First time out

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lastchip

First time out

Post by lastchip »

This past weekend was the inaugural outing for my Shiloh 63 54 cal. Sharps rifle. Having received the rifle a couple weeks ago, I was proud that I resisted the urge to hug the UPS driver on the day he delivered the rifle. I’ve been waiting for the rain, work requirements, house and family obligations to leave an opening for me to christen “Sherman” with powder and ball, which came on Saturday.

I meet with some friends on private property in the early afternoon; we would also be testing a newly acquired Springfield 03, vintage 1924 this day too. The target of the day was a found 2-foot long metal, highway department sign proclaiming “NORTH”.
North was nailed to a stake and hammered into the ground a paced 75 yards from the shooting line. Not the most scientific choice of target or range measurement to evaluate rifle and shooter. But my goal for the day was to get used to live fire with my first double set trigger set, my first black powder rifle, my first home made cartridges and lest not forget have a bit of fun with the boys.

About the cartridges; I made 10 for this test. Figured no use in making dozens, if I’ve done something wrong in construction of the rounds. My first cartridges were far from pretty, they looked like a use teabag stuck to the butt of a X-mass tree bullet. I used curling hair paper, best guess at length, cut. Rolled it around a dowel, glued into a tube shape, then glued the curling hair tubes to the ringtails. Poured 45 grs of Hodgdon 777 ffg into the tube, cut, folded and sealed the end.

I was surprised how sturdy the stubby little cartridges were, held together by a glue stick the curling paper powder bag was very solid because I snuggly folder the end over the top for gluing after pouring the powder charge. One thing grew to concern as I admired my cartage building or lack of building skills, My rounds were short.
I’ve seen others on the internet, write of the importance that the end of the round must be as flush as possible to the breach opening or the cartage might not fire. My cartridges averaged about an inch short of the chamber mouth.

Never the less, I proceeded to the field of honor to test rifle, cartridges and shootest. I fired a couple caps to clear the nipple of oil and to test the triggers pull. On loading the first round I quickly learned that my stubby teabag cartridges had a girth issue. In painting on the melted lube, I allow too much wax to accumulate on the side of the rounds, while concentrating on filling the lube rings. It was a snug fit pushing the cartridges into the chamber as the excess wax was shaved away by the chamber mouth. Once the bullet cleared the mouth, it became clear my hair rolling paper powder bags has a waistline issue too. They too required some gentle easing to squeeze past the mouth of the breach. The curling paper proved amazingly strong in it struggle past the sharp metal chamber mouth, only one of the ten cartridges tore.

Once the first round was seated against the rifling. I closed the breach, went to full cock, capped the nipple and turned my attention to the “O” in NORTH, 75 yards across the field. A deep breath, hold, aim, pull the set trigger, let some breath out, tapped the front trigger, BANG!
The short fat teabag cartridge had vaporized in the explosion of triple 7. Launching the 435 grain bullet across the field. Where it punching a 54 cal hole though the steal road sign, almost dead nuts center of the 8 inch tall letter “O”. I was very pleased, pleased the cartridge had worked, pleased the rifle had worked, pleased I had not embarrassed myself by missing the target completely in front of both friends and the running video camera. I had shown my semi auto magazine feed, plastic and rough matte finish military style rifle infatuated friends, what a finely hand crafted rifle, black powder and a skilled shooter could do.

Outside of the loading issues due to girth of my first run of cartridges, they preformed almost perfectly. The 2nd round of the day required a 2nd cap to ignite. That round struck about 3 inches higher then the first. Sherman, the shiloh sharps rifle, preformed perfectly. The triple 7, proved to work very nicely too. Clean up with black powder solvent followed by gun oil was very quick and easy.

I’ve made another batch curling paper cartridges. This time, keeping the wax only in the rings and cutting the paper a bit longer, leaving extra room in the powder bag. These cartridges are a bit thinner because the powder is not tightly packed. I believe these cartridges will feed without binding. I hope to find time to feed them to Sherman soon. This past weekend was the inaugural outing for my Shiloh 63 54 cal. Sharps rifle. Having received the rifle a couple weeks ago, I was proud that I resisted the urge to hug the UPS driver on the day he delivered the rifle. I’ve been waiting for the rain, work requirements, house and family obligations to leave an opening for me to christen “Sherman” with powder and ball, which came on Saturday.

I meet with some friends on private property in the early afternoon; we would also be testing a newly acquired Springfield 03, vintage 1924 this day too. The target of the day was a found 2-foot long metal, highway department sign proclaiming “NORTH”.
North was nailed to a stake and hammered into the ground a paced 75 yards from the shooting line. Not the most scientific choice of target or range measurement to evaluate rifle and shooter. But my goal for the day was to get used to live fire with my first double set trigger set, my first black powder rifle, my first home made cartridges and lest not forget have a bit of fun with the boys.

