Sharps Bullet Mold

[Smoke Pole]

Found a supplier for a double cavity bullet mold for the paper cartridge Sharps. It has reduced diameter driving bands on the front for easy entry into the chamber and the correct tail on the back to tie the paper cartridge to. I ordered one and it should be here by the end of the week at which time I will cast up some and launch them at the frozen pile of dirt in my back yard and let you all know how they do.

Here is a link to the suppliers website:

http://www.taylorsfirearms.com/

 

[musketman]

Thanks for passing that along, we have a few Sharps shooters here...

 

[Smoke Pole]

As promised, here is a report on the Sharps bullet mold. Just took a little longer to get than I anticipated. It's a double cavity, cast iron mold of good quality made by Bagdon Bullet and my Lyman four cavity mold handles fit it (a little sloppy, so it takes some wigglin' to get it closed, but they work). The sprue plate pivot bolt keeps loosening up despite having a set screw in the blocks at 90 degrees to prevent that. They should have used a shoulder bolt. The bullet has three driving bands and two grease grooves. Cast from wire sheath lead the first two bands measure .536 and the third band measures .552. After that is the tail to tie the paper cartridge to. They weigh 450 grains and resemble a semi-wad cutter. Length from front to back is .994. Accuracy with 70 grains of FFg Goex was on par with TC Maxi Hunters which weigh 455 grains and .850 long with three shallow grease grooves. Cost to my front door was $85.

I am now beginning to wonder if this was worth it because the lube I used which was, TC 1000 Wonder Lube migrates from the grease grooves into the paper cartridge which makes the paper non-combustible. If anyone knows of a lube that will work with BP that is a little stiffer, I would be interested in hearing about it. So long as I clean the unburned paper from the chamber, it works okay. I went to the fabric store today and bought a yard of 100% linen and will treat that and make up some sacks of powder and try them independent of the bullet. As research continues here on the farm (not much else to do at zero with a foot of snow) you can look forward to futher posts.

 

[hardykev]

I use Cabela's black powder lube. It almost reminds me of parafin wax when it sets up.

It comes in a small container that has a wide top. I set the container in a pot of boiling water and melt it. I then dip the bullets in the lube and let them dry. I then use an abrasive cloth to clean off the excess down to the lands. Let them set/dry well and then put them into your paper tubes. It does not "bleed" into the paper.

I haven't had any paper residue left in my chamber.

Here is a picture of a cartridge I made about 2 months ago. As you can see, it hasn't soaked the paper. I use the truncated nose .54 cal plains bullets as well as the classic "christmas tree" sharps bullets. I find that the plains bullets stay in the tubes better when I want to keep cartridges around unfired.

 

[Smoke Pole]

Will definitely get some of the Cabela's BP lube and try it out. More research took place here today on the Sharps cartridge. I treated some every day paper (from a post-it pad because it already had glue on it), some 100 percent cotton, and some 100 percent linen cloth. The linen cloth burned more aggresively than everything else and more complete than the post-it paper. Now I need to con the wife into sewing me up a linen tube. ::

 

[hardykev]

Have you tried:

Cigarette papers (double wide)
Perm papers
Airmail paper

I have had a few conversations with some that swear by these, I have not tried any of them for tubes, yet. I am still using the nitrated papers from Dixie. I do use the perm papers for my ends and they do not impede ignition. I was thinking of buying a few sheets of the airmail paper next as it sounds like a good paper.

Have you had occasion to try the Dixie nitrated paper to compare to the linen? If not, I would be happy to mail you a few sheets to test.

 

[musketman]

What about rice paper?

 

[Smoke Pole]

Did try the cigarette paper and found it to be frail when tied to the tail of the bullet. I am going to try it again making just a tube for the powder and load the bullet separate, I think that will work out good. The linen is really tough so I will probably reserve that for when I want the powder and bullet in the same tube.