Originally Posted by Mikedominick
Yes, I posted a picture at my first post of my .45-70 next to my .50-140 cartridge. People think the .45-70 is a big case when I show it to them! That is until I hand them the .50-140!
This morning I got an email from the seller that he'd found two more boxes of loaded ammo......and the dies.Sad after forking over big bucks for my die set.
Maybe I'll find somebody who needs .50-140 dies and sell them cheap. His are RCBS, which they don't list anymore.
Don't sell them cheap, price them reasonably, maybe just a little below going price. Of course in that caliber there will not be a high demand.
Spell check doesn't work in Chrome, so if something is spelled wrong, it's just a typo that I missed.
Last price from RCBS was $350, and I doubt I'd ever find a buyer for anywhere close to that. C&H4D sells theirs for $261. I'll probably sell the RCBS extra set for half price, and he tells me they're brand new die set.
I was really surprised I found a 50-90 RCBS set at a normal price. I'm not sure if I'll use them since I only shoot the brass in the same rifle, but I got them just in case, and the price was right.
I always get dies for everything I shoot, and even if I sell a gun on rare occasion I usually keep the dies in case I might get the same chambering in the future. Only time I've sold dies with a gun is if I already have the same dies.
Got some very exciting news about my Sharps this morning from Dick Labowski who owns the original factory records! I got his email address from Tom Rowe, as he didn't answer his phone, and not voice mailbox setup either. But he sent a email reply today!
His factory records show my Sharps as being sent out in 1880, and listed as an "A Rifle" which he said means it was an "assembled rifle" after 1874 production halted. Nothing in the records about a barrel or caliber, so I assume it may have just been a receiver complete, or maybe receiver and stocks? But the really exciting part is the gun was sent to the firm of Carlos Gove & JP Lower Denver, Co.! No way to determine if they built the rest, and then Freund did the Freund Improvements, or if Gove and Lower sold it to a customer, or to Freund to do the rest of the build? Regardless of who did what it's got some great provenance to some important historical figures in the Old West gunsmiths, and dealers!
I'm sending for the factory letter, since it is so important to document the rifle's provenance!
That news and the letter just tripled the selling price - if you ever decide to part with it...
Yes, it's certainly what I hoped for as far as provenance. During my research I ran across a Sharps that was one number off mine, and it was shipped to the same place, at the same time. So I hoped mine was in a group bought by Gove and Lower also. Turns out it was, and records showed they bought more than this pair as Sharps sent out sales letters offering the receivers cheap to numerous gunsmiths they'd sold to. I came across such a letter sent to Freund Bros. in the book on Freund Bros., but they declined to buy any as they were feuding with Sharps at the time.
Headed to the range today, and took the 1874 Sharps, my Hepburn in .40-65, and my Ballard Mid-range A1 in .40-63 along. Took the latter two just in case I needed something else to shoot if things didn't go as planned.
The load of 75 grs. Swiss 1 1/2 with 45 grs. of seed and a 425 gr. bullet is wonderful! I'd compare it to a medium load with a 480 gr. .45-70 load, and in the heavy Sharps it's a pussycat! I'll likely bump the next loads up 5 grs. to 80 gr. and see how those feel, and shoot. I took 40 rds. with me and shot them all. I wore my PAST recoil pad, but sure didn't need it.
The sights on the Sharps are really holding things back for me. The rounded narrow blade in front, and Freund ladder type sight at the rear shot too high hitting about 10" high at 100 yds. I had two targets set up, one above the other, and shots hit between the targets. So I will D&T the tang and install a tang sight, and put a globe up front before shooting anymore. With my old eyes I was getting 5" groups, and just impossible to get a decent sight picture.
I'm tickled with the Amaranth seed filler, and how well it does at making the loads manageable! I think with good sights, and some further load workup it could be a very competitive rifle and cartridge.
My RCBS Rockchucker Supreme was delivered this morning. So now I can make up my .50-140 rounds without all the hassling with backing off the seating die to get cases and bullets in or out.
Oh, and a big surprise on the RCBS Supreme also! Info I read at several internet sites said RCBS had moved press manufacture over to China. And the Ebay ad where I bought my press stated it was shipping from China, expedited. But when it arrived it came via FedEx and the return label was from Tennessee.
I opened the box, and the RCBS box inside had "Made in USA" printed on it! So wherever this made in China rumor started, it appears to be bogus. At least mine wasn't made in China.
Things are moving perfectly now! Got a knock on the door this afternoon, and UPS had delivered the Lyman Drill Press Trimmer I bought off a WTB ad here. It's brand new in the box, with even the screws and instructions!
Now I need to make a part for my drill press to fix my stop so I can use it.
that is a piece of history very welldone restoration. sure would be fun to shoot
So far it is, but still developing loads for it. The reduced loads now are extremely mild, so next round will be maybe 10-15 grs. more powder, and less filler.
