Thread: 54 cal sharps

Originally Posted by Marty Henry

Well I finally got all the pieces together, managed to borrow a pedersoli mold and cast up some bullets. The sharps pattern "Christmas tree" is a bastard to get out of the mold due to the flange, I ended up using a pair of needle nose pliers to release them.
Next was making the cartridges, it's not too difficult actually. I opted for the flat base version body of newsprint end sealed with a round of single ply bog paper. Couple of dabs of pva and it's done.
I could only get 40 gr into the cases 50 is supposedly more traditional.
Lubed last of all once assembled.
First round was a hang fire, I hadn't punctured the base on loading which is supposedly proper procedure.




There was a lot of unburnt paper in the breech nitrating it in future seems to be a good idea as does either using less or getting rid of the pva and maybe using nail polish instead (nitrocellulose based).
After 2 shots the breech was stiff, three it was gummed with fouling, spitting on the breech block freed it up and I managed to run all 8 cartridges.
The obturation isnt quite perfect, couple that with the fouling of the action and the desirability of puncturing the cartridges on loading and it seems to be a pretty accurate reproduction of what it must have been like in service. Still compared to a muzzle loader the rate of fire is impressive

When I had my one I got fed up with make the paper cartridges, and just dropped a bullet in the barrel and filled it with powder worked better than the cartridges with more consistent ignition.