New to Board, just puchesed 1863 Shiloh .54 have questions.

Support for the 1863 shooter. Discussions of powders, loads, bullets, etc.
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pistol fixer
Posts: 2
Joined: Wed Aug 31, 2005 7:33 am

New to Board, just puchesed 1863 Shiloh .54 have questions.

Post by pistol fixer »

Hello Everyone;
I was in a local gun range last Sunday and found an 1863 Shiloh Sharps
.54 cal carbine. i did not know much about what the valvue of it was.

they were asking $300. for it. I knew about The Great Reputation of Shiloh and did not think i could get hurt at that price.

after getting home and finding this site i think i got a real deal.
the rifle is in like new condition it was mfg. in farmdale , N.Y.
it has the bone and charcoal finish in the receiver, barrel band and butt plate. with a pollished blue barrel and saddle bar and ring.

i have never fired a paper cart. rifle before and will check this forum for advice.

where do you find bullets , what kind of load, ect.

have a great day
Rick
1863 shiloh sharps .54 cal.
1874 I.A.B. sharps 45-70
many rifles , pistols and machine guns.
Rich Siegel
Posts: 610
Joined: Thu Sep 26, 2002 7:53 am
Location: Maine

Post by Rich Siegel »

Rick,

Sounds like a great buy. I think all of us cast our own bullets. I cast from Rapine molds, Christmas tree type mold with a ringtail. That means the bullet is tapered from the point to base, larger at the base, and has a small ring projection on the end of the bullet that the paper cartridge is tied or glued onto. My bullet weighs 490 grains.

Other folks have gotten custom molds from the different custom mold builders. Some are the tapered type with a ring tail and some are not, just plain based and the bullet is glued to the base.

My Shiloh will hold 50 grains of FFG powder in a paper cartridge. Recoil is manageable over the course of a 50 shot match. I use nitrated copy paper, cut into rectangles and then glued around a wooden form (tapered dowl). Once I wrap the paper around the form and glue the edge, I remove the paper, let it dry and then glue it to the bullet ringtail. Once dry, I fill the paper tube with powder and glue a small square of thin paper over the end. The flame from the percussion cap burns through the paper at the end of the cartridge and fires the charge.

Good luck.

Rich
HvyMtl
Posts: 256
Joined: Tue May 25, 2004 6:44 pm
Location: Soviet state of New Jersey

1863 Farmer.

Post by HvyMtl »

Hi Rick,

Well Rich said it all, that sounds like a great deal. The way Rich describes making the paper cartridge is the correct way to do it, but I'm very lazy and all I do is drop the bullet in the barrel followed by the powder close her up and shoot. Works either way but there is a lot of satisfaction in making your own paper cartridges. If I were you I would first slug that barrel and get the exact size of it then order a mould to fit, I say this because I have two paper cartridge rifles one is a Ped. 1859 and the other is a Farmer. 1863 both are in 54 cal. but I can't use the same bullet because the barrel sizes are a little different. Your gonna love shooting that gun, good luck with it.

Ken
dakotasharps
Posts: 116
Joined: Sat Aug 27, 2005 11:48 pm
Location: Spearfish SD

Post by dakotasharps »

They are very fun to shoot and are quite accuracte once you find the right bullet. I would recommend slugging the barrel to find the proper diameter for a bullet.

I bought a mold from rapine and they are very high quality, are reasonably affordable and they will make minor mods to existing molds for fairly reasonable money, but there are also now a lot more molds available for a .54 paper cartridge rifle so a stock mold should do the trick.

I have a metal template for the paper I use in my cartridges (linen based resume paper) and cut around it with an exacto knife. the paper is then nitrated and air dried on a non metalic screen.

I roll them over a brass tube of appropriate size and glue them to the bullet base in the same step then withdrawn the tube. The resulting paper tube is long enough to fold the end in thirds and then back over the cartridge. It is slightly overfilled so that when you insert it in the chamber the tail extends back and is cut off when the breech is closed.

The end of the tube is basically very similar to what I do with the paper cartridges (light weight non nitrated butcher or wrapping paper in tan or white) I use with .58 cal rifled muskets and minie balls. I am not sure if it is the best way to do it in terms of accuracy, but it is I think a bit more historically correct. They are quite durable and hold up well in the field - especially if you carry them in a civil war reproduction military cartridge box.

I found that my Pedersoli 1859 is 100% reliable ignition wise with a musket cap as long as you are using black powder (FFG). Black powder is however no longer available locally and freight costs get a little steep unless I buy it by the case, so at times I get a little desperate with .58 rifled muskets, an 1859 sharps and an 1874 Sharps to feed.

Consequently I have tried Pyrodex "RS" in my 1859 and I have found it will ignite less than 10% of the time unless you top off the charge with a little black powder. There are just too many corners for the flame to make to get reliable ignition with Pyrodex alone. I have heard Pyrodex P lights off a little better and I suspect you could use Pyrodex P as a booster but I have not tried it to see if it is reliable in an 1859. I also supsect you could use Pyrodex P for the entire charge, but Hodgen recommends reducing RS charges by 10% if substituting "P", so I'll wait until someone else tries it first. You could add a felt base wad to reduce the charge, but it adds an extra step to seat the wad in the tube against the bullet base.

The other issue with pyrodex is that it is extremely corrosive so careful cleaning of the breech block, etc is required, which is a bit more demanding than the cleaning required on a rifled musket so I tend to use pyrodex in them and reserve the black powder stocks for the Sharps.
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Ken Hartlein
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Joined: Tue Nov 05, 2002 12:04 am
Location: Floresville, TX

Post by Ken Hartlein »

Well just send the darned 'ol thing to me and I'll give you your $$$ back. 8) :lol: 8)
Shiloh Rules!!
Republic of Texas Shiloh Hunter
terry
Posts: 22
Joined: Mon Jun 23, 2003 8:49 pm
Location: Phoenix

Post by terry »

Hi Rick, You got a great deal on that carbine, you could probably triple your money if you wanted to. For making paper cartridges, just send me an e-mail at terrybehm@cs.com and I will send an article I wrote a few years ago for the Sharps Collectors Association. It's an expansion/update of the original Sharps cartridge making instructions from 1859.

Terry Behm
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