Original paper patched bullet designs?

[Distant Thunder]

Stephen,

Thank you for the picture. Can you tell me how long your 473 grain bullet is? My hope is to assemble a good accurate load based on that bullet primarily for banging steel gongs, but hunting is not out of the question.

My rifle is a C. Sharps 1874 with a Badger 1 in 26 twist and it shoots paper patched very well. I bought this rifle for hunting over 20 years ago. The little .50 - 1 3/4 proved to be a great hunting cartridge, but my eyes are not as good as they were back then. Now I plan to set the rifle up as a reasonable example of an early buffalo rifle and I'd like to use the 473 grain bullet for my loads. The more information I can gather on the original bullet the closer I will be able to replicate it, which I think would be really cool.

The little .50 has always fascinated me and wanting to know what could be done with this early and very successful center fire cartridge was why I chose it many years ago. Now I want to see what it's capable of with one of the original bullets, the 473 grain paper patch.

Thanks!

DT