C. Sharps Arms Co., Inc.

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Edition 2014-1 Published by C. Sharps Arms Co., Inc. Now The.

Metallic Cartridge Rifles and Classic Sights P.O.

1 Edition Published by C. Sharps Arms Co., Inc. Now The.44/90 Sharps See page 3 Manufacturers of A WORLD FAMOUS SERIES of Classic Metallic Cartridge Rifles and Classic Sights P.O. Box 885, Big Timber, MT Pnone: Fax: csharps@ttc-cmc.net *

2 THE AMERICAN SHARPS SHOOTERS Publisher: C. Sharps Arms Co. Inc., John R. Schoffstall President Mike Nesbitt Editor (miken54@aol.com) Dakota Dick Savage - - Field Contributor (honodick@mt-rushmore.net) Dangerous Don McDowell Field Contributor (ranch13@hotmail.com) Table of contents: Now The.44/90 Sharps by Mike Nesbitt page 3 Outstanding Products 7 BCPR SCOPES by Dangerous Don McDowell 13

NOW THE.44/90 SHARPS By Mike Nesbitt It might be all Frank Sellers fault. In his fantastic book, Sharps Firearms, he makes the statement that the.44/90 Sharps was the favorite of the buffalo hunters.

3 NOW THE.44/90 SHARPS By Mike Nesbitt It might be all Frank Sellers fault. In his fantastic book, Sharps Firearms, he makes the statement that the.44/90 Sharps was the favorite of the buffalo hunters. Perhaps that was just a teaser, only the beginning, and I do wish Sellers had mentioned what his statement was based upon. Even so, we can figure he based his statement on sales records through the 1870s and he does give some good insight to what calibers rifles were shipped to where and when. It was from Frank Sellers book that my search for information on the.44/90 Sharps got started and it is still where most of what I ve learned has come from. Without trying to cite the sources, much of the info I found about the.44/90 came from what we can call legend. Things like the saying that the.44/90 is more accurate at 1000 yards than the Big.50 is at 600 really helped fuel my interest. Learning how the.44/90 Sharps was also a Creedmoor cartridge piled my interest even higher although I personally would shy away from a Creedmoor rifle in this caliber that had to be less than ten pounds. Getting tidbits of information like that fuels the hunger for more knowledge both in the form of solid facts or just more of the old written memories that make the.44/90 Sharps so legendary. One shooter who used a.44/90 in the early part of the twentieth century was Elmer Keith. In Elmer s typical style, he hardly ever used his rifle without loading it to the top with 105 grains of powder under the heavy paper patched bullets. Reading Elmer s tales about shooting that rifle were very interesting because his, of course, was an old original that he bought complete with ammo and loading tools from an old buffalo hunter. Let me also credit some modern input from Dangerous Don McDowell and Kurt Altenburg, they are both big fans of the.44 caliber rifles and they shoot.44/77s (in case you haven t noticed) and Kurt uses a.44/90 Sharps plus a.44/100 Ballard with the straight case. Don is also gathering pieces for a Straight, following the Remington cartridge pattern. Then it happened, I grabbed at the opportunity to get an old but good condition bullet mould, the Ideal # in the heavy version. That bullet, the old Lyman Cast Bullet Handbook told me, was made for the.44/90. It was actually made in at least two weights, 400 and 470 with the 400 grain version intended for the.44/77. The 470 grain version, what I had gotten, could be used in either the.44/77 or the Kurt used his BN on the Bison Ranch at Coteau Ridge, ND.44/90 and I certainly have used it in my.44/77. That bullet works very well in the.44/77 but even so, it just seemed to have.44/90 written all over it. Then, while looking for more.44/77 brass, I noticed that Jamison had plenty of.44/90 brass on hand while almost everything else was marked out of stock. That made me order 100 of the thick rimmed.44/90 cases, which could be shortened to.44/77s if need be. But none were ever shortened so I had a fair supply of.44/90 fixin s even though I basically had no use for them. That was when I sent a note to John Schoffstall asking if he happened to have a #1½ heavy barrel on hand in.44 caliber. He promptly let me know that such a barrel was in the rack and I replied only with Please put my name on it. Things became clear to me by then that I was going to order a custom rifle in.44/90 caliber but what would it be? It really didn t take me too long to decide or figure out what I would want my.44/90 to look like. Naturally, it would be a 74 Hartford style Sharps, something on the order of what a buffalo hunter would have had before And, just to be sure you can see all of the details; I ll mention everything that was ordered.

