I tried different thickness patches of hard bond paper, finding that the .003” patch with two laps around the slug made a snug fit in the fired case and gave a measurement of .525” at the extreme heel or base of the bullet. Strangely enough, I obtained just as good groups from .002” patches that fitted very loosely, probably due to the fact that with a big charge of powder the bullet is upset well up into the lands.

I tried many ways of loading the big charges, pouring them through a long tube until they were settled deeply in the case, and also dumping them into the case through a shorter tube so that there was just enough room left for the heavy card wad over the powder, the disc of lubricant, and the seating of the patched slug about 1/16” to 1/8” in the case. In all tests, I got better accuracy with the slug just barely seated in the base (about 1/8”) than when it was deeply seated. This is exactly opposite to results with my old 18 pounds .45-100-566 Buffalo Sharps, as that rifle has a very long throat and the lands are beveled from the chamber up the bore for some distance and it shoots just as well with deeply seated bullets. Even when the bullets are seated one half inch in the case it gives fine accuracy. This rifle was formerly owned and used by Hank Waters, an old hide hunter, in Wyoming, Montana, and the Dakotas. Lenneville also made me a fine heavy high comb stock for it.

I tried several types of lubricant, from straight elk tallow to hard dry dental wax, also the formula by Col. Mayer. Got good groups with all types used, also some mighty bum groups as well. Sometimes I would get a promising group with four out of five shots cutting one another and then the next groups spread to three inches at 50 and 60 yards. In fact, every single time I thought I had the job licked and the proper load for the big gun that would be suitable for fine turkey match shooting, then the next group fired with same load and same careful holding would utterly shatter my hopes.

I believe this bullet is very close to the maximum weight this twist will spin accurately. Several times when I loaded as much as a half inch of lubricant behind the bullet, the groups always spread badly and best results were usually secured with a couple or three thicknesses of hard dental wax, or Sisk lubricant put up from the .22 caliber high velocity center fire loads. In fact I believe this Sisk graphite lubricant, about three thicknesses, is about as good as any. However, the hard dental wax seems to shoot just as well, and softer lubricant in greater quantities always spreads my groups.

I believe it was Colonel Mayer who wrote that Sharps rifles with deep lands were not suitable for paper patch loads, and certainly the Sharps Company bored all their later barrels with wide shallow lands. However, the two most accurate Sharps I have ever owned were cut with wide, deep, and heavy lands. One was a .40-90 bottleneck throwing the 370 grain patch bullet, and the other my present .45-100-566. A Sharps paper patch must absolutely whirl off the bullet at the muzzle or be slit along its length by the lands until it leaves the bullet at the muzzle, or it will be inaccurate. I have noticed that the fired patches were always found in strips the width of the grooves in front of the gun after firing, regardless of whether I used a Sharps with wide very shallow lands or one with deep lands. So for me at least the shallow land barrels have not proved superior in any way.

I recovered a great many fired bullets and these also told their tale and how to correct it. Powder used was Laflin & Rand Orange Extra, and the dullest, dirtiest black powder I have ever found to date. Years ago in Montana, I used to use this same brand exclusively and it was always bright and shiny, with hard grains and very clean. When I fired five shots straight without cleaning, the recovered bullets showed conclusively that the powder caking in the throat had cut grooves full length of the bullets and had caused some stripping of the patches as clearly shown by the impression of where they had been wrung around the soft slug in passage up the bore. Cleaning after each shot with a wet patch cured this trouble.

With some powders and Sharps rifles I have fired a dozen shots in succession without cleaning and without the accuracy suffering, but this seems largely dependent on both powder used and also on the lubricant. In turkey match work with the .45-100, I always wiped the bore clean and dry between shots. These recovered bullets fired through the target, thence into two feet of soft snow are unmarred in any way, except by the lands of the gun and clearly show the length of patch needed. These big slugs would travel a long way through the soft snow, and by next day after snow had frozen some during the night, could be easily traced by a hard frozen trail in the snow some two inches in diameter. Some went down to the ground, then ricocheted up over a mountain, making a weird sound like a Stokes mortar in miniature. The mule deer wintering on this mountain paid little or no attention to my firing modern rifles over this range, but the roar of the big Sharps, and the occasional ricochet, soon bounced them all over the mountain out of sight.

I have never found so good a medium as soft snow for catching bullets unmarred, to determine just how well they upset and fill the grooves and how the patch of Sharps bullets is standing up to its work. What you do not find at the time can be picked up in the spring when the snow melts, and they will tell their tales. One group fired with this big fifty put four shots touching each other, and then the fifth shot went wild. I saw this slug ricochet and throw up snow again at the foot of the mountain, so went over and found it. It had a big air hole in one side I had not noticed in patching it. This group would very probably have all cut into each other but for that one bum slug. But to date after working with the big gun at every opportunity most of the winter I have not yet gotten a really good group comparable to the work of my .45-100-566 Sharps Buffalo. In every case when I got a promise, four shots would cut close together and the fifth would wander off. The groups sent with this article tell the tale and are the best groups obtained. For each good one, I have fired many bum ones, with the same load. The grouping is not consistent through the rifle shows no changing point of impact. After all this firing I am convinced the trouble lies with this one piece mould, and the bullet may be about 50 grains heavy for this twist. If any old timer readers this who used these big rifles, I would like to know just what weight bullets he used. I feel sure the rifle will do better than any group I have made with it, but think a new mould is the only solution.

All groups were fired from bench rest, or prone with muzzle and elbow rest. Recoil is not bad, thought it is a darn heavy jar at that; but the report, when the muzzle does not quite project outside this log cabin I shoot from in bad weather, is something to be remembered. I have had to plug my ears to stand it. Outside, with some other shooter firing, it sounds like a miniature one pounder going by and the big slug has a distinct sharp ping, the same as a high power rifle bullet. So far the 165 to 170 grain loads seem to do as well as any lighter loads, and the slow twist probably needs all the speed I can give this slug for proper stabilizing of such a heavy bullet.

I have not seen any evidence of the base of the patch and the card wad and lubricant discs adhering to the base of the bullet and thus causing a flier as so often occurs with hollow base factory loaded Sharps bullets, or hollow base bullets from many of the original Sharps rifle Company moulds. I have found not bullet as yet with any portion of patch or lubricant stuck to its stern. With all hollow base Sharps patch bullets, and particularly the prettiest type of all—the 550 grain factory .45 caliber bullet of either Winchester or U.M.C. make, I have found many slugs in the snow with the tail of the patch curled up in that hollow base and sometimes the lubricant wad and the heavy card wad all driven into and adhering to the base of the bullet. Needless to say, this always causes fliers with any Sharps. I have often loaded these bullets with about five grains of Cream of Wheat cereal next the bullet to prevent the lubricant from driving into the hollow base and sticking there.