Howdy Pards!
The Italian repro Sharps "foul" easier than the originals due to their redesigning the Sharps floating gas check plate making that portion of the breech block a solid piece, and inserting what is supposed to be a "floating sleeve" in the chamber. (However due to inconsistent Italian workmanship/quality control the "sleeves" are often improperly isntalled and bind rather than "float.")
And blanks foul worse than live rounds too.
As a result some pards take it out and refnish/refit the modern sleeve to make it "float," , while some others go the opposite direction and epoxy it in place.
Hi. My name is Mick, and I am a Sharpsaholic.
I love CW era carbines and have shot the Smith, Maynard, Gallagher, Sharps, and Spencer. I love the Sharps but found the "rolling: of nitrated paper cartridges or the making of nitrated linen cartridge to be time consuming both for N-SSA as well as reenacting (living history where not that many shots were fired was better).
IMHO, the paper Sharps cartridge can be rolled around a former to actual cartridge size- allowing a portion up front with balled toilet paper or a large cotton ball to serve in place of the bullet (which may or eliminate the guillotine effect of leaving loose powder on the breech block and the need for a "Sharps' Wrist Flick" while loading.
However, IMHO, for ease of cartridge making the Smith or Gallagher is hard to beat.
Of course, this is all secondary as Civil War and Indian Wars troopers did not have to make their own rounds...
Mick Archer