4 First, I ll put a photo of the rifle on this page at a slant just so the image can be enlarged just a little more than if it was simply cross-wise. That s only because I m pretty proud of this rifle and want to give you as good a look as you can get. It isn t a real fancy rifle; actually it is on the plain side but that does its part to add to the rifle s beauty in my opinion. Okay, while you re looking at the rifle I ll let you know what the spec s were when it was ordered. As previously mentioned, it is an 1874 Sharps Hartford Model with a #1½ Heavy barrel. It was made 32-inches long. That barrel has a Hartford collar just ahead of the action and John Schoffstall told me that he has never seen an original Sharps with a Hartford collar on a barrel any heavier than what this rifle has. The barrel was to be given a dovetail for the front sight but no dovetail for a rear sight. The receiver group which includes the lockplate, trigger plate and trigger guard plus the buttplate was to be pack-hardened which is an extra (adding $350 to the price of the rifle) but it adds so much to the appearance of the gun. To add just a little bit of contrast to the blue of the barrel and the pack-hardening of the receiver group, I asked that brass escutcheons be added under the screws for the forearm and the lock screw on the left side of the wrist. The barrel s only dovetail near the muzzle was filled with a globe sight with changeable apertures plus a spirit level. The Deluxe Long Range rear sight was added after the rifle was delivered, a good used sight that I bought from Dakota Dick. Once again, just to be sure that I mention it, the barrel was to be chambered for the.44/90 Sharps Bottleneck cartridge and the specific brass to be used were the ones from Jamison with the.079 thick rims. I won t indicate the price for this rifle here simply because that might change but you can get a good idea of the cost for this gun by adding the options in the catalog. I will tell you that the time it took to get the gun, from barrel blank to finished and delivered rifle, was just under two months. That was faster than what I actually expected. And as soon as I got the gun, the rear sight was installed and then the rifle was carefully weighed. It has a weight of 13 ¼ pounds. That weight is just fine and I had expected it to be closer to 14 pounds. only There, that s as detailed a description as I think can be given and if I left anything out it was because it wasn t included on the order form. Let me also say that I m highly delighted with the rifle, from its general appearance to the fit and finish of its individual parts. I simply sat and held this rifle for a good long time right after I got it. This gun is most certainly a reflection of the picture I had in my mind, a buffalo hunter s rifle. Ammunition was on my mind too and because the.44/90 case is simply.375 longer than the.44/77 case, I had a spacer made which allows.44/90 ammo to be reloaded with my.44/77 loading dies. Since then I have gotten a set of RCBS.44/90 dies but using the.44/77 dies certainly worked out fine. The ammo I loaded (so far) is a rather simple and basic load, using 90 grains of KIK 1½ Fg under the bullets from the old Ideal # mould. Those bullets weigh 465 grains with the 16-1 alloy that I m using. That s the only load I ve tried so far but it is shooting well and until I get a good paper patch mould for this rifle-cartridge combo I see no real need to change. The target shown just to the left is one of my first groups, and even with the climbing ladder effect I was rather pleased with it. Since shooting this target I have started to use a blow tube with some religion and shorter groups are usually seen. While I have not changed my loads, my loading techniques have

changed. This was made available after firing enough of the loads in the new brass to have some fire-formed cases. The big change is seen at the nose of the bullets.

Now, with fire-formed brass, I m compressing the powder under a card wad then seating the bullets with my fingers.

