Long Range for sure!

[liltank]

No SHOW OFF; rather a clue to the 'younger set' what these rifles will do with BLACKPOWDER!! A chore to clean?? Not hardly! Three wet patches damp with plain old water down the breech and one dry patch and it's clean! Too many people have bad misconceptions about blackpowder because all they can see or recall are instances with muzzle-loaders and a 5 gal. bucket of warm water and the process of running a swab up and down the bore to get clean and to do that the friggin rifle had to be disassembled to boot! Not so with a falling block breech like onto the Sharps or a Hiwall rifle!

Don't get me wrong! I still enjoy shooting smokeless/modern rifles but it's a real kick in the arse to lay down prone, fire a shot from 1000 yds. and then roll over and look into my scope and watch a 550-720 gr. slug whack the steel plate!!

I use number 13 till clean, dry patch, then bore butter for storage. Hasn't let me down in 20+yrs with my round ball rifle.

Tank

 

[LRSickle]

Sharpsman, this blackpowder stuff is foreign to me. I'm pretty impressed. What are your loads? Do you have any pictures of your cases? I'm not familiar with the caliber you shoot.

 

[sniper762mm]

how do you post a pic to a thread or reply?

 

[LRSickle]

I always load my pictures onto Photobucket and then copy/paste them onto LongRangeHunting.

 

[RMulhern]

Sharpsman, this blackpowder stuff is foreign to me. I'm pretty impressed. What are your loads? Do you have any pictures of your cases? I'm not familiar with the caliber you shoot.

LRSickle

I shoot primarily the Shiloh .45 2 7/8 cartridge which means that the case is that length. It is also referred to as the .45/110 which means that the case was basically designed to hold 110 grs. of blackpowder although more powder can be put into this case it performs best IMO with no more than 110 grs. I also shoot the .50 2 1/2 which designates a case of 2.5" in length. My .50 is a C. Sharps rifle with Badger barrel. The Shiloh rifle barrels are made 'in house' by Kirk Bryan and family out of Big Timber, Montana and there are 'no flies' on Shiloh barrels I might add!

Here are 3 photos; the first of three bullets by comparison a .308 Sierra Palma bullet, the middle a .50 caliber 710 gr. Elliptical bullet by Steve Brooks in Wyoming and the far right bullet is a .45 caliber bullet referred to as the "Money Bullet' designed by Dan Theodore from California. Excluding the Sierra...these are 'grease groove' bullets which shoot very well but I shoot primarily paper patch bullets which are shown in another photo. Paper patch bullets have no lube grooves. The paper rides in the bore against the lands and the lead does not touch the interior of the bore.



Various cartridges of paper patch. The longer cartridge is the .45 2 7/8 round, left two are .50 2 1/2 and the others I think are a couple of .50 and possibly a couple of ..45 2 6/10 which are called the .45/100.



This is a photo of my .50 C. Sharps named THE BASTARD by a friend of mine and it probably is my most accurate BPCR of all the ones I have. It is one more great shooter and is very consistent with accuracy. It really shines using a 710 gr. Elliptical paper patch bullet designed by my friend Dan Theodore. On occasion I test off the bench but when getting serious I shoot off the sticks from prone.

 

[Chas1]

Outstanding shooting and good info. Having never done this type of shooting, it's amazing. Thanks for sharing.

 

[sniper762mm]

thanks, lr sickle

 

[Nape.270]

I watched a guy at the local 1000yard range beat the crap out of a steel bear with his 45-70 sharps at 875yards this last weekend vary cool stuff.