Is anyone out there shooting the Pedersoli 45 cal. percussion Sharps and if so what kind of accuracy are you getting out of it? What bullets are you using ? I realize this is a cartridge forum but these rifles use paper cartridges and I guess they count don`t they ? Thank you , Paul

Haven't seen any of the .45's in a long while...they did make some, and I didn't realize that they still did. The 54 is pretty common, and while I don't shoot one now, have shot one in the past.

Was a picky rifle...took a good while to figuure out what it wanted. Can't really compress the powder charge as you would in a catridge gun or in a muzzle loader...that always was a bother to my thoughts, but obviously it worked then and works now, but i do thionk it is the casues fo some of the vertical group component (nearly all groups showed more vertical that horizontal size).

Round ball did surprizingly well...had to work pretty hard to get bulleted ammo to group as well. Rapine makes a pretty close repro. mold, but I never had a whole lot of luck with it...did let you make authentic looking ammo. Long time ago, Lyman also had a mold pretty close to the original (often called a "Christmas Tree" bullet).

Hey y'all,
Years ago I used to own a percussion Sharps in .54 cal.. I can't remember who made it but I am pretty sure it was one of the Italian outfits. I tried making linen and paper cartidges using a variety of bullets, inluding authentic "ring-tailed" bullets. I never could hit a danged thang with it. I mean it was alright, but it was not very accurate. I sold it.

Now on the other hand I had an 1874 Sharps made by one of the Italian outfits. It was in .45-70 with a 30" octagonal bl.. The first time I shot it, right out of the box, was at 100 yds at 100yd targets with about 8" black centers. Using factory ammo with 300 gn jacketed hollow points I put the first 12 rounds in the black at 100yds. . That is one gun I regret letting slip through my fingers.
Freebooter