5 changed. This was made available after firing enough of the loads in the new brass to have some fire-formed cases. The big change is seen at the nose of the bullets. If you look closely at the cover picture you can see shallow rings around the noses of the bullets in that photo. Those rings show that the bullets were seated by using a seating die. Now, with fire-formed brass, I m compressing the powder under a card wad then seating the bullets with my fingers. That leaves the bullets loose in the case until they are crimped with just enough of a crimp to keep the bullets from falling out of the case. The loads with little or no neck tension on the bullets do group much better than the loads where the bullets have been seated into tight case necks with the loading press. I know that fingertip bullet seating is a standard practice with a lot of Sharps shooters but you never know how much of a difference it can make until you try it. Now I m sold, I ll load all my ammo that way but it must be done with fire-formed cases. And just to show some loads without that ring around the nose of the bullets, here s a picture that shows three of my handloads with bullet # along with an old factory paper patched round that I m just lucky enough to have. Some time, and maybe rather soon, I ll be looking for a bullet that will allow me to copy that old factory load. Shooting this.44/90 has been a lot of fun and I would probably have some more specific things to say about it if I didn t usually go to the range with both this rifle and my.44/77. There are too many times when the.44/77 gets most of my attention. Even so, I will say that the two rifles make fine partners and I will try my best to see that one doesn t get too much attention over the other. At this point my shooting with the.44/90 has not been at distances over 200 yards. Our local range here has a 200 yard limit but that does not limit the fun terribly at all. In fact, there is a heavy steel gong out at that distance which has become my favorite target with the.44/90. Yes, after a good hit with the heavy.44 it takes a while for the gong to stop swinging but that just adds to the fun. There are a lot of things I want to do with this new.44/90 and they certainly include shooting at longer ranges and hunting. For now I find the.44/90 Sharps Bottleneck a fine cartridge, fine enough that I wonder why Sharps generally discontinued it when they introduced the.45 caliber rifles. We can be sure that other shooters question Sharps reasoning because Remington maintained the.44 caliber rifles with both bottleneck and straight cases. I also wonder why there is not a greater interest in shooting the.44 calibers today because the.44/77 and the.44/90 cartridges deserve more attention. Maybe I ll just give this gun more of that attention until I can fire it over my x- sticks at a cross-canyon target.

OUTSTANDING PRODUCTS: LYMAN S CASE TUMBLER MEDIUM By Mike Nesbitt My old case tumbler was not giving me problems but the medium in it sure seemed to be worn out.

7 OUTSTANDING PRODUCTS: LYMAN S CASE TUMBLER MEDIUM By Mike Nesbitt My old case tumbler was not giving me problems but the medium in it sure seemed to be worn out. I wasn t sure that medium could wear out but now that I ve replaced it with some new stuff from Lyman, I m really convinced that medium has a practical life time to it. This new medium from Lyman is working very well and, in general, I m quite pleased with it. Lyman offers three different case tumbling mediums so we get to be a bit choosey. Their first listed offering is for their own tumbler and they say it is the most efficient choice for cleaning dirty or tarnished cases. This is specially treated corncob. Next they offer a medium for heavily fouled cases and that s what I picked for my own doin s. While their recommendations do not say anything about black powder fouling, we can expect our fired brass to fall into the heavily fouled area. This is called their Turbo Tufnut Media and it is made with what they call their Rouge Bearing Nutshell. Lyman also offers an untreated corncob media and they say you can use it as is or add it to your favorite polishing agent if desired. I would like to say more about each of these mediums from Lyman but their Tufnut is the only one I have any personal experience with. And that experience has been all very good, or almost very good. One recent experience might give you a bit of a chuckle, especially if you ve been there before. After recently doing some shooting with a few duplex loads in my Sharps, I thought of saving some time by tumbling those cases without cleaning them in water. After all, they looked nearly clean already. But the light fouling inside the cases attracted the tumbling media very well and those cases needed to be cleaned out and brushed in the inside before they could be loaded again. This was certainly my fault and not a fault of the tumbling medium and I pass this along just in case you think of taking a short cut too. All of the case tumbling media from Lyman is available in two or three different sizes. The jug I selected was for the seven pounds of media, in the photo shown here. It took less than half of that jug to fill my tumbler s bowl very well and I must say, my brass has never come out so nicely cleaned and in such short time. To put things mildly and quietly, I like this stuff. My guess is that this will last me a long time and I still have half of the jug full to fall back on, just in case the Tufnut in my tumbler now wears out in a few years. We ll have to see about that. For shooters interested in trying some of the Lyman Case Tumbler media, these products can usually be found at local sporting goods outlets and certainly at our favorite mail order supply centers. Lyman s suggested retail price for the seven pound Easy Pour jug that I bought is $ That seemed alright to me and for more information simply contact Lyman Products Corporation, 475 Smith Street, Middletown, Connecticut You can also visit their website at

