I have a Chiappa Sharps carbine in .50-70 Government. My loads are 450 grain cast bullets, 12.0 grains of Unique. I've shot the gun before, never had any issues so far but today I was having problems that eventually led to a squib load.
I took the gun out, shot it at 50 yards and 125 yards. I got a couple of what I thought were light primer strikes. Each time, I took the round out, examined it, and wasn't sure why I got them, never had them before with this gun. On some rounds, they fired just fine. Finally, had one round that seemed like a light strike, BUT, turned out that the bullet came out and got stuck just into the breech. I've had Sharps rifles before so I know not to open the breech without the gun being in half-cock, but this gun has less than 100 rounds through it, shouldn't be giving me trouble, so I'm wondering about the loads. I know, except for the last round that led to a squib, each round went off after the second try (again, I checked each round before trying to fire again).
The target today at 50 yards.
The .50-70 Government round with the 450 grain bullet, 12.0 grains Unique.
A fired case on the left, the case with the light strike (unfired) on the right.
The bullet stuck in the chamber, you can see the unburned Unique powder.
The bullet after I got it out, notice there's not a mark on the sides so it didn't go into the rifling very far.