About the cartridges; I made 10 for this test. Figured no use in making dozens, if I’ve done something wrong in construction of the rounds. My first cartridges were far from pretty, they looked like a use teabag stuck to the butt of a X-mass tree bullet. I used curling hair paper, best guess at length, cut. Rolled it around a dowel, glued into a tube shape, then glued the curling hair tubes to the ringtails. Poured 45 grs of Hodgdon 777 ffg into the tube, cut, folded and sealed the end.

I was surprised how sturdy the stubby little cartridges were, held together by a glue stick the curling paper powder bag was very solid because I snuggly folder the end over the top for gluing after pouring the powder charge. One thing grew to concern as I admired my cartage building or lack of building skills, My rounds were short.
I’ve seen others on the internet, write of the importance that the end of the round must be as flush as possible to the breach opening or the cartage might not fire. My cartridges averaged about an inch short of the chamber mouth.

Never the less, I proceeded to the field of honor to test rifle, cartridges and shootest. I fired a couple caps to clear the nipple of oil and to test the triggers pull. On loading the first round I quickly learned that my stubby teabag cartridges had a girth issue. In painting on the melted lube, I allow too much wax to accumulate on the side of the rounds, while concentrating on filling the lube rings. It was a snug fit pushing the cartridges into the chamber as the excess wax was shaved away by the chamber mouth. Once the bullet cleared the mouth, it became clear my hair rolling paper powder bags has a waistline issue too. They too required some gentle easing to squeeze past the mouth of the breach. The curling paper proved amazingly strong in it struggle past the sharp metal chamber mouth, only one of the ten cartridges tore.

Once the first round was seated against the rifling. I closed the breach, went to full cock, capped the nipple and turned my attention to the “O” in NORTH, 75 yards across the field. A deep breath, hold, aim, pull the set trigger, let some breath out, tapped the front trigger, BANG!
The short fat teabag cartridge had vaporized in the explosion of triple 7. Launching the 435 grain bullet across the field. Where it punching a 54 cal hole though the steal road sign, almost dead nuts center of the 8 inch tall letter “O”. I was very pleased, pleased the cartridge had worked, pleased the rifle had worked, pleased I had not embarrassed myself by missing the target completely in front of both friends and the running video camera. I had shown my semi auto magazine feed, plastic and rough matte finish military style rifle infatuated friends, what a finely hand crafted rifle, black powder and a skilled shooter could do.

Outside of the loading issues due to girth of my first run of cartridges, they preformed almost perfectly. The 2nd round of the day required a 2nd cap to ignite. That round struck about 3 inches higher then the first. Sherman, the shiloh sharps rifle, preformed perfectly. The triple 7, proved to work very nicely too. Clean up with black powder solvent followed by gun oil was very quick and easy.

I’ve made another batch curling paper cartridges. This time, keeping the wax only in the rings and cutting the paper a bit longer, leaving extra room in the powder bag. These cartridges are a bit thinner because the powder is not tightly packed. I believe these cartridges will feed without binding. I hope to find time to feed them to Sherman soon.
User avatar
Lead Head
Posts: 23
Joined: Thu Mar 24, 2011 7:48 pm
Location: South Central Kansas

Re: First time out

Post by Lead Head »

I'm glad you like your '63, wondering if is it a sporter and were you using the barrel sights on your 75 yard target? I don't have mine yet, now that you recieved yours, maybe there is hope that I will get mine soon. Mine is a .38 cal. sporter, ordered with a '53 slant breech style fore end, I wanted mine to resemble an Eastern saddle rifle.
borderdogs
Posts: 425
Joined: Fri Feb 10, 2012 3:44 pm
Location: Hillsboro, NH

Re: First time out

Post by borderdogs »

LH,
Okay, tell me what slant breech forend from Shiloh looks like please? The 53's I have had had a pewter tip that was sort of an end cap nothing like what Shiloh does for the 74's.
Thanks,
Rob
aka "borderdogs"
lastchip

Re: First time out

Post by lastchip »

Lead Head wrote:I'm glad you like your '63, wondering if is it a sporter and were you using the barrel sights on your 75 yard target? I don't have mine yet, now that you recieved yours, maybe there is hope that I will get mine soon. Mine is a .38 cal. sporter, ordered with a '53 slant breech style fore end, I wanted mine to resemble an Eastern saddle rifle.

Hi Lead, My rifle is a Infantry model with barrel sights. Sadly, it will be weeks before I have a chance to get him out in the field again.
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