Development of PP loads for the .44-77.

[Distant Thunder]

I used to do the printer thing too but haven't now for maybe 10 years.

I staple together 5 sheets along one end and cut it into strips so there is a staple in one end of each strip and then use a template to cut the strips into patches starting from the unstapled end. Today I did 2 set of 5 sheets each.

Each stapled strip make 15 patches. I get 5 patches for each cut with the template. I could staple more sheets together and get more patches per cut with about the same amount of work but 5 sheets is easy to handle.

What I was doing, that you probably weren't, was playing fetch with my dog. I was sitting at the table cutting patches and he kept bringing his throw toy over and putting it on my lap. So I'd grab it and throw it across the room trying to hit some corner that would make him have to work at it before it was back in my lap. He can play fetch all day long! He never tires of it! That may have slowed me down some.

I don't mind cutting patches, I enjoy the entire process of paper patching, but shooting is the most fun. I loaded 75 of these 2-D bullets for Rapids today and I enjoyed assembling each cartridge. I take a moment to admire each one before I set it in the ammo box and move on to the next. Nothing in the shooting world is as impressive as a Sharps paper patch cartridge, not for me anyway. I can not understand how some people can shoot grease groove bullets in these rifles. Oh, I used to but I always felt cheap and dirty afterwards. It was the lure of the paper patch bullet that brought me to the Sharps. I knew right away that I would some day have to learn how to make that combo work. It took me too long to learn something as simple as paper patching. Now I have grease groove molds rusting away from lack of use.

I do shoot a lot of grease groove bullets in other types of rifles and in handguns, just not in my Sharps rifles. To me now it just wouldn't make sense to shoot any thing other than paper patch in a Sharps. I am very happy with my Sharps .44-77 and there is so much more I have yet to explore with it, I can only hope I have enough time to do so.