Was at a flintlock turkey shoot in September and happen to meet a fellow that approached me about an old gun he owns. Don Painter was his grandfather's heir. Among the items he inherited from grandpa Donald Painter from Trafford, Pennsylvania was an old carbine he could not identify. He showed up at my shop with a Sharps 1863 cartridge conversion of 1870 to 50-70 Govt. The gun was gorgeous! Stunning bore, nice wood except the front sight was beat down. Don asked if I knew what caliber it was!!!! I went to my shelf and pulled down a box of my handloaded ammo that I had loaded for my 1870 Springfield Trapdoor and 1874 Sharps rifle. I pulled the breech block and lock: greased and oiled em' up. They were as dry as a popcorn fart! We set up a target at my 50 yard range. He was afraid to shoot it. Had to show him there was nothing to be afraid of. Holding at the bottom of the target; both boolits went into the black. I gave Don a couple of rounds and said it was his turn. Because of the beat down front sight, I had him hold low on the target. He did well even with a little flinch! Had him leave the 160 year old carbine with me so I could make up a new front sight and silver braze it in place. Found a old Lyman press for him. He ordered a set of Lee 50-70 dies from Midway USA and dragged everything to my shop on a Saturday to pick up his rifle with the new sight. I fired up my old Lyman lead pot and showed him how to cast his own boolits. Now I was creating a "monster" sizing his own 310 gr castings to .518. I gave him a pound of SR4759 and some primers; told him 25 grs would work good in grandpa's carbine. Setting up his press to load his own 50-70 ammo he took his ole carbine and reloading gear home. A couple of days ago I received this photo of a big doe he busted with gramps Sharps carbine with his own handloads. Grandpa would be smiling !!!! Felt pretty good to teach a fellow to "roll" his own fodder.
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