Sharps New Model 1863 Breach

mooncoon

mooncoon

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I am in the process of rebuilding a Sharps New Model 1863 which is missing a few parts. What I am somewhat baffled about is how the breach was sealed and the photos on the net have left me confused. Some of the breach blocks shown appear to be essentially flat in front with a deep recess in the face of the breach block. The one reproduction that I looked at briefly (much too briefly) has such a recess. Some photos, of original breach blocks, show a steel plate with a collar on the back that must fit into the recess in the breach face. Best guess is that the guns suffered considerable gas cutting and the actual breach face could be replaced easily. On example shown is a modern modification which has a brass collar like the base of a shell and which fits in the chamber area and functions much like a modern cartridge to seal the gasses but again that is a modern modification to get around a problem.

the question then is; how was the breach sealed on original guns? Did the breach block start out with a flat face which after some use was modified by the addition of a removable plate to overcome gas cutting? I am hoping that at least a few out there have owned and shot reproductions and even better original guns

cheers mooncoon
 
On the shiloh sharps the gas plate is ground to tight tolerances resulting in a ight seal.on the original sharps and the pedersoli sharps replica there is a sliding gas seal in the chamber.The problem with this design is the seal sometimes seizes up causing some blow by and making it hard for removal.to see what the seal looks like check out a schematic of a ped sharps
 
I had one, it's basically a tube that fits in the breech. The tube floats back against the block face under gas pressure. You have to grease the outer tube face to keep the carbon from siezing the tube to the breech wall. Pretty simple and ingenious.
 
I had an Italian repro. (not Pedersoli or Uberti, some other manuf. that escapes me now) that had the plate/ring insert in the breech block, it didn't seal perfectly, threw a few sparks around. Enough that, for me with only one good eye left didn't feel comfortable shooting it.
 
On the originals, the recess in the block was meant to hold some of the powder when the steel plate on the front of the breechblock cut the back of the paper cartridge. The steel plate on the front of the block was meant to move forward when the powder ignited. The moveable bushing in the barrel is meant to seal against the breechblock plate.

Regards,
Powderman
 
I am still poking away at the 1863 Sharps and finding wrinkles that I did not recognize in time. I now have a lever and breach block that goes up and down plus the plate in front of the actual breach block. I decided to sort of use the method of the most recent Pedersoli breachs in that I put a 1/4" nipple or tube in the front of the breach block and that goes through the separate plate and prevents it from falling out or getting stuck in place. Pedersoli uses 3 O rings on the back of the plate but I am hoping that I don't need them. I will have to move the nipple forward and down a bit because at the moment it overhands the back of the receiver. I originally set the location based on the line of the hammer fall but I think the nipple must be shorter than mine and a bit farther forward. I also drilled a diagonal hole across the breach block to provide a flash channel from the nipple to the center of the breach face ( and plugged the portion not needed
Still to do is to also is to properbly contour the top of the breach block. In shooting, I think I will use a donut shaped wad between the back of the chamber and the front of the breach plate and it should reduce gas leakage. Probably use about 1/3 thickness of a prelubed 20 guage shotgun wad.
I also need to remake one of the parts of the Lawrence pellet priming mechanism and make a stronger mainspring which will be needed when the pellet primer mechanism is in place

Below are some photos of what I started with and the current breach assembly. Still a lot of finishing and cleaning up to do but it is moving forward

cheers mooncoon









 
sahara said:
That's a cool project! What's the story on the rifle, it looks like it has had an interesting life.
Click to expand...

