Armi Sport 1874. Inaccuracy common?

[Grapeshot]

Allright all of you Sharps and trapdoor shooters.  Here are the facts.  I own a Armi Sport 1874 Sharps Infantry rifle.  I can not seem to get more than three shots out of it to hit the target.

My load is a weighed 70 grains of Goex 2Fg compressed to seat a 500 grain Montanna Swaged Round Nosed lead bullet and a Liberty Bullet of the same M1881 design to just past the front driving band and a taper crimp.  My lube has been SPG or its equivilent.

I have tried blowtubes, wet patches every fourth round and a complete cleaning of the barrel after every six rounds and nothing seems to work.

I am now ready to ship the barreled action off to have it bored out and sleeved with a .45 caliber bore rifled IAW original Arsenal specifications of .457-.460 groove diameter and three lands three grooves of equal width @ 1 in 20 inch twist to see if that will get me on target consistantly.

[Delmonico]

First thing I would do is check for uneven bedding on the forearm, it cause problems as bad or worse than on a bolt gun.  Turned a 99 Savage and a re-barreled low-wall into decent rifles by fixing the bedding.  Both had bad problems before that.

[Grapeshot]

Thanks Del monico.  I'll check that ASAP before I have to spend money on something so drastic.

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[Delmonico]

Most modern firearms have a barrel that is better than most period firearms, even a less expensive mass produced one.  Besides uneven pressure on the sides make sure the forend screws put even pressure on the fore end.  One of the most important things to check with a 2 piece stock is that where the forend mates up with the reciever is that it does put uneven pressue on it.  This can really twist a barrel being fired.

Do check the muzzel crown also, it could be a problem there, but the forend bedding sounds like the problem.  I know some might scream about it, but the 99, the low-wall and my Pedersoli Sharps have the forends glass bedded as well as the buttstocks.  The only one you can see it on is my 99 which is my deer rifle, it ended up needing some very strange work to shoot right, but since it ain't a collectors item who cares except the deer that get shot with it.

[Fox Creek Kid]

Take the GOEX and shoot it in a shotgun or give it to your brother in law. Also, back off on the powder approx. 5 grs. with some good Swiss powder. Also, if the accuracy is going away after a couple of shots then next time fire 2-3 shots and then clean the barrel thoroughly. Resume firing and see if accuracy is still there. There are many variables here. What primers? Try Fed. Large Rifle, reg. & magnum. Have you determined OAL? Load a dummy round to determine seating depth and then work on the powder shooting five shot groups and increasing the powder 1 gr. per group. This takes TIME. Also, if you're using a cheap Italian tang sight then good luck. They won't hold a good zero.

[Delmonico]

Since when I have the time to shoot I get slightly over 1 moa with eye-tallian sights and Goex, I would still take a long hard look at the bedding.  Bedding problems are one of the most common reasons for sporatic groups in any kind of rifle from cheap 22's to some expensive high powers.  Two piece stocks seem to often magnify it.

[Delmonico]

Grapeshot, got to thinking, when you go shoot next time, just take the forend off and shoot it that way, it might change the point of impact some, but what it will do is let you know if it is a forend problem, if it starts staying in some sort of a group that would be a indecation that the forearm needs some work.  With what you describe it sounds more like a major problem rather than a minor problem involving primers, bullet seating and powder and charges.   You've been around enough I'm sure yer doing the loading according to what generally works in BPC rifles.  Let us know.

[Silver Creek Slim]

Below is a group using Goex in a Pedersoli rolling block.

Slim

[Steel Horse Bailey]

That sure is a pretty group, Slim !!!

[Grapeshot]

Delmonico.

I've been inspecting the forearm on this sharps and it seems to be bearing unevenly against the barrel at the end of the forearm.

I haven't had the time to go and shoot it so when I go out to the range again, I'll try shooting the rifle without the forearm attached and see what it does.  After that, if it improves greatly, I'll releave some of the wood from the forearm and glass bed it properly.

I do like this rifle, I just wish it would shoot consistantly.

[Delmonico]

I'm betting that would take care of a lot of the problem.  It ain't just modern bolt guns that have bedding problems although one would never know by reading the mainstream gun rags.  I've never worked with a gun with a two piece stock that working over the bedding didn't improve.  Glass bedding is easy, cheap and no one sees it if done right, old time gunsmiths such a Freund and Pope and others spend hours upon hours scraping wood and checking fit.

[Ranch 13]

 My Armi Sport starts doing funky things if the bullets get under .460 diameter. You might also want to put a .030 veggie fiber wad under your bullet. My rifle also prefers that the bullets not touch the lands.
 

[Delmonico]

Curious Ranch 13, have you ever slugged the bore.  I never used anything but the 0.460's as cast in my Pedersoli.  Both moulds I have drop that dia.

[Ranch 13]

No I never have, but the owners pamplet says it should be 457-458. I ordered a box of bullets from Cheycast in 458 and 459. The 458's shot ok but leaded real bad, the .459s shot much better but some traces of leading. I started casting the Lee 500 3r,(500 gr pointy bullet) As cast and panlubed with Spg it shot great and no leading. I ordered a special size die from lee that was supposed to be .460, it actually sizes to .459, back to leading and not so great accuracy, and then I find that at 500 +- yds those bullets sized like that start to tumble. Unsized I've had no problems with 1000yd gongs.