1886 Help

[cwtebay]

Howdy!
I've had this rifle a while (my something great grandfather special ordered it). I've shot it a fair bit with black powder and cast 330 grain bullet.(Lyman 457122). My question is because of something that was said a few years ago and was brought up on this forum. Is the 45-90 Sharps the same as 45-90 WCF? I've used an RCBS Sharps set for quite a while, as well as the Winchester tong set that came with the rifle with no ill effects.
Just want to make sure I'm not feeding the old gal wrong!

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[Bad Ass Wallace]

45/90 Sharps and 45/90WCF are the same. If you want to check further measure a case it should be 2.400" long.

[Thumbcocker]

More pics and targets please.

[cwtebay]

Wallace - yes my cases are 2.4" long. The point that was brought up was a nearly heeled bullet used in the Sharps variety (so slightly more tapered case than the WCF?).
Thumbcocker - what sort of pictures? Cartridges? Rifle?

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[Bent Ramrod]

The .45-2.4” Sharps used the same dimensioned shell as the .45-90 WCF, but it could be loaded with up to 100 gr of powder. The rifling twist in Sharps rifles allowed boolits in the 470 to 500+gr range.

The “.45-90 WCF” was conceived as an “Express” round; a heavy powder charge with a relatively light (300-330gr) boolit for flat trajectory at game shooting distances of 150 yards max. I believe the rifling twist in the .45-90 WCF was 36” or so. It wouldn’t stabilize the longer boolits. Loaded rounds with these boolits probably wouldn’t feed from the magazine anyway.

So as long as you load your 2.4” shells to WCF standards, you should be fine.

[tward]

Gun looks to be in great condition. More pictures of the gun and your loading sets a nd loadrped rounds.thanks for posting. Tim