C Sharps 1875 Sharps Carbine Load Tinkering

[Blackpowder Burn]

I took my most recent acquisition back to the range today for a little load tinkering.  It's a C Sharps 1875 Sharps carbine with a Lyman tang sight and single set trigger.  I tried 56.5 grains of Swiss FFg with a 0.030" fiber wad and a Dick Dastardly 400 grain bullet sized to 0.459 and cast of 20:1 alloy.  This combination produced a 5/8" 3-shot group at 100 yards.

I continue to be impressed with the rifle.

[Steel Horse Bailey]

As well you should!  I'll bet all will be fine out to 400-500 yds. - for longer than that, I'd use a heavier boolit.

My opinion ONLY - I'm not a BPCR expert, just an interested shooter.

[Blackpowder Burn]

Steel Horse,

I really intend this rifle for use in Cody Dixon matches (a little specialty we have here in the Republic of Texas where you shoot a standard SASS match, but move the rifle targets back to about 100 yards and use real rifle cartridges) or for hunting up to about 150 yards.  It's just not configured for longer ranges (short, lightweight barrel and basic Lyman tang sight).

However, that being said, it shows such promise that the temptation is great to try to stretch it out.  I'd need to put a real soule sight on the back, but I may well do that when I can spare the money.

And as you point out, I've been considering a heavier bullet.  I've never shot a 45-70 for long range (only 40-65) and don't have any experience with the best bullet design for that purpose.  Any suggestions?

It's just such a pleasure to find a rifle that exceeds expectations like this.  I'm considering a horseback bison hunt in a couple of years and this just seems like the perfect rifle for that purpose.

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