Home Forums Hunting & Shooting BPCR My new Sharps 1874 Montana Rough Rider

After measure Ogive, I made a dummy bullet (no powder, primer) and noticed the starline brass would not fit the chamber. These cases were used in my springfield trapdoor and I fixed the issue by doing a resizing full body length, then they fit the Sharps chamber fine!
After primering and belling the mouths, I proceded in making 20 test loads.
65 gr (*by volume, then trickle by weight) Old Enysford 2F black powder
.030 greased veggie wad
Compressed with a Montana Compression die .090
520 gr BACO "Money Bullet" compressed the load further by .100
Taper crimped ever so slightly to eliminate the bell (so they would fit the chamber)
Wiped their butts and chambered each load to insure they *fit*

Background:
A 2 year wait for this custom build as I ordered it when I retired in 2018. Picked it up a week ago from Tuesday.

I cast my own 520 gr bullets using a BACO "Money Bullet" mold. 20/1 lead.

Caliber: 45/70
Barrel: 30" heavy Octagonal
Wood: Semi-fancy Walnut
Buttplate: Traditional Steel
Metal Finish: Pack hardened
Brass Escutcheons
Fireblued polish screws
Custom bedding
Custom long range sightsby Steve Baldwin: rear Vernier Tang and bubble-leveled globe front with interchangeable silhouette patterns.

For the record, his name is "Nuthin' Fancy"

Nice! Your bullets look great.

I also found my chamber is very tight (match)....I tried to "neck size" some cases fired in another rifle and they were a no-go. Had to full-length size.

Do you plan to leave that grease groove exposed on your loads?

Your rifle is very nice!



Tim

Thanks Tarbe, Yeah, that extra grease ain't gonna hurt nothing. I hope.

I posted info below on another BPCR site today. Sharing here.
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Well, good first day at the range with the Sharps. The vernier sight is similar, not unlike, the Buffington I'm used to using with the 1873 Trapdoor.

The sight was set at 1/4 (25 pts I assume?) and placed on paper nicely at 25 yards.
I kept bringing it out, to 50 then 100 yards to "zero" it.

The Baldwin Soule sight registered 40 pts for 100 yards. My groupings sucked, the last 4 shots are closest to the vertical axis.
The first shot was low and left, I overcompensated windage and the next 2 were low and to the right. The last 4 shots started coming in. (nearest center vertical axis)

I used a blow tube in between shots and swabbed the chamber for clean entry. I also ran a wet patch (water and Murphy's soap mixture) down the barrel every 5th shot followed by a dry patch.

First thing I learned is that I need to put the "vertical staff" card in the front globe on my next trip to the range.(Lollypop) I didn't bring all the cards sights to the range so I stuck with what I had.

Also, I'll learn to make a better more accurate bullet. I've started separating the 520 gr BACO money mold boolits by weight. No more than .4 gr apart, then grouped. They throw between 518.2 grs to as much as 520.5 grs using 20/1 lead I purchased from Buffalo Arms.

Now that I have 20 fired cartridge brass pieces, I *should* be more successful in the next batch that I make.

This last 20 I used 65 gr of Old Enysford 2F, drop tubed, .030 wad. CCI #250 primer. Compression was .09 with a montana compression die. Then added the boolit and compressed another .06. I did not separate lighter or heavier bullets.

After steel tumbling the freshly fired brass, I am going to experiment.
For instance the suggestion to wipe the bullet base clean of any SPG lube, less compression with the actual bullet (and more compression with the die) and I have .060 veggie wads, I may try a few of those instead of the .030.
Once I get consistent at 100 yards I'll move it out to 200 yards. I predict I'll need to add 14 points to the 40 showing on the staff.

70 gr. of OE 2f, compressed with the wad on top enough to let that baco bullet seat to the middle of the last lube groove, cases primed with br 2 or rp 9 1/2 primers shoots very well in my Shiloh , and a couple of other 45-70's lounging around here.

Thanks for the recommendation! I'm all ears.

Very nice rifle. You should be able to improve the accuracy shown with that group. I had a pretty good run with BPCR, but age and other circumstances have caused me to move on. I did learn a few things along the way, which I'll share FWIW.

BP shooting is different. Too many new BPCR shooters try to apply knowledge of modern rifles, and it doesn't always translate well. Uniformity is always good, however, it must be consistency in doing what works well.

Maintain a bit of healthy skepticism. More gun nuts out there than real shooters. Don't be too quick to latch on to what the internet says is "the best", or "all the top shooters..." I don't care for Soule sights, but that's just me. Baldwin is certainly top drawer.

Bore management is critical, but I'm not clear as to what you are doing. Mixing blow tubing and periodic wiping may or may not be best. Damp bore vs. dry bore depends on your load. You need to "read" your fouling, and avoid leading. If the fouling near the muzzle remains dry, you need to reconsider your procedure. I'd consider something other than Murphy's but that's me. I went to an antifreeze solution of a type used by VW and Audi. Seemed to work better than previous soluble oil solutions. Ambient atmosphere, heat and humidity, makes a difference.

If you are shooting off that soft bag, you might consider an alternative mode of rest.

Since my "retirement" I've learned that powder quality and its availability have been a significant accuracy issue. I know a very experienced and successful BPCR competitor who was tearing his hair out over a sudden loss in accuracy in his rifles, and traced the culprit to certain lots of his favorite Swiss powder.

My son has followed his old man, sold his Shilohs and is now working with a new custom 1885 .45-70 and its .22 little brother. It will be an interesting journey.

I wish you good shooting.

Paul

Damn what a beautiful rifle Sportsdad60, hope you tag out with that thing this season.

Paul, Just using the bag until I get my loads right. I have two shooting sticks I typically use when not test firing.

My last outing, I didn't clean the bore at all until finished with 15 rounds.

After sighting it in with a new front silhouette disk (6 shots), I proceeded to test my bullets. This was my 2nd batch after literally fireforming the brass to fit the tight chamber tolerances of the Sharps rifle.

65 gr and 69.5 hrs of Olde Enysford 2F (Thanks Ranch13 for recommendation), compressed .200", 520 grain BACO "money" bullet cast from 20/1 lead with a .030 veggie wad, bullets were pan lube with SPG Lube. Winchester Large Rifle Primer. Basically it was made identical to Mike Ventura bullets, those that shoot silhouette know who Venturino is. Except my OAL was 2.995.
Bullet pressed in place by a Shiloh bullet seating tool, which is basically a section of the .458 barrel (minus rifling) and a press. Thanks to GUNLAKER on Castboolits for the tip!
Far left shot was fouling shot after cleaning the barrel after sighting in 200 yards. Then the 200 groups started coming in.

Closest holes (3 on top of each other) were all 69.5 grains of 2F.

Mike's book talks about 1" groups for 100 yards, 2" groups for 200 yards, etc. is obtainable with proper and precise build of a cartridge and I didnt believe it was possible!

FYI, the run out on these test cartridges ran .001 max.