Thread: My oldest cartridge rifle 1859 ( picture heavy )

I spent a couple of days recently finally restoring this rifle to full function

Started with a genuine Sharps Civil War Carbine
Model 1859 which started life as a capping breech loader using paper cartridges and percussion caps
Then has the 1863 self contained cartridge conversion to 50-70
One of the first 1900 converted as it has the spring firing pin retractor

Then at some stage it was bored out and made into a a smooth bore line thrower
Which is how I got it
In very good condition because I guess line throwers hardly ever get used

It's taken me a while to gather all the parts to get it back into service and last week I finally found the time to kick it all off

Being an ambitious project I decided I needed to keep it all in a bin. Anticipating the usual problems and hold ups

Everything stripped and barrel / receiver getting penetrating oil and heat / cold treatment



Barrel and receiver apart after about 160 years together



First major task is to bore out the stub and part off in the middle of the barrel band location



So that when I re barrel / liner the stub the join will be under the barrel band

Stub was tapped M20x1.5mm for about 30mm at its muzzle end

Now I stripped the donor barrel from a Swedish rolling block 12.7x42 1873 that was sporterised but had a 9/10 bore



Work out the sweet spot where the donor barrel and stub muzzle are the same diameter and then a lot of turning to create the line section and thread to mechanically connect to the stub

Time them up to get the hardware and wear marks about right



Put some witness marks on the bottom side so that when I epoxy and screw it all together I get it correct despite the sticky mess going on



Together and pre chambered pre gluing



9/10 1873 bore ! Don't ask me how that can happen



New chamber pre cut and hand finished once receiver is faced off and head space set



Epoxy it all together and have a rest because its been a long day

I have a .52" Sharps 1853 carbine, still original with an excellent bore. It is ex US Dragoons and was issued on the Pacific Coast for service against the Indians in the mid 1850's. The stock has marks and minor bruises from the saddle in arc on the left side of the butt. I will make some paper cartridges for it when I can find a correct .52" mould. The Sharps are neat and well-made guns.

Wow that is some amazing work. Thanks for sharing and looking forward to seeing how it progresses.

Day Two

Face off the breech
Cut and crown the muzzle
Cut the extractor slot in the breech face
On and off the action a couple of times to get the head space, extractor and final chamber right

Together again 1859 and 1873 are now one



Where the magic happens



Fit a suitably old front sight ( the line thrower didn't have a front sight )



Some of the details.
Nice carbine butt trap and made a sling mount to fit exactly the original inletting in the butt ( which means it was originally a navy carbine because infantry used a sling bar on the side )



The finished rifle
I still needs a barrel band which was missing. This will hide the joint between the two barrels
Also needs a tang rear sight and much higher front sight



And that was a nice two day job with none of the anticipated drama

So today was testing day for three of my current projects and the Sharps didn't dissapoint

Range 30m group with 450 grain Powder Coated bullets propelled by 60 grains FG Black Powder and a decent first group
Lets just say that the original rear carbine sights circa 1859 were not a quality offensive sight
And the front sight I hastily fitted was far too short and despite this group being in the black I was actually aiming at a target 300mm below this one
Squares are 10mm so its not so bad




And the addition of a decent tang peep sight and a more sophisticated front sight will dramatically shrink these groups

Most importantly the rifle is mechanically perfect now and able to be safely used with a full charge of Black Powder and a proper size bullet that will inflict plenty of hurt on and deer that lingers broad side inside 100m

Weight 8 pounds even
I left the barrel at 25" despite the original carbines being 22"
I just wanted the noisy bit to be a little further from my ears

No I need to go dig around and find some more projects for next winter

This was a great way to start 2023

Originally Posted by gundoc

I have a .52" Sharps 1853 carbine, still original with an excellent bore. It is ex US Dragoons and was issued on the Pacific Coast for service against the Indians in the mid 1850's. The stock has marks and minor bruises from the saddle in arc on the left side of the butt. I will make some paper cartridges for it when I can find a correct .52" mould. The Sharps are neat and well-made guns.
Attachment 214538Attachment 214541

Well generally I'm not into military single shots
But the quality of the sharps despite it being made during the war is superb
Inside the lock is a joy to see
Beautifully finished screws and lock parts

Just needs to be suppressed, chuck a mil red dot sight and a M4 fore grip handle n youd be away....







Just kidding.

Owned a sharps myself a while ago. 45/70 percussion cap n brass cartridge. It was a solid rifle. Not sure to this day if it was a repro or original.

Sent from my SM-A135F using Tapatalk

Now I desperately need some more 50-70 brass

And I also should buy a die set because the ones I'm using have been on loan for ages now

Congratulations on your commitment @akaroa. I seriously appreciate the skills shown here. Wished I’d taken a different skill set in life

Originally Posted by Ingrid 51

Congratulations on your commitment @akaroa. I seriously appreciate the skills shown here. Wished I’d taken a different skill set in life

These skills are not " God given"

It's just time spent making swarf
Time spent learning from many mistakes
A lot of sequence planning
And a discipline to not start every element at once
Methodically work through each part of the process

For example
I didn't strip down the donor barrel rifle until the Sharps stub was bored and tapped and suitable to take the donor barrel

If at this stage I got a major snag and I had parted out the rolling block rifle then I would have had two crippled projects

When you joined the barrels is the first bit smooth bore then into rifling?

For those of us with no skills in this area, posts like this are a great education

Thank you

Originally Posted by RUMPY

When you joined the barrels is the first bit smooth bore then into rifling?

No the donor barrel is stubbed into the sharps bored out shank
It goes fully to the breech face and contains the chamber and full continuous rifling

It's really just a barrel inside a barrel stub

This was to retain as much of the original Sharps as possible because it's barrel base and breech face has a lot of character