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mooncoon

mooncoon

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I thought I would report in with my newest projects although progress on the Sharp's has been slow. Too many other commitments :>(

The first photos are of a new model 1869 Sharp's in 44-60 which has been through a fire. As found, the tumbler was broken, main spring had lost its temper and all but the rear trigger and trigger plate were missing of the trigger assembly. Also the lever pivot was missing and its detente was completely frozen in place. The bore seems shootable and as soon as I restock the gun plus make an extractor and a lever tensioning spring, I intend to try it. I was able to weld extra material onto the tumbler and file that to shape rather than making a complete new tumbler; saved a lot of time. The front set trigger was significant challenge but luckily I had one to copy. Hopefully in another couple of weeks the gun will be shooting.

Sharpsnewmodel1869asfoundb.jpg


1869Sharpsrightb.jpg


1869Sharpsleftb.jpg


The second gun is a Spencer rifle that I intend to restore for the local military museum. It appears to have been dug up somewhere and is covered with a fine fine brown dust. Most recently it was found in a local garage sale for $20. Ultimately I hope to have it shootable and suitable for display.

Spencerbegining.jpg


cheers mooncoon
 
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Some serious projects!

For the Sharps I assume that the firing pin and other small parts will need a retemper and are you going to redo the case hardening on the receiver?

The Spencer is an incredible find for that price and condition.

Best of luck with the restoration and look forward to seeing your updates in the future.
 
very intresting stuff mooncoon.
that spencer is every gun collectors garage sale dream lol

I have a 1863 sharps im restoreing.
Dixie gunworks has Alot of orignal parts eh, and there wood stocks can be made to fit and orignal 63 sharps perfect.
mines comeing along slowly to.
 
vagrantviking said:
For the Sharps I assume that the firing pin and other small parts will need a retemper and are you going to redo the case hardening on the receiver?
Click to expand...

I am leaving the firing pin soft for the moment. It is big and bulky enough that with a bit of luck it does not require hardening. Also I have made one copy a while back and we are looking at 6 - 8 hours of fiddly work; they have more angles than Dolly Parton has curves :>)
On the tumbler, I arc welded more metal in the area of the half #### and full #### notches then reshaped back to original. Following that, I case hardened the new soft material and drew the temper of the whole piece back to brown because the body of the tumbler was high carbon. Sear and mainspring were straightforward rehardening.
I don't intend to recase the receiver; a lot of work with a risk of warping. I would rather have the gun grey and in working order.

cheers mooncoon
 
Well I have the stock somewhat finished now but still have to make a couple more screws and correct a couple of spots where I intercoursed up. Also have to make an extractor then make some dies and shells
I was hoping to have the gun shooting for our rendezvous which starts tomorrow but it will more likely be late next week now. The butt plate is from a model 71/84 mauser which I ground a bit narrower and built up the upper corner to the square shape of a sharps plate

cheers mooncoon


1869stockb.jpg
 
I have reached the stage of shooting the Sharps now. Shells are 45-70 shells ballooned out by .020" at the base. As long as I stick with black powder the pressures should be low enough not to split the shells. I started out with roughly 80 gr of cartridge grade and of 2F powder through a drop tube. Slug was a 350 gr .458 slug sized down to .451 (groove diameter of this gun). Accuracy with soft slugs (5% alloy) was lousy and not very good with harder slugs. Then tried 80 gr of 1F powder and accuracy improved somewhat but was still around 2" at 25 yards. Current trial, I made a paper patch mold roughly .002" under bore diameter and with a narrow collar just where the curve of the nose starts. Paper patched those and sized to bore diameter then put 85 gr of 1F through a drop tube followed by compressing it about 1/4" with a plunger and finally loaded the paper patched slug.
Bottom line is that it seems to be working and next I have to put a tang sight on and start sighting in at 100 yards and farther. Quite a relief when the gun finally started to group, because there is a small amount of damage at the throat and I was worried the accuracy would never be particularly good. The collar ahead of the paper is not conventional but I reasoned that it might protect the paper jacket during sizing as well as when the slug first enters the bore. Definitely does not seem to harm the groups

cheers mooncoon

44-77target.jpg
 
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