I don't know much about its history other than it would have been made for the civil war. I suspect that it may have been through a fire. I bought it from a friend who I think originally bought it as a project which he never had time to pursue. There have been some surprises such as I installed the rear lock screw first and later after welding on a replacement for the upper tang, discovered that the tang screw went through the lock screw. Worth mentioning that I copied the upper tang from another original Sharps and had never noticed how close together the two screws were. Anyway, filled the first hole and moved the tang screw back a smidge and angled in a bit more. Almost all of the pellet primer was missing and luckily there was a good article on the web illustrating one or I probably would never have known what to do. As it was I still spent some time trying to understand the mechanism and unlearning some assumptions that I had made. The decision of how to breach the gun had me agonizing for a while and I think I now understand why the earlier slant breach models had the slanted breach; I think it allowed the breach block to come up at an angle and progressively close the gap between the back of the barrel and the breach block, the higher it went. The nipple was something that I did not think enough about, I guess because I simply lined it up with the hammer fall without thinking about it overhanging the back of the receiver. Because it seats on an angled shoulder, I think I can gain a bit of forward movement by milling the shoulder a bit deeper and by shortening the nipple as well. Also I don't recall if there are any photos on the web of the left side of the breach block but I can't think of any alternate way of drilling a hole from the bottom of the nippler hole diagonally across to the center of the breach face and behind the stud that i screwed in there. I chose to drill from the left side of the block diagonally across to the nipple hole then screw a threaded plug in to plug the left side of the hole and leave a flash channel from nipple to powder

cheers Doug
 
Mooncoon - That's quite a restoration project you've undertaken! I've got a couple of Shiloh 63s, both .50s. One is the Military Rifle, the other a SRC.

Shiloh uses the final type of the "Conant" patent gas seal with the shear plate that allegedly moves forward under gas pressure to make a seal. It does work for a few rds before it seizes and you have a gas leakage problem. I squirt a little cleaning solution between the block and the shear plate and wipe the breech end of the barrel = good to go again. Erosion of the gas plate is inevitable. Shiloh calls it "cavitation" and recommends users do not use loose powder and ball to shoot in order to minimize it.
'
If you don't already have a copy, I recommend getting 'Civil War Carbines" - Myth vs Reality by Peter Schiffers. You can order it from manatarmsbooks.com. He tests and rates eleven original ACW carbines, including the '63 Sharps, with ammo made to original specs.

Also, a copy of the Sharps Bible - "Sharps Firearms" by Frank Sellers. It covers the percussion models very thoroughly. On page 57 there is a photo of the evolution of the '53 percussion breechblocks:
- early type with platinum ring
- early type Conant patent gas seal "with a flexible steel ring in front of the cavity"
- final type of Conant gas seal with "flame director to direct the flame from the cap to the centre of the powder charge"

The latter design was carried on to the '59 and '63 'New Model' straight breech rifles and carbines.

The British came very close to adopting the '53 slant breech, going through several evolutions and modifications. It served with several Cavalry Regiments posted to India. They discarded the Maynard tape and Sharps-Lawrence pellet priming mechanisms as they went out of order in use.

It was very popular with the troops but was not adopted as the poor gas seal was burning the cuffs of too may expensive uniforms when powder accumulated in the action from the cartridge shearing was ignited! By the time the vertical breech '59 with a batter gas seal was offered, the Crimean War was over and the decision was made to adopt several British designs. Only the advent of the American Civil War saved Sharps from bankruptcy.

You made an interesting comment re: the possible camming effect of the slant breech. Sellers mentions something that might be of interest:

"The purpose of the platinum ring is to prevent the erosion of the breechblock face by combustion gases. It also serves as a bearing surface for the 'bouching'. The bouching is the "headspace" adjusting on all of the Sharps percussion models. It is adjusted with a special tool which clamps onto the front of the bouching. With the breech closed, the bouching tool is tapped with a cleaning rod. This seats the 'bouching' snugly against the platinum ring in the breechblock."

There is a fellow on the Shiloh forum that has and shoots several models and calibres of original slant breech rifles. You may be able to research his posts in their archives if you are interested. I remember someone on the Shiloh forum mentioning that Lodgewood in the US had some original Lawrence primer mechanisms available.

I entered a postal match with some US '63 shooters out to 200 yds (metres for me.) We were all surprised by their accuracy. My SRC is capable of sub-2" groups offhand at 50m and the same at 100m from the bench or x-sticks. Incredible accuracy from the technology!

I hope that some of this may have been of interest to you.
 
