Capping Breech Loaders

[perentie]

Waiting on the PTA for a Sharps 1862 Carbine I bought off Pedersoli.
Why? Because I havnt seen one let alone fired one.
Anyone one on here shoot one on a regular basis? How many shots before the Breech Block seizes up?
Read a fair bit on different forums about mods etc but all in the US. Just interested in local knowledge.

Keith

[perentie]

54 cal bullet.JPG (744.12 KiB) Viewed 2515 times

PTA not here yet but I went into the Dealer here to see it. Roger had put the mould I bought into the pack so I got it and bought it home and cast a few this morning. Cant make any paper cartridges yet until I see how long the chamber is.

[perentie]

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While I am waiting I thought I would have some practice making a paper cartridge.
These are the long tail ones to use the paper cutter function. Just to show how it was back in the day in the transition from muzzleloaders to brass cartridge..
From what I have read ,they are not particularly consistent in their performance but I will leave a few in the box and use the flat base cartridge for target work like everyone else.

paper cartridge no 1.JPG (705.27 KiB) Viewed 2474 times

I could not find any cotton but remembered I had some surgical suture thread left in my kit from "Before Yet" when I was with Vet Services of The Dept of Ag Stock and Fisheries in TPNG.
That seems to work. When and if I get my hands on the Carbine I can measure up the chamber and roll some real ones.
Cant wait

Keith

[Tinker]

Fascinating.
There are the NSW colonial-issued Calisher and Terry capping breechloaders that appear for sale every now and then. It would be a great project to get one of them up and running again. I'll be very interested to see how your paper cartridges go. Do you have a special jig for making them up?

[perentie]

The only jig for these so far is 6 inches of half inch copper rod I drilled a hole in to hold the base of the bullet while I tie the patch on. I hold it vertically in a vice.
When I go to the flat based cartridges I will have to make up a different arrangement, as then the flat base of tissue paper gets glued on, powder inserted, then bullet either tied on or glued on last.

IMG_paper patch 03.JPG (334.37 KiB) Viewed 2420 times

[Noisydad]

That'll be fun perfecting those loads AND it'll beat the crap out watching the idiot box!

[perentie]

Well I got the PTA after 3 months but 32 working days as lots of holidays in that period. Picked up the carbine and busy making paper cartridges. Some with a flat base to load in to the chamber like a brass case and some with a long tail to get cut off on closing the breech.One I tried did not get cut off so I sharpened the cutting edge, See what happens.

Keith

[perentie]

paper cartridge no 3.jpg (741.97 KiB) Viewed 606 times

With the breech plate sharpened it works well now. Long tails are easier to load than the flat base as I dont have to muck about glueing the thin paper into the base.
Flat base with 80 grns 2F Wano on left and long tails with 85 grns Wano on right. Probably 5 grns gets lost when tail cut off.