8 OREGON BARREL COMPANY by Mike Nesbitt I ve known the folks at Oregon Barrel Company for years and I even got a tour of their shop but until recently I never considered them for any barrels other than for muzzle loaders. To put things simply, they make all kinds of barrels and they will certainly make barrels for black powder cartridge rifles. So, reproduced below is a portion of their price list. I have taken out those portions referring to pistols, shotguns, and muzzle loaders but if you have interest in those too please feel free to contact them yourself. * Oregon Barrel Company is tooled for almost any caliber from.32 to 2 Bore * Using Cut Rifling Right Hand Twist Only - Your Choice of Twist * Maximum Length for Rifle Barrel Work is 35 inches * Maximum Length for Smooth Bore is 41 inches * Barrels are made on a custom basis * 90 days maximum lead time * Prices may vary in accordance with customer specifications * Call for Quantity Pricing on Barrels RIFLE BARRELS Prices as of January 16, 2014 Standard Round Unturned Barrel Blanks... $ Standard Contour Straight Octagon Tapered Octagon Stainless Steel.... add RELINE We reline from.22 Centerfire to.50 Caliber any rifle that can be safely relined no chambering Rifle Reline for.22 Centerfire to.50 Caliber. $ Jug or Stepline... add Shot-out.22 Rimfire Rifles Liner Tubes 3/8 inch O.D... per inch 1.50 REBORING Re-bore at Customer's Own Risk Re-bore Barrel or Re-fresh Rifling... minimum $ Re-crown Re-bore Muzzleloading Barrels.....minimum SHOP SERVICES Shop Time.... $45.00 Fit Breech Plug Cut and Re-crown Barrel Cut Dove Tails.....each or more each Drill and Tap Hole......each Octagon to Round......add Wedding Band......add All C.O.D. Shipping......per package15.00 Plus Freight: UPS Shipping Charge Oregon Barrel Company 247 South Second Street Springfield, Oregon (541) * Fax (541) info@thegunworks.com web:

C. Sharps Arms Mouse Pads for 2014 By Mike Nesbitt This might be a good addition to any shooters computer desk, it s a mouse pad from C. Sharps Arms that includes a calendar for 2014.

So, having that info quickly at hand is a good idea.

9 C. Sharps Arms Mouse Pads for 2014 By Mike Nesbitt This might be a good addition to any shooters computer desk, it s a mouse pad from C. Sharps Arms that includes a calendar for Of course, it conveniently shows the best telephone and computer contact information for C. Sharps Arms but we all need that info from time to time and when we need it, we need it right away. So, having that info quickly at hand is a good idea. Now, I could go on taking about these mouse pads by saying, with a real big grin, that they are styled after the mouse pads offered by the old Sharps company back in the 1870s. Yes, and as you should guess, the mice just loved them, ate em up, which is the reason why we don t see any of those old originals today. And I could expound on how well these mouse pads perform, particularly for long range ing or getting your notes out express. Very good to work on and the bottom side of the pad discourages any skidding should you need to do some high speed mousing. The color of these mouse pads features black lettering on a white/silver background which my camera has turned a bit blue. In size they measure 7 ¾ by 9 and they are rather thin with just little padding. To get your C. Sharps Arms mouse pad for 2014, call or write to C. Sharps Arms, P.O. Box 885, Big Timber, Montana 5901, telephone You can also order on the website (which would be appropriate) at The price for the mouse pad is just $10 postage paid. It s best to get one this year. ROTOMETALS by Mike Nesbitt The need for some good casting alloy was really digging to me so I turned to Rotometals and got 25 pounds of 1 to 16 (tin to lead) bullet metal. Rotometals has a lot to offer in casting alloys, from pure lead, to 1 to 40, 1 to 30, 1 to 25, 1 to 20, and 1 to 16. My choice of 1 to 16 was based only on things I had heard about it but I m certainly not disappointed. The cost for this metal was approximately $4 per pound delivered. And, let me shout, it was delivered within just a couple of days which certainly adds value. To see all of what Rotometals has to offer, look on their website at and you can contact them on their toll free number at I ll buy from Rotometals again.

To get your shirt send orders to or call C. Sharps Arms, P.O. Box 885, Big Timber, MT 59011-Pnone: 406-932-4353.

11 NEW ARMED PATRIOT DRONE T-SHIRTS C. Sharps Arms Armed Patriot Drone T-Shirts. Logo reads, I AM AN ARMED PATRIOT DRONE, CONTROLLED BY GOD. These Tee s are 100% cotton, available sized Medium, Large, and Extra Large. Colors, either red or blue. Price $15.00 plus postage. To get your shirt send orders to or call C. Sharps Arms, P.O. Box 885, Big Timber, MT Pnone: You can also order these shirts from our web site at These new shirts do make a timely statement. Let s spread the news by declaring our loyalty and faith.

BPCR SCOPES By Dangerous Don McDowell Dang, my eyes are getting old and I just can t see to shoot the iron sights anymore, think I ll try scope. That s something we hear quite a bit these days.