The Sharps went to a gunsmith friend on Tuesday to have the tang drilled and tapped for a long range Borchardt Soule sight. For whatever reason the tang sight holes were either never drilled, or they were filled when it was restored? I usually do this work myself, but it might get tricky if the holes got stripped and he has to shift them slightly, or needs to drill a filled hole. I was nervous about harming this rifle, and prefer to let him handle it.
He's also got my Darr barreled Rolling Block to cut a front sight dovetail so I have the option of using iron sights on the .35-40 also.
Took awhile, and longer than usual as my gunsmith buddy had troubles with my Rolling Block extractor modifying it from a .43 Spanish to the .35-40 rim. But he called this morning to tell me both the Roller and the Sharps were ready to pick up.
The Sharps got the Sharps Sporting long-range sight, and the Roller a spare Lee Shaver Soule I had. The Sharps front dovetail was an issue, as I hadn't looked closely enough. It was a .452" dovetail, typical for Sharps, not a .375" that I had a spare globe for. I dug through my case of front and rear sights, and found a very early Lyman #17 from when they had a flip up reversible aperture. One is a peep, and the other a pin head post. So you push one down and the other pops up. It's the correct dovetail, so I put it on the Sharps. The staff has gear "teeth" up each inside riser, and the threaded barrel in the center lowers or raises the aperture. Pretty neat setup.
(presses “like” button)Took awhile, and longer than usual as my gunsmith buddy had troubles with my Rolling Block extractor modifying it from a .43 Spanish to the .35-40 rim. But he called this morning to tell me both the Roller and the Sharps were ready to pick up.
The Sharps got the Sharps Sporting long-range sight, and the Roller a spare Lee Shaver Soule I had. The Sharps front dovetail was an issue, as I hadn't looked closely enough. It was a .452" dovetail, typical for Sharps, not a .375" that I had a spare globe for. I dug through my case of front and rear sights, and found a very early Lyman #17 from when they had a flip up reversible aperture. One is a peep, and the other a pin head post. So you push one down and the other pops up. It's the correct dovetail, so I put it on the Sharps. The staff has gear "teeth" up each inside riser, and the threaded barrel in the center lowers or raises the aperture. Pretty neat setup.
We had our monthly collectors arms meeting here at OAC Sunday, and a friend pointed out to me that another guy had a bunch of brass he thought would fit my .50-140! I walked over with my friend to look and sure enough it was .50-140 Bell Brass!
The seller had a good price on two 30 pc. boxes of the brass, and took an offer of $25 less off each box, to make it a great price! So I have another 60 pcs. of brass to reload now!
Bell has been gone for 16 years now, and was the best brass maker for obsolete brass ever. Glad to find this NOS stuff!
I took the Freund Sharps to our annual long-range shoot a week ago, and decided to take a box of the smokeless powder loads that came with it, just to try one. I'd been avoiding shooting any, simply because of the large case capacity, and the smokeless charge of IMR4198 seemed a bit stout. But I decided to try at least one and after a day shooting, everyone had headed inside, so I loaded one to try without an audience.
Set the trigger and touched it off with no ignition! I waited a full minute and opened the action to see a light primer strike? Weird since the Sharps has always worked well, with never a misfire before. I closed the action, and tried a 2nd strike with the same result!
I stopped and took the rifle inside to the bench, and completely disassembled it to see what was wrong. I figured it broke a firing pin, but it all looked good. Used a kinetic puller to pull two cartridges apart, and tried to fire those primers, and still got light hits. I gave up, and put the Sharps away.
When I got home I pulled 5 more cases apart, and tried all of those with zero success. I deprimed all the cases, and put in new Winchester primers. Touched off 8 cases, with 8 successful primer strikes on them! Appears whatever primers were used to load the smokeless rounds are all extremely hard, and wont allow a hard enough strike to work. Divine intervention maybe?
So I've begun the process of disassembling about 150 loaded cases, and dumping powder in the garden, and primers and filler in the trash. They'll all be reloaded with Swiss powder, and I'm trying various load combos to see what the gun likes best. And what I can work up to be comfortable.
Wow Marlin! Beautiful 1874 Sharps. Very nicely restored. Shoot the heck out of it. A little handling will "defarb" it a bit. I too have restored a few Sharps rifles. Still have one I bought at the Charlotte, NC show for $200. Gun was in a house fire. Wood was destroyed. Will try to post a photo. I enjoy shooting it. A little handling wear has taken off the new look. Its a 45-70. Never heard of aramanth seeds for a filler. I had a 14lb 50-140 Sharps and would use Kapok as a filler. They use it in life jackets for filler. Works good. Nice photos you have posted. My photos don't come out so good! Have fun shooting it.
Thanks.
I've been told that solid fillers might give me better accuracy, and some stack fiber wads, or use cork of floral foam to reduce charges. I may give some thicker wads, or stacked wads a try with my Swiss 1.5fg.
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