Originally Posted by EthanEdwards
Originally Posted by gunner500
Many thanks Sir Ron, full disclosure on the rifle, many years ago a friend of Saint Bagwell and i gave me an 18 twist Shiloh standard weight barrel chambered in 45-70, i looked for an action to build a '74 Sharps on for hunting, but, after seeing Goldie Pedersoli, i was also looking for a Ruger #1 action to screw it too, but alas, it never came to pass.

About a month ago my dim bulb lit up a bit, i sent the barrel to JES for a .512" bore 30 twist chambered in 50-70 Govt, yesterday morning early i took the rifle and barrel to Steve Baldwins place up in Jones Ok, he installed the barrel for me, i now have a switch barrel set for the 45 and 50 Government on one rifle using the same forearm and mounting hardware, each barrel has it's on lever return spring and extractor, what a fun deal this will be.

LOL on the Sharpie point primer, look close down in the case in the photo, see the King of Clubs playing card wad? guess what will be saved and be in the chamber come game day?............i think it kind of fits.

I cast these bullets relatively hard at a guesstimated 12 to 1 alloy, i've heard stories of the 50's not penetrating, hence my first foray into the 50 was 22 twist and 750 grains, they penetrate like a freight train loaded with pig iron, so as 50 cal bullet weight gets lighter i tread lighter, i want this little bullet to hold it's shape and penetrate for all it's worth, even if i run it into the side of a Buffalo someday. cool

Speaking of 50-70-530 Supersonic........is this a pretty good representative load for the 50-70? i have never studied other weights and velocities, just knew up front i wanted at least 1200 fps with this bullet to give it a solid chance to overcome the resistance of it's diameter and plow on through.

Thanks again Sir Ron.
Very nice. Years ago, I acquired an original Sharps 1859 Conversion Carbine in 50-70. I bought a Lyman mold and cast some bullets and bought some Bell brass from an outfit in Sand Point, ID. I filled the cases up with Ffg giving no thought to needing to drop tube the charges, as I didn't have the equipment and didn't know enough to do it. Loading the cases with standard smokeless equipment, I then headed out and blasted some targets. Deeming the accuracy "good enough", I took the thing deer hunting. Re-creating in reality, a recurring dream, a very decent buck came right up to my stand and I could NOT get the trigger to pull. Buck fever? I don't think so. It just would not pull! He ran off unscathed. A couple of days later I touched one off at a bigger buck quite a ways off and didn't hit him. The flash was very impressive though.

The gun left in some forgotten trade. Wish I had a pic of it. I still have some of the ammo as well as the die set and other stuff.


LOL, damn the luck on the buck EE, and yes, having the right tools, powder compression die in this case may have made all the difference, you may still be shooting that old Smoke Belcher. smile


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