discovered that channel from the nipple to the breech-block hole was blocked with scrap metal. After several broken drill bits and lots of careful work with dremel diamond burrs I got it all cleared away. The Sharps now ignites pyrodex regularly, which it would not do before.

You will also find the lockworks are rather soft, and usually the angle of trigger sear to hammer notch is almost always too steep...

We usually refer to these things as "kits" since they need so much work, but they are economical and fun.

yhs
shunka

[Ragnarok]

Thanks guys.

I ordered some bullets and other stuff...so should at least be able to shoot my IAB breech-loader.

The link Shunka provided above is what I recall gawking at some years ago. I had wanted to buy a Sharps kit years back but nobody ever had any in stock at the time. A friend and I had attended a local vo-tech gunsmithing course...and one of the other students had acquired a .45-70 Sharps kit and was working on it in class. It was almost certainly an IAB kit..and I remember there being some controversy whether the receiver was hardened or not...or if it just needed some color case for visual aesthetics. I never saw his completed rifle...and think the guy quit before he finished it....

I'll have to do some research on hardening the lock parts... I've had quite a bit of experience with cheesy Italian revolver parts not holding up. And then no two Italian revolver manufacture's parts would interchange with any other(and maybe not even interchange with their own make!)....Even a Uberti 1873 'Cattlemen' cartridge revolver I owned had remarkably crude/crappy internals...though some newer Uberti revolvers I own seem far superior in this respect.

How interchangeable are/were IAB lock parts with any other Sharps builder?