Another dumb question.

[MissedAgain]

After reading through 5 pages of threads on the percussion Sharps, I begin to wonder if these rifles were very practical in a battle. It seems to me that a rifle action that seizes after not very many shots would be somewhat detrimental to the health of the user.

I have done a lot of reading about muzzle loaders used in various battles. One expedient to clean the fouling out of the bore was to pee into the barrel. How did the guys who used percussion Sharps keep them working?

[GST]

Carry lots of pistols and run like hell when everything got clabbered up.


GST

[Rich Siegel]

I'm not really sure about an answer to your question, historically speaking, but all troops carried water in a canteen. The water could be used to clean the action, just pour it into the open action. Another answer might be that gun tolerances were not near as exact as they are now allowing for more room for metal parts to move, even with great amounts of fouling.

While our modern Shiloh Sharps are machined to very close tolerances for accuracy, it does produce some fouling problems. You still can get 15 or more shots out of a '63 Shiloh before you need to do some cleaning. Not bad for a black powder rifle.

Rich

[tx74sharps]

consider that the"enemy" was loading a muzzleloader which would also have a fouled bore.The breech loader only had to get the bullet to seat to shoot vs.all the way down a fouled bore. Not the ideal situation ,but the battlefield never is.

[1stregtengr]

In my experience with original sharps carbines, without all the modern improvements such as floating "O" ringed chambers etc,if you lube it well before you start, 10 rounds isn't much of a problem. Back then if you were still standing/ riding after 10 rounds you were lucky. I have also felt that a great deal of knowledge has been lost on how to keep these shooting. As for tolerances origional VS Shiloh, I shoot my origonal '63 using my '63 Shiloh breechblock and lever (haven't found one I can afford yet for my origional) As long as I lube the block, I can shoot 15-20 rounds with no probem. I use Swiss powder which no doubt is cleaner than CW era powder.

[Todd Birch]

MissedAgain

I've gotten off as many as 26 consecutive shots with one of my '63s without it binding up. I ran out of ammo, but I feel I could have carried on as long as the block stayed warm.

All I did was fill the block cavity with as much lithium grease as it would hold and lube the block as well. No washers, 'O' rings, sleeves, etc.

Before that, I'd get 10-12 before it was necessary to squirt a little cleaning solution on the shear plate to open the gun.

They carried at least 60 rds in combat, so if a fire fight went on any length of time, they had to resort to some method of wetting the block.

26 rds would probably be sufficient in an engagement, considering that your buddies were doing the same. Against a single loading ML, that's firepower.