1859 Sharps.
Posted: Fri Sep 23, 2016 4:51 pm
Finally got some cartridges loaded up for this Pedersoli replica.
I did two thicknesses of Cartridge to see what I could get away with.
The thinner of the two shot poorly as I thought they would scattering the bullets into the top half of the target at 50 yrds.
The ones wrapped to bullet thickness performed much better with them all going into around 4" in the top left hand quarter of the black where this first shot went.
Loading and shooting went well, I wiped out after each shot to keep the bore consistent and out of the 50 odd rounds fired there were only three that left remnants of the cartridge in the chamber and I suspect this was due to over enthusiastic use of the glue stick on my part when assembling the rounds.
I also had two failure to fires which again was due to glue seepage onto the base papers.
The rifle was popular on the firing point with many volunteers to help test the gun.
Being a carbine it seemed to be at its best when shot off hand with good military stance, leaning well forward, forend hand well forward and elbow up.
It is shooting far better than expected with less than ideal ammunition, I have now managed to amass 8 suitable moulds for this gun which will give greater or less powder capacity and have some differing weights and shapes. Those combined with a near chamber diameter tube and this rifle will at least give 100 yard 4" groups and no doubt even better with good bullet QC. Also experimenting more with different bullets and charges should also produce a load that aligns with the sights better.
A real fun gun with lots of potential for tweaking and accuracy development.
No bloody brass to clean, prep and prime either.
What can one say but PhwoarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrR!
I did two thicknesses of Cartridge to see what I could get away with.
The thinner of the two shot poorly as I thought they would scattering the bullets into the top half of the target at 50 yrds.
The ones wrapped to bullet thickness performed much better with them all going into around 4" in the top left hand quarter of the black where this first shot went.
Loading and shooting went well, I wiped out after each shot to keep the bore consistent and out of the 50 odd rounds fired there were only three that left remnants of the cartridge in the chamber and I suspect this was due to over enthusiastic use of the glue stick on my part when assembling the rounds.
I also had two failure to fires which again was due to glue seepage onto the base papers.
The rifle was popular on the firing point with many volunteers to help test the gun.
Being a carbine it seemed to be at its best when shot off hand with good military stance, leaning well forward, forend hand well forward and elbow up.
It is shooting far better than expected with less than ideal ammunition, I have now managed to amass 8 suitable moulds for this gun which will give greater or less powder capacity and have some differing weights and shapes. Those combined with a near chamber diameter tube and this rifle will at least give 100 yard 4" groups and no doubt even better with good bullet QC. Also experimenting more with different bullets and charges should also produce a load that aligns with the sights better.
A real fun gun with lots of potential for tweaking and accuracy development.
No bloody brass to clean, prep and prime either.
What can one say but PhwoarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrR!
