Original '74 Sharps

[rdnck]

Heck of a deal, gunner. Those round nosed 500 grain paper patched bullets never cease to amaze me. They always penetrate in a straight line, and I have never seen an animal hold one yet. Looking at that deer, it looks to me like you got over 50 inches of penetration and an exit. That rifle is 48 inches long, and that deer is longer than the rifle.

That is a big bodied deer, and no doubt a dominant buck that needed to be removed from the gene pool. Great job! Shoot straight, rdnck.

[Gunner500]

You bet RDNCK, i placed the muzzle of the rifle inline with the heavily muscled chest out front, the military butt stock liked at least three inches from reaching the rear of the bucks hams, he was an old buck, and, with the spindly rack of only 6pts did indeed need to be removed from the breeding gene pool.

LOL, I bet he was a bully, he had to weigh at least 200 lbs, a real pig, as much fat as I saw with field dressing alone says he may eat pretty well, being shot in a completely relaxed frame of mind certainly wont hurt either, the Mos round nosed paper patch mould you gave me throws the prettiest paper patch bullets I've ever seen, Mr. Mos must be/have been a hell of a machinist.

And yessir, I peered over the buck, that bullet path was indeed laser line straight on, I really wanted that bullet back, -grin-

[Rowdy Rick]

Great deer and rifle! I am sure Bill gave you some good advice, he knows his stuff.

Rick

[Gunner500]

Rick, Yessir he did, and continues to do so, I'm about like an industrial sized sponge around him ; ] I believe [BPCR] this is a sport no one can truly master and learn all there is to know about it, another reason why it's such a desirable and challenging hobby, the possibilities and combinations are endless.

[Don McDowell]

Super cool way to close out the year, and go into the next decade.

[Distant Thunder]

Gunner,
Congratulations and thank you for sharing with all of us. A fascinating story that much can be learned from especially with Bill and Stephen contributing, thanks to both of you as well.
I for one would really like to see a picture of the mold and the bullets it casts? Also some dimensions for the bullet, diameter and length? I am always looking for details on the bullet designs that work so well in the old single shots.

[Stephen Borud]

   

[Gunner500]

Many thanks for posting the picture Stephen, I really appreciate it Sir.

[Gunner500]

Thank You too Don and Distant Thunder, Don, I hadn't even thought about closing out a decade with that old rifle like you mentioned, very nice, and Thanks for the reminder, it will be an honor hunting with that rifle a few more times in the decades to come should the good Lord see fit to issue them to me.

Distant Thunder, what you see in the pic are the Mos mould, patched bullets, a naked bullet, and a recovered bullet alongside two African solids for my big doubles, they are the 570gr solid for the 500 Nitro and a 750gr solid for the 577 Nitro, both bullets made by Barnes.

The bullet as it falls from the Mos mould RDNCK gave me measures as follows:
1.315" length
.448" diameter
514 grains at 35 to 1 alloy
.455" patched

The recovered bullet [sitting between the solids] from the fourth 5 gallon bucket of water shot lengthways at 25 yards measures as follows:
1.293" length
.454" diameter
513 grains
with a .372" meplat

If some are wondering why two African solids are pictured here i'll explain it, the Barnes banded solids along with the BBW #13 solids are the very best straight line penetrators on ALL game worldwide, look very closely at the images of the solids and the expanded [recovered] bullet from my old Sharps 45-110, they look near identical, the old buffalo hunters fired round nosed bullets, after hitting buffalo they precisely turned into some of the finest straight line penetrating bullets know to mankind, and damn near a full 150 years later did modern man with his cnc machines, and after countless thousands of research hours AND African safaris finally develop a modern bullet that acted like the Sharps rifle bullets of days gone by.

All three bullets have a roughly 65% of total diameter meplat, they all have a tapering nose off the meplat on down to the parallel sides to the bullets bases, and by design thay ALL penetrate straight, they allow you to pick your path to the vitals regardless of angle presented, I damn near fell over in the pasture when I saw the shape of that old round nosed paper patch bullet when pouring it out of the fourth 5 gal bucket of water.

The 4 tough plastic buckets with their lids and bottoms as well as being completely full of water is a hell of a penetration testament to these old bullet designs and the rifles that fire them, the alloy used was a soft 35 to 1, all lids and bottoms were hit in the same spot on entry, exit, and reentry, telling me in fact the bullet traveled in a straight line to it's end.

[kenny s]

bought my 74 20 years ago. lettered , found it by serial number in arming the west book....dates, locations everything...
40 70 SS now....re-chambered from 40 90 bn long time ago. gun is marked 40 70 so its correct. original bore is perfect. gun is better than fine....
$5500 then and never looked back...have three more         now...carbines... go for it...you only live once, may as well be
fully Armed