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thanks I find it very interesting. I think I will have to read the part about bouching a few times to get my head around it :>) I am also going to get a copy of Civil War Carbines for sure. I doubt that I will get more than mediocre accuracy from my gun because the bore is more than a little bit rough. I am hoping that it will shoot roundball after a fashion. It has definitely been a learning process and a challenge. While the donut slightly compressible shotgun wad may not be traditional I was very impressed with how well a small shotgun wad worked in a Westley Richards monkey tail. I did some work on the gun for a friend and test fired it afterwards. In that case I used a slug followed by loose powder and a wad at the back. The nipple flashes into the middle of the charge, ahead of the wad and the sealing was extremely effective. Anyway it is getting closer to where I will find out for sure.

cheers mooncoon
 
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resurrecting this Sharps is a good thing, even if you have to reline the barrel. I had an ERMA Gallagher carbine that I had relined to .50. It was a major success and I wish I had kept it. The SS liner came in from the US as "threaded tubing".

Since you like the guns of the era, you might enjoy "River Queen" (about one of the Maori Wars) with Kiefer Sutherland, you will see a Terry carbine in action along with a lot of P-H Musketoons, etc. You will see Sutherland loading the Terry while he has another round ready in his mouth. I found out from a re-enactment associate in New Zealand (his group were hired as extras) that he did this on his own as he thought it was what a soldier might do in battle for a quick reload.

Canadian 'smith Leo Bumphrey does Shiloh warranty work in Canada. He replaced the gas plate on my .50 SRC. Google "Boomer's Bullets" for contact info.
 
In the continuing saga of getting the Sharps to shoot, the barrel was bent when I bought the gun and now with the barrel out of the gun, I straightened it after a fashion. Hopefully the photos will show what I did. Initially I tried looking down the barrel both inside and out to decide the high spot. That worked up to a point but at least for me not 100%. I made a leap of faith and put the barrel in my lathe and rotated it by hand noting the high spots relative to a piece of square stock in the lathe. Leap of faith in that it assumes the bore is concentric to the outside of the barrel over its whole length. Next supported the barrel high side up and with wooden cradles more or less at the end of the bend. The a C clamp pushing on a wooden cradle in the center of the bend and bent the barrel beyond straight in stages checking to see if it sprung back to straight. The long wooden wedge in the photos is used as a reference so that I can see how far down I have bent the barrel. Slide the wedge under the barrel until it stops and mark with a pencil. Take the wedge out and crank down of the barrel and check with the wedge. You can also slide the wedge in and mark it then back it out until it forms a stop so that you do not bend the barrel beyond your guestimate. In its final state the barrel is still bent a little but is considerably better than it started out.







During this process I realized that what I thought was a piece of the barrel was in fact a bushing or chamber liner. Anyhow, bored the old one out and made a new one with a smaller bore from the original. What I did not appreciate initially was that the liner or bushing cannot be longer than the opening that the breach block moves in. The liner has to be removed for cleaning By this time I had milled the platform for the nipple down a bit further and shortened the nipple so that it now clears the back of the hole.

With great expectations, I took the gun to the range to test fire and see how much flame came out of the breach. Seemed like a good idea. Anyway, the gun would not ignite the powder so back to the basement and improved the corner under the nipple where the flame starts going across towards the center of the breach. Then replaced the 1/4" nipple or tube with a 5/16 one which allowed me to use a bigger hole in the center. Back to the range and tried again. This time it did not fire for the first couple of caps so I trickled some powder into the flash channel and Kapow it went off. Tried two more shots without adding powder to the flash channel and both went off. I did tip the barrel up and tap the gun a couple of times to ensure that there was powder at the mouth of the flash channel. It does not seem to be leaking vast quantities of gas or at least I still have my eyebrows. Now a bit more puttering including installing a front sight and keep my fingers crossed

the strange thing below the assembled breach is for removing the chamber bushing. Hook the right end over the bushing and raise the outside end up against the back end of the bushing and tap with a hammer. Works quite well

cheers mooncoon



 
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