My first Sharps rifle

[Member 38805]

Just purchased my first Sharps rifle. As a pretty diehard Ballard and Rolling Block collector/shooter, I never contemplated a Sharps. But this rifle was offered to me and after examining it closely, I discovered the restoration was done on a Freund Bros. marked action! It has the Freund upgrades of dual extractors, camming breech block, and firing pin, and was done in a JP Gemmer style. The workmanship on the restoration is amazing, and really high grade wood. The chambering sure wasn't my first choice, as it's a .50-140, but it came with several hundred cases, 4 boxes of loaded ammo, and two molds for paper patch and grease groove bullets. So really a tough Sharps to pass up as my first one.
I've been chatting with a friend who loads BP in his .500-450 Jeffries rifle and uses something called "amaranth seeds" as a filler over powder, and tells me his loads in the lighter Jeffries rifle are like .50-70 loads, so that should make shooting the big .50 manageable in this 15 lb. rifle.
















Tough to make out the Freund rollstamp here, but it's got the "skull and crossbones" in the center that's typical of their Wyoming Armory Cheyenne shop.



And here's the .50-140 cartridge next to one of my .45-70-480 gr. loads. That's a 678 gr. paper patch bullet, but the two molds are for 400 gr., which should be better on my shoulder!:

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[Howard1955]

Congratulations!

 

[41mag]

Dang....<lust>...
Congrats!

 

[Member 38805]

The seller was trying to recall the name of the man he had do the restoration long ago. He thought it was "Bill Van Horn", so I did some internet searching and discovered a Gill Van Horn from Southern Ca. I called the seller and he confirmed that was the name.
Gill Van Horn was the stock maker for Weatherby for decades, back in the 50's and 60's, and also did restorations at his shop. He was famous for restorations of fine African big game rifles, and his wife Emma did checkering work for him.

 

[Dr Prepper]

She puuurdy! Nice score there.

 

[Bon Sauvage]

Just purchased my first Sharps rifle. As a pretty diehard Ballard and Rolling Block collector/shooter, I never contemplated a Sharps. But this rifle was offered to me and after examining it closely, I discovered the restoration was done on a Freund Bros. marked action! It has the Freund upgrades of dual extractors, camming breech block, and firing pin, and was done in a JP Gemmer style. The workmanship on the restoration is amazing, and really high grade wood. The chambering sure wasn't my first choice, as it's a .50-140, but it came with several hundred cases, 4 boxes of loaded ammo, and two molds for paper patch and grease groove bullets. So really a tough Sharps to pass up as my first one.
I've been chatting with a friend who loads BP in his .500-450 Jeffries rifle and uses something called "amaranth seeds" as a filler over powder, and tells me his loads in the lighter Jeffries rifle are like .50-70 loads, so that should make shooting the big .50 manageable in this 15 lb. rifle.


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Tough to make out the Freund rollstamp here, but it's got the "skull and crossbones" in the center that's typical of their Wyoming Armory Cheyenne shop.

View attachment 1281009

And here's the .50-140 cartridge next to one of my .45-70-480 gr. loads. That's a 678 gr. paper patch bullet, but the two molds are for 400 gr., which should be better on my shoulder!:

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Well played, Sir!

 

[Member 38805]

My reloading for the Sharps is progressing slowly with stumbling blocks along the way. First being the grease groove mold that came with the Sharps being way too large! It drops bullets at around .518", so sizing them down is very tough. I solved that by locating an obsolete NOS Lyman 515141 mold NOS that drops a 425 gr. bullet at .511"-.512" size. So I can simply lube it, and not size at all.
Then I discovered my old RCBS Rock Chucker press sizes brass fine, but the stroke is too short to seat a bullet without backing the seating die out, and then back in to seat a bullet. So my next item on the list is to replace my old press with a RCBS Supreme that has a 4" stroke and will handle these very long cases. Going to see if I find one used at our next OAC gun show first, before buying one at the new prices.
I did get 20 cartridges loaded up using 75 grs. of Swiss 1.5, and 45 grs. of Amaranth seed filler over the powder, then a .060" wad over that and my 430 gr. bullet seated against the load. Should be pretty mild in my 16 lb. Sharps, and I'll wait for accuracy test, and the new mold to arrive before I build anymore rounds.

 

[Bon Sauvage]

I appreciate this information and hope that you will keep us posted. Did you use a drop tube for the powder?

 

[Member 38805]

I appreciate this information and hope that you will keep us posted. Did you use a drop tube for the powder?

Used it for powder, and filler. Although I wont use it for filler in the future. The seeds are tiny round seeds, and I tried both ways and the fill level was identical. So future filler will go direct into the cases, and not need the drop tube.

 

[DunRanull]

Nice score. Fascinating reloading for that behemoth. Since the buffalo are long-gone, are you planning any elephant hunts in the future? A beautiful rifle!

 

[Member 38805]

Nice score. Fascinating reloading for that behemoth. Since the buffalo are long-gone, are you planning any elephant hunts in the future? A beautiful rifle!

