Shiloh Rifle Forums

Sharps 1879 catalogue lists two .45 bullets each at 550 grains. Long range, length 1 13/32 inch and Special Long Range, length 1.5 inch. Cartridges with these bullets are listed as 2 4/10 inch and contains 100 grains of powder. The catalogue also says: “Our special long-range bullet, composed of an alloy known only to and exclusively manufactured by this company, is giving the very finest results.” I don’t know if any extant Sharps records identify anything about the alloy.

David

Orville wrote: ↑Sun Jun 20, 2021 7:19 am. . . If I use 1-14 alloy the bullet will not weigh 550 grains or even close to it. So what were the using to harden their bullets, antimony, mercury . . .

I’ve wondered if Mercury was used. I have some information on line on the use of Mercury, but still lacking detail. See: Rigby, Quicksilver & Bullet Alloys

David

David thanks for that link. I don’t know haw the mercury was added, was it added to the molten lead? Mercury will evaporate in the heat of a camp fire wonder if molten lead will evaporate it, to dangerous to find out. As mercury dissolves gold the old miners would hollow out a potato pour the mercury and gold it and set it in the camp fire, after the mercury had evaporated they would have a gold sponge. The same thing is done today but they use an iron container capture the fumes and recover the mercury

I’ve found passing reference to the use of Mercury, but still lacking detail and I don’t know the manufacturing process. One of those frustrating things with snapshots of information but unable to find records giving the detail that we want.

David

Probably best left unrediscovered also. Shooting lead gives us one black eye by the.lead haters, putting mercury in the alloy would piss off the public period. It might be interesting to know but there probably are a lot of people out there better off not knowing how. bobw

Yep, that would be the final nail in the lead coffin!

Dennis