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Sharps...Grease and caps?

2K views 7 replies 5 participants last post by  Z71 
#1 ·
Some general paper-cutter Sharps questions. What's a good grease to use on your breech block/breech plate thingy-bob(obdurating plate)?

I started with 'Outers' choke tube/gun grease and it is non-existent gone when I pulled the plate after shooting...replaced by hard black crud. So then I tried some TC bore butter which I thought did a little better. My beech plate doohickey doesn't have the little pry notches like some brand Sharps...I think I'm going to fix that and add notches.

How are the CCI musket caps these days?

I'm working with some older CCI 6 wing caps which seem plenty hot...however I've read the newer 4 wing CCI caps are feeble. The RWS caps are mail-order only in my area like 1000 caps minimum. I have not experienced any issues with the six wing CCI musket caps in my IAB carbine.
 
#2 ·
Can't answer your questions as it has been about 35 years since I owned my Italian paper cutter. I would like to relate an incident that happened to mine to prevent a replay. I loaned my carbine to a friend to do a Boy Scout demonstration, and while he was explaining the loading process, he opened the breech after cutting a live round. When he then fired the shot,the for end blew into 3 pieces and scorched his arm! Never open the breech after cutting a cartridge as loose powder can then find it's way into the barrel channel waiting to be set off by the not so tight gas seal at the breech. I repaired the wood so well, you had to look close to see it,but the lesson remains. They are fine guns,but for this one flaw-enjoy.
 
#4 ·
Yeh...I have read about the infamous 'Sharps exploding forearm' phenomenon before. The destruction manual that came with my IAB carbine cautions about that issue too.

However...my 'new' loose powder carbine ain't built like that! Even though the manual cautions about loose powder accumulating in the lever spring cavity of the forearm...and the exploded parts picture(no pun intended!) shows a leaf spring and screw...my IAB 1863 carbine has a solid forearm(no cut for a leaf spring) and the front wall of the receiver is solid at the forearm junction. This carbine using a coil spring and plunger for lever tension..which can fall out with the block/lever assembly removed.

I can imagine how you could blow the front wood off! Open the breech on a live load with a bunch of powder in the breech face cavity....then tilt the rifle around so that all the gunpowder trapped in the breech block falls into the spring mortise of the forearm....next live shot and BLAMMO!!...Forearm explodes...

My gun is solid there...although powder could accumulate around the lever detent and pivot-pin area it cannot get into the forearm.
 
#6 ·
Glad to see this post on the paper cartridge Sharps. Have a question. A friend has two of these Italian made guns, one a recent purchase Pedersoli and another older one. They both have a difficult time igniting the powder charge using the CCI and RWS musket caps. Is there a way to get better ignition? Was this a problem with the original guns used during the Civil War?
 
#7 ·
I found that using RWS berdan rifle primers gave a much stronger flash.But,in those days,I had need of a stronger flash,for reasons I wont mention.I have read that in the War,weak flash from caps was endemic,due to crooked contractors skimping on expensive fulminate.This was a major cause of the failure of the Starr carbine.Incidentally.my IAB is nearly fifty years old,and still good to shoot.Every time I take it to the range,some idiot parrots the old call,and thinks he s very clever.Regards John.
 
#8 ·
I was having some hang-fire issues with my 'new' Sharps...then after a couple shooting sessions a no-fire issue!

The no-fire issue required a thorough cleaning of the breech-block. It appears IAB didn't clean all the drill shavings/machine chips from the fire passages and it had a long metal chunk in there. I've heard others report the same issue with machine chips in the fire channels with IAB Sharps

The poor ignition has pretty much gone away once I got my hands on genuine black powder. I did buy some new caps too...but just the CCI brand. I would have to mail-order the RWS caps(like by the thousand!). I really don't think the newer CCI caps are all that feeble....I had a tin of CCI six-wing caps from the early 2000's that are supposed to be hotter than the new CCI 4 wing caps. Really cannot tell the difference between the older CCI caps and the newer caps. Both seem plenty potent.

I notice too that my Carbine doesn't like 'loose loads' where the paper-cutter chops the back off the cartridge. The accuracy is better and ignition much better with flush-fit rounds. My old 'Black Powder Guide' by George C Nonte Jr. had basic destructions for nitrating paper and rolling simple flush-fit cartridges.....

But really the best thing I did to my Sharps percussion carbine to get it too fire well was to put the BP substitutes away and drive 120 miles round trip to buy some Graf&Sons(Wano) black powder.
 
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