My first Sharps

[marlinman93]

Some of Elmer Keith’s writings are related to large bore Sharps loads. I seem to recall he claimed most were chambered tight, and fired cases didn’t need sizing when using black powder. I had the same experience with my Sharps guns - all I did after shooting was to thoroughly wash the brass and deprime. Reloading consisted of normal BP practice then I just pushed the bullets into the cases with thumb pressure. I always loaded a duplex charge with 6.0 grs of Red Dot under 60 grs BP in my 45-70 rifles.

My single shot rifles have been loaded exclusively with smokeless loads for many decades. But a year ago I delved into loading some using BP so I could shoot BPCR at our gun club at the 1000 yd. range. The guys told me I was welcome to shoot smokeless with them, but just for fun, as my shots wouldn't count in the matches. So I began last June working out the particulars of loading BP.
It's been an interesting journey, and my loads seem to be shooting well; but can't say I'm so excited about it that I'll switch all my old singles to BP. It's just way too slow of a process loading BP cartridges accurately so they're competitive. I can load a bunch of smokeless loads in the same time it takes me to load one BP cartridge. So I shoot a few singles using BP, and this Sharps will be a 4th that gets BP.

[Mikedominick]

.50-90 seems to be far more readily available than .50-140 brass. There are more sources for it, and some actually still have it in stock. I'd rather this was a .50-90, but I can't complain or change what it is, so I'll make this work.

Do you remember where you saw the 50-90 brass? I'd sure like to have a few more.

[marlinman93]

Starline had it, but just checked and it says it's backordered now.

[marlinman93]

I've been trying to make do with possibly using my .50-70 RCBS die set to seat bullets, and remove the bell on cases. I went and bought a couple 9/16"-18 bolts and turned out an expanding plug for my Lyman M die set. But after struggling to get anything to work well, or even good enough to chamber in my Sharps, I gave in.
I called C&H4D this morning and spoke with a nice lady who took down all my information and the expander size I wanted. She said she'd check stock, and in a couple minutes returned and said "her desk was pretty full, so it wouldn't ship out until tomorrow, and expect to see them on Friday"!! Wow!
That's amazing service from C&H4D, and although I've bought from them before, this is the fastest ship time I've ever experienced. Great people to buy from!

[Randy Bohannon]

I had a similar experience with them recently on set of 40-50 SBN dies for .408 bullets,they make good dies not cheap but they have what you need sometimes.

[marlinman93]

I had a similar experience with them recently on set of 40-50 SBN dies for .408 bullets,they make good dies not cheap but they have what you need sometimes.

I've always found their prices to be higher than common die makers for common die sets. But always much cheaper than RCBS for specialty oddball die sets. In most cases if RCBS has what I need they're $100-$200 more. In this case RCBS didn't even list these, so only one place has them.
I've got 5 or 6 C&H4D die sets, but so far this is the first set I actually bought. Others came with rifles I bought. I love their dies.

[marlinman93]

As promised, my dies for the .50-140-3.25 showed up today! They're beautiful, and polished to a mirror finish inside! Ready to build some ammo now!

[Mikedominick]

The wild hogs are supposedly heading south from Western Canada, they would seem to be the perfect beast for a 50 Sharps.

[marlinman93]

I loaded up one box of ammo yesterday. Don't want to go further until I see how accurate these are, and know if I need to adjust the load. I'm using 75 grs. of Swiss 1 1/2, with 45 grs. of Amaranth seed filler over the charge. Then seating a wad and 430 gr. .50 caliber bullet. With the weight of the Sharps it will be pretty mild, so if accuracy is decent I'll stay with it. If not I'll up the powder charge and reduce the seed filler to get to an accurate load.
I set up my old Lyman 55 to pour the filler, and using my Harrell's Precision measure for the powder charge. Makes it easy to charge the powder, and then drop the filler with two measures.

[HWooldridge]

I loaded up one box of ammo yesterday. Don't want to go further until I see how accurate these are, and know if I need to adjust the load. I'm using 75 grs. of Swiss 1 1/2, with 45 grs. of Amaranth seed filler over the charge. Then seating a wad and 430 gr. .50 caliber bullet. With the weight of the Sharps it will be pretty mild, so if accuracy is decent I'll stay with it. If not I'll up the powder charge and reduce the seed filler to get to an accurate load.
I set up my old Lyman 55 to pour the filler, and using my Harrell's Precision measure for the powder charge. Makes it easy to charge the powder, and then drop the filler with two measures.

Did you compress the BP or load it loose?

[marlinman93]

Did you compress the BP or load it loose?

I never leave BP "loose" or with air gaps. In these loads I adjusted the filler so only about .060" compression.

[pworley1]

I can see why you couldn't pass that up.

[HWooldridge]

I never leave BP "loose" or with air gaps. In these loads I adjusted the filler so only about .060" compression.

Perfect - sounds like you’ll have the equivalent of a 50-70 in a really heavy rifle. Should be plenty of fun.

[marlinman93]

The old Ideal mold that came with this Sharps appears to be made for older Trapdoors that had much larger bores. I sized them down to load, but they're not easy to size being too large. I've been looking for the Lyman 515141 425 gr., or Lyman 515142 515 gr. bullet molds. Both are discontinued by Lyman, so no back orders at any supplier who lists them.
This morning I found a 425 gr. version, which is a .512" diameter on Ebay. Seller posted it appeared unused, and his price was right at the last new price, or little under depending on who listed it. So ordered the mold, and this should allow me to shoot as cast without any sizing. That will help a bunch in the whole process.

[HollandNut]

This is awesome indeed .. Looking forward to more reports

[marlinman93]

This is awesome indeed .. Looking forward to more reports

Thanks. More to come when I test the loads I've made up. But hoping to cast better bullets with the Lyman mold, and load more up. Also need to invest in a bigger reloading press. My old Rock Chucker has always done anything I wanted, but it's 3.5" stroke makes it very slow, and fiddly to make up the .50-3.25" cases. I have to back off the dies before seating a bullet, and then seat it, and back the die off again to remove the cartridge.
I'm looking for a "best price" for a bigger RCBS Supreme, as they have a 4" stroke and will make loading faster. About $150-$170 most places, some with free shipping. Hoping one shows up at our next OAC gun show, and maybe get it even cheaper.

[HWooldridge]

You might be able to mill a "window" in the seating die so the loaded shell can be removed from one side - or even just shortened, depending on how much relief is needed.

[marlinman93]

You might be able to mill a "window" in the seating die so the loaded shell can be removed from one side - or even just shortened, depending on how much relief is needed.

Likely if I paid someone to do the work I could probably not cost anymore to upgrade to the RCBS Supreme, and not modify my die set.

[HWooldridge]

Likely if I paid someone to do the work I could probably not cost anymore to upgrade to the RCBS Supreme, and not modify my die set.

Agreed - just a thought. I have a well-equipped home machine shop so it's pretty easy for me to modify things when needed.

[Mikedominick]

Here's how the cases compare for the guys that haven't seen the big Sharps. 45-70 and 50-90 to the front and 45-120,
50-140 in the back.