This Sharps will see some long range use if I can work up loads that are accurate, and not brutal. Otherwise it will just be shooting targets at various distance, depending on how well it shoots.

 

[titsonritz]

That is a big ol' cigar round.

 

[Member 38805]

It's taken time, and I had to fiddle with my Rockchucker press to be able to get cartridges made up. The old reliable Rockchucker is a bit short in the height for this 3.25" long case, which gives me fits when trying to load and seat bullets. Once the case is in the shell holder there's no clearance to sit the bullet on top. And if I sit the bullet in the case mouth it wont allow me to slide the two into the shell holder. So I have to back the seating die off and balance the bullet on the case mouth as I slide the case and bullet together in place. Then screw the seating die down, and finish seating it. After that I have to back the die off a couple turns to allow the assembled cartridge to be removed. A pain, and time consuming.
I ordered a new Rockchucker Supreme that's got 1" more clearance, and should make everything back to normal, and eliminate all the messing with the seating process. But it wont arrive until late this month, so forged ahead this way for now.
My case trimming is just as bad, with my Lyman trimmer's universal shell holder not accepting the large rims, and no .510" pilot to fit it. So I bought a nice used obsolete Lyman drill press mounted case trimmer to make case trimming easier. Until then I've been hand filing case length, and will wait to trim all the .500 Nitro Express 3.25" brass. It's a bit longer and not worth hand filing now. I have enough bras that's trimmed now to do about 80 cases, so the rest can wait.
Headed out to the gun club tomorrow with two boxes of loaded ammo to test accuracy, and see if I need to adjust my loads, or forge ahead with more of the same. I'm using Swiss 1 1/2 BP, with a 425 gr. cast Lyman bullet. Putting in 75 grs. of Swiss, and 45 grs. of Amaranth seed filler and a Walters .060" wad over the load. With the Sharps weighing 16 lbs. this should be extremely mild, and if it needs more powder I'll bump my load up some more with the next batch of ammo I build.

 

[Member 38805]

Went to visit my friend who sold me this Sharps on Thu. and he gave me the sight set he bought for this rifle. A reproduction of the original Sharps cased sight sets that was built by Axtell in Montana.
For some odd reason the sight base in the set is Remington spacing, so I'll have to call The Original Sight Co. and have Tony send me a correct base. Tony bought the Axtell Sight Co. and is still making sights, and parts for these sights.

 

[P7M13]

This is an inspirational thread. Thanks for sharing.
Amaranth is a great idea -- I've used kapok (have a bunch), polyester fill (easy to get), and might have suggested quinoa. I have a bunch of amaranth that needs to be rotated - I think I'll try it next when I need case back-fill.

 

[Member 38805]

This is an inspirational thread. Thanks for sharing.
Amaranth is a great idea -- I've used kapok (have a bunch), polyester fill (easy to get), and might have suggested quinoa. I have a bunch of amaranth that needs to be rotated - I think I'll try it next when I need case back-fill.

Just be sure to calculate the weight of the amaranth seed with your bullet weight! It will be more bullet/seed total weight, and charge needs to be adjusted accordingly. Unlike poly or kapok, amaranth seed has some weight to it and is denser.

 

[CountryGent]

Now that is a beauty.

 

[Member 38805]

Just got my Sharps back from my gunsmith friend. I usually do tang sight holes myself, but was leery of the case hardened receiver, and hurting a nice rifle by breaking a drill bit or tap in the tang. Since this rifle was never set up for a tang sight, I needed him to D&T for a Sharps Borchardt sporting long range Soule sight I found long ago. Gordy got it all done and perfect in his mill. He also flushed off the oval head of a tang screw to allow the base to sit flat on the top tang.
Front dovetail was typical odd sized Sharps at .452", so I dug out a globe sight from my parts that's an old Lyman #17 with peep/post apertures. You push down on the aperture to switch from a peep or a post, so very quick to change which you like.
Camera is acting up, so not a great picture of the Sharps tang sight. It has a Hadley eye cup with lots of different opening sizes.



Lyman #17 globe.

 

[Hooyah DeepSea]

I'm curious, what is the barrel length, and will the lube grooves carry enough lube to take care of that length?

Reason being; I had a Pedersoli Quigley in 45-70, and even with a lube 'cookie', I still ended up with 4 - 5" of dry bore at the muzzle.

 

[Member 38805]

I'm curious, what is the barrel length, and will the lube grooves carry enough lube to take care of that length?

Reason being; I had a Pedersoli Quigley in 45-70, and even with a lube 'cookie', I still ended up with 4 - 5" of dry bore at the muzzle.

The barrel length is 34" and I own a dozen old single shots in various chamberings with 34" barrels. All produce good lube stars at the muzzle and I don't have any issues with not having lube the entire length of the barrels. Nor do I have issues with any leading. I don't use lube cookies, and many of these old rifles see more smokeless than BP, while others only get BP loads, or mostly BP loads.
What lube are you using, and how many lube grooves do your bullets have? Are they deep enough, or enough in number to carry enough lube?