Scourge of War Boards

What an awesome display PC!!!!! B) B)

Fantastic !!!

How long have you been collecting for ?

Do you look for these online and travel to who ever is selling them ?

Chamberlain

As much as I admire PC'scollection (especially that Sharps!:lol: ), I would have to say the ones I really appreciate the most are the ones his father made.

Just looking at them you can only tell that they were labor's of love....the craftmanship and the finishes are gorgeous..... and I know they are and always will be cherished by PC as everlasting and great memories.

JC Edwards wrote:

As much as I admire PC'scollection (especially that Sharps!:lol: ), I would have to say the ones I really appreciate the most are the ones his father made.

Just looking at them you can only tell that they were labor's of love....the craftmanship and the finishes are gorgeous..... and I know they are and always will be cherished by PC as everlasting and great memories.

Thanks JC, much appreciated and of course you are right. The ones he made are priceless pieces to me. I wouldn't sell them if offered a million dollars for one.

On the Blakely question, no, there are no Blakely guns on the field at Gettysburg, sorry!!

The 2 I most like are the .62 smooth rifle flintlock and the .54 Hawken percussion.....just outstanding.
The flintlocks finish is beautiful and I can just imagine the kick that Hawkens has!

Actually JC, original Hawkins and their true replica counterparts typically have a slow rifling twist which means they want to be fed patched roundballs for any kind of accuracy. Assuming the same caliber, roundballs are relatively lighter in weight compared to a longer heavier conical bullet. Which means they don't kick as hard as one might think. The heavier the projectile, the heavier the powder load, the lighter the rifle = the harder they kick.
I can shoot any of my Hawkins (.54 and .58 caliber) all day with roundballs using typical powder loads without any kind of shoulder or butt pad, can't say the same for my Sharps rifles or my 12ga. side by side.
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I guess looks can be decieving!:) I really love that Sharps of yours ironsight.....you and PC really are influencing me to pick up one myself.:)
Financially I'm in hope for a go by spring time.

Thanks for the compliments ironsight!

You are totally right about the kick of roundball rifles etc. There are so many different nuances of black powder rifles and shooting, that's why I love it so much. And yeah, I seem to have a few smoke poles and cap n' ballers lying around here. B)

And yes that Hawken doesn't kick bad at all and that's loaded with 80-100 grains and a patched round ball. I can shoot it all day and not a problem. Hehe, nothing compared to those .45-70s. The Hawken too is about the most accurate rifle I have. Dad did it right. It has a wonderful Douglas barrel, .54 caliber. I shoot a home cast (I do cast all my own, nothing store bought here, that's half the satisfaction of BP. If I'm shooting it I make it, black powder stuff only though, I don't reload my modern stuff though I should) lyman .530 round ball with a lubed patch. From a rest it will punch through the same hole all day making pretty little cloverleafs on the paper! B) B)

Speaking of kick the military rifles really don't kick much either even considering they are shooting almost one ounce minie balls over 60-65 grains of powder. A lot of that though is the weight of the rifles themselves, almost 10lbs. They more give you a little push than the solid mule kick of the .45-70. :ohmy: Basia shoots them all day and has no problems. The .69 smoothbore on the other hand CAN give you a bit more thump for your money. It's smoothbore therefore a thinner barrel and it's actually lighter than the .58s. Loaded with 100 grains of powder (standard military was anywhere from 100-110 at the time) and a solid .679 round ball with three .30 caliber buckshot on top of that it does hit quite a bit harder. Basia says it's "strong"! Hehehe!

And your are right on your other comment! I usually draw a crowd at some point at the public range. Everyone loves the smoke and smell and wants to come see what I'm doing and ask questions. Basia could have something to do with that too though, hehe.

Oh about the Sharps, yes there definitely is a gas leak with they way the modern reproductions are designed although there are work arounds. There is an O-ring mod that you can do that will actually help push the gas plate back as the rifle is fired and seal things a bit better. I use tin foil shims under mine for now to get it as tight as possible. The sliding chamber sleeve does work up to a point but can them gum up and freeze if you aren't continually keeping an eye on it and cleaning it out and/or off. I'm experimenting with a few different balls now too to improve accuracy. Currently I'm using a flat base ring-tail sharps .54 bullet but it's not as accurate as I'd like as I think it's a bit too much undersized. I just ordered a true hollow base .54 minie that I'm hoping will expand better and give me a better seal and improve accuracy somewhat. The Sharps are picky and definitely take a lot of fiddling with to get them up to par. Half the fun though!

And finally, oh yeah, love the flinters. That's what I grew up with. Dad was a buckskinner and we used to go to Friendship all the time to camp in the teepee, shoot, etc. I was shooting flinters long before anything else so they are kinda second nature to me. B) For a while back now I have gone my own way with BP, still totally hand in hand with Dad and what he was doing but I really picked up and got into the Civil War rifles and cap and ball pistols. Obviously.

Phantom wrote:
There are so many different nuances of black powder rifles and shooting, that's why I love it so much.

There's an old saying: "Ask 50 Black Powder shooters how to do something and you'll get 50 different answers".

The Sharps are picky and definitely take a lot of fiddling with to get them up to par. Half the fun though!

Man, you got that right! For example the variables for reloading 45-70 ammo are seemingly endless; under bullet wads? if so what kind, over primer newspaper wad? powder loads? what kind of powder and how much compression? bullet types galore? fire formed cases or full sized or only neck sized? blow tubing? OAL..bullet seated against rifling or not? lube recipes? what type of primer?...On and on and on! And i didn't even mention the rifle, sights..post?..aperture?.., hold, etc. Then there's the weather; how hot'n dry which adversely affects fouling, humid cool which helps fouling, windy, etc.
I can only think of a couple times i went to the range with idenical loads.
Like you said, its the challenge of it all and half the fun!
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