1859 sharps

[wyohandi]

I am having a original Sharps rebarreled to 45-70, it was one of the 50-70 conversions but the
barrel was in really bad shape.
My question is trapdoor loads only or are marlin loads safe? I have been told that it will handle anything
a Shilo sharps will, true or not??  I'll probably never load above trapdoor levels (don't need that much pounding)
I don't need the safety police jumping on me just looking for a real answer to a simple question.  Thanks

[Lone Star]

Given the age of the rifle and a complete ignorance of it's history, I'd keep to low-level Trapdoor loads only.    Note that not all "Trapdoor loads" are the same.  Factory loads consider ~18,000 CUP as maximum pressures, while SAAMI and some manuals consider 28,000 CUP as maximum.  Personally, I'd not exceed the 21,000 CUP limit as listed in Speer manuals.  Unlike modern Sharps replicas which use modern steel and are new, the original Sharps rifles were designed for black powder and used far inferior metallurgy - and given the 120 years of unknown treatment since they were new, even 21,000 CUP is potentually high pressure.  But, it's your rifle....



.

[jls]

I'll go with lonestar on this one. I have a 1863 sharps in 50-70 that belonged to my great grandfather and just got around to firing it. I use a 450 gr pure lead boolit and stay around 65 to 70 grs. of black. a good bump on the shoulder but not bad. keep the pressures low and you should be ok

[Tencubed]

I also shoot one of the old Sharps that was converted from paper to brass cartridge.  Did quite a lot of searching to find what would be safe loads for this old war horse and the general consensus of folks way more knowledgeable than I seemed to be to keep the pressures down.  Trapdoor loads on the moderate side would be about what was suggested for the 50-70 to safely handle.

Seems some of the old Sharps from before the Civil War had tempering problems in the breach so better safe than sorry.

Sources of information were primarily talking to folks that dealt in these old guns and shooters at antique rifle shoots over the years.

Mike

[wyohandi]

That was how I was thinking. Keep the pressure low and shoot it forever.
The only reason I asked was all the conflicting opinions I got around here.
Just nice to know if I could load her up for the occasional T-rex
Thanks for the input to all.

[Tencubed]

I knew I had read something on this not too long ago and found it in Ken Waters' "Pet Loads" book.  This has been one of my favorite "go to" sources for years and I would highly recommend it to anyone interested in reloading and/or shooting.

At any rate Mr Waters had this to say about pressures in the older 50-70 Sharps rifles.  Somewhat paraphrased but "When smokeless powders came into use most of the loading manuals warned not to exceed the pressures found with black powder.  Problems were the relatively weak thin brass cases then available and also the early rifles, dating from the 1860's and before (like the ones converted to brass from paper cartridges) with their comparatively primitive metallurgy were not suited to handle breach pressures above about twenty thousand PSI."

Mr Waters writings dovetail very nicely into what I had been told by folks familiar with these old rifles.  I keep my loads down to around 900 FPS with the 500 grain cast bullets.  Seems to work well, gives reasonable accuracy for a well worn barrel and makes for a fun old rifle to shoot.

One of the things this old cannon does is create quite a lot of interest on the firing line.  Most shooters, particularly the younger ones, get a kick out of being able to shoot a rifle that fought in the Civil War.  Bit of history in action.

Mike