There is a lot of mental masturbation and speculating going on over there, too. I frankly refuse to wipe every shot like those boys do. Re inventing the wheel is hard work.
The original Sharps factory sold ammunition by the thousand round case, and shipped thousands of those cases to the sutlers on the western frontier. The overwhelming majority of this ammunition was paper patched, and it had to shoot accurately in every rifle chambered for it, which it did. It also had to shoot accurately for twenty or more consecutive shots without wiping or a man could lose his life due to a jammed rifle. It also did this.
Paper patched ammo is inherently satisfying to shoot, for some reason. I can load 45 rounds of grease groove ammo in 52 minutes, but it takes 2 1/2 hours to load 45 rounds of paper patch. I can't say that the paper patched ammo is significantly more accurate than the greasers, but the difference is definitely there, at least in my hunting rifles.
ET has a great moose kill to his credit. If that old rifle of his could talk, there is no telling what it could tell us. I have taken three American buffalo and many of the large plains antelope in South Africa with paper patched bullets using both the 45-70 and a 45-110 Sharps, and I have yet to recover a single bullet or lose an animal.
Is it addictive? You bet. And I love it.
