Good news last night

Dave951

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I recently bought a couple 1863 Sharps for competition, but as we all know, they don't come ready for prime time. They are made with the same design flaw from 1863, namely the breech tends lock up from fouling during shooting. Back in the day, troops would dribble water from the canteens to solve this and keep going or I've read accounts of them peeing on it. Since it is a known factor, there are a couple guys in the North South Skirmish Assoc that can rectify this. I heard from my guy last night. Both will be recrowned, new lead cut on chamber, breech blocks modified, competition grade sights installed and in short made as alike as possible. He's also confirmed my 1858 Smith could really use a recrown.

Now to just anxiously watch the incoming parcels for one big enough for two Sharps and a Smith.
 
How does he modify the breach block?

Long post but hope it 'splains why I wanted a Sharps (aside from the fact I just like them)

Both of the guys who do it use a variation of the same method. The sliding chamber sleeve that Pedersoli came out with only works somewhat. The guy who's doing mine makes an entirely new plate for the block and it's machined to accept the O ring mod better than anything any factory makes. He also makes a new clean out screw for the flash channel out of stainless steel and cuts if off to the correct length so the channel is as smooth as it can be in a Sharps. Add some high temp/press grease and you have a dead reliable Sharps that can literally shoot hundreds of rounds without the breech seizing. Now the Good Book says there is nothing new under the sun and if you look at the breech of a Ruger #1, you'd swear Bill Ruger was a Sharps fan.

From there, we use Charlie's Tubes for ammo. They're basically a thin wall paper tube that fit onto the ring tail of the bullet. The bullets are called "Christmas Trees" because the driving bands are three different diameters. Generally, the first band near the nose of the bullet is the smallest and just touches the lands of the rifling. Then next band is close to bore dia. The last is over bore dia and will swage down on firing. The tapered effect of this bullet coupled with an 11deg forcing cone cut at the throat and you have a bullet that is self centering every time in the bore and with obturation at ignition, the seal of bullet to rifling is as good as it gets. The paper tubes are consumed completely on ignition. The tubes are closed at the breech end with hair curler paper which present no barrier to ignition. The tubes are also in various lengths so they will work with different length chambers so the cart will extend to the base of the chamber when the round is inserted. On insertion, the tube will completely fill the chamber to the rear allowing the user to "force seat" the bullet into the rifling a bit before closing the breech. In addition to the forcing cone cut, I'm also having a competition crown put on the muzzles.

There is a phobia over airspace in loading black powder and it is warranted on muzzle loading and brass cart designs. The Sharps were originally designed to be shot with an air space in the chamber. If you get a chance to look, there is no way you can completely fill the chamber and the cavity in breech block and still close the gun.

The last thing I'm doing is having a set of competition sights put on the gun. The original style military sights were pretty hopeless for accuracy and with the new setup, the marginal notch will be replaced by a peep.

Upshot of shooting a Sharps in our competition, it's about the most inherently accurate carbine on the line. The bullet is self centering to the bore, the cart insures uniform bullet seating to the rifling, the cart insures powder is in the same place in the chamber every shot, the breech and barrel are one monolithic assembly with no mechanical flex on ignition. It's not uncommon at all for a Sharps set up this way to shoot 2moa at 100yds with iron sights if the nut behind the stock is worth his percussion caps.
 
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Thanks for that. On the Shiloh sharps I had I used the ring tail bullet as well. You’re right Sharps are very accurate. Mine was unmodified, I got a slightly oversized gas check that I hand fitted to the breach, it cut the cartridges surprisingly well. Very accurate, I wish I hadn’t sold it.
 
Both mine are IAB. I know, some folks turn their nose up at it, but the cart guns are the ones with the real issues. For percussion, the issue with IAB is variations during production vis a vis the chamber length. Most of them are dead on 54cal and the rifling is consistent. Mine, one chamber is slightly longer than the other. My smith is rectifying that issue so both guns will be pretty much identical in that regard. None of the repro sights are worth competing with since they are repro of the issue military ones. Since you were NSSA at one time, you probably know both Larry Flees and Charlie Hahn. Both of them are acknowledged Sharps experts. My guns are with Larry cause Charlie is moving his shop at the moment and there's no guarantee that he would be finished before the next skirmish, or even in time for me to get load development before Nats.

I did a bit of testing prior to sending them off. With no load development, single digit temps on the range, issue sights, me shivering on my chair, and a guy on the line with me with a seriously obnoxious compensator on a FN SCAR, after a couple shots to figure out where the guns were impacting, both shot into less than 2in at 50yds. I'm really stoked to see what they can do with Larry's mods, some load development and competition sights.
 
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