22 scopes we had as kids way back in the dark days before more than 3 television channels and color TV s. Remember how small the sight picture was and how it wasn t an especially bright view.

13 BPCR SCOPES By Dangerous Don McDowell Dang, my eyes are getting old and I just can t see to shoot the iron sights anymore, think I ll try scope. That s something we hear quite a bit these days. It s also something I have said myself, so here comes my take and opinions on the situation. First off, a person needs to remember those old ¾ inch tube.22 scopes we had as kids way back in the dark days before more than 3 television channels and color TV s. Remember how small the sight picture was and how it wasn t an especially bright view. We must remember that the new scopes made today for black powder cartridge rifles are basically copies of what was available back in the 1870s, authentic in style, power, field of view, and in the nature of what the old scopes were. What I m getting at here is that you re not going to get anything even close to what we ve become used to when looking through modern rifle scopes. With that said, here s a brief rundown of the BCPR scopes that are readily available. Montana Vintage Arms offers a number of scopes. I have their 23 inch with the silhouette mounts and the Winchester B5 copy with the Unertl type mounts. Those scopes are priced at about $950 per each. The 23 inch is a high quality optic and uses a mounting block spacing of 10 ¾ inches. I especially like the ability to adjust the focus and parallax at any given range your target is at. I also like the ability to change reticules if you should so desire. You can also adjust the reticule level to suit your particular way of mounting the gun. The mounts are solid as a rock and they adjust in the same manner as the Soule sights. While I have not done enough shooting with this scope yet to make any solid determinations, The three scopes are; the Leatherwood, MVA s B5 and 23 inch elevation slide are going to mean whatever value you assign to them according to the load you re shooting in the rifle. Time will tell but I m thinking these mounts will make 1000 yards with my loads and probably have room to spare. The front mount is also adjustable for windage. The scope slides smoothly on its rail and returns to battery very easily and consistently. The other offering of MVA s that we have and certainly enjoy a lot is the B5 copy. It s a short scope, uses a 7.5 inch mounting block spacing and with its Unertl type mounts it works marvelously on our low wall.22 Long Rifle. It shares many of the same focus and reticule adjustments of the larger series of scopes. The front mount on this one is fixed and not adjustable. To the right is the DZ Unertl scope mount. so far I m going to say the markings on the

Here again the markings on the scope mounts are going to have a value that you end up assigning them. There have been no problems going from one yardage setting to another and coming back again.

Maybe this summer my wife will try this on her Highwall but for now we just have to take someone else s word on such long range performance.

14 Here again the markings on the scope mounts are going to have a value that you end up assigning them. There have been no problems going from one yardage setting to another and coming back again. While we haven t done so yet, we have talked to a couple of folks who have used this scope on big bore rifles. By using higher rear blocks they have even managed to lob bullets to 1000 yards. Maybe this summer my wife will try this on her Highwall but for now we just have to take someone else s word on such long range performance. The B5 copy is a very good value and not especially high priced. For more information about Montana Vintage Arms scopes and mounts contact them at 61 Andrea Drive, Belgrade, Montana 59714, or call They offer a free catalog which features their entire line. Visit their web site at MVA silhouette mount The next offering is a combination thing. Using the Leatherwood 18 inch 6x scope and the Unertl rings available from Dan Zimmerman of DZ Arms, a person can put this combination together one piece at a time or just jump in with both feet and get the whole thing from Buffalo Arms Company ( as a complete setup. The optics of the Leatherwood scope are very good but the mounts that Leatherwood furnishes really are not the best. My biggest complaint on the Leatherwood scope is the reticule is too thick. While this could be changed, it would most likely be a spendy proposition because those scopes are nitrogen charged. So then the cost would be running close to the MVA full size scopes. With the Zimmerman mounts and using higher rear blocks reaching to 1000 yards is very doable, although my CSA needs all the elevation I can muster to get there. The Leatherwood scope with the Zimmerman mounts will cost about $ and that s a good value. Another scope that I have not seen but only heard about because it is just announced is the new offering from DZ Arms. They re coming out with their own scope and mounts set. I have talked to folks who have shot the prototypes, but other than that have no information to pass on. For more information please contact DZ Arms, PO Box 593, Blanchard, Oklahoma or call them at DZ Arms has a very colorful web site at I think my dream scope set up at this time would be the MVA 23 inch with the DZ rear mounts, the MVA front windage adjustable. Here (at the right) is the MVA Unertl type mount and the MVA Winchester B5 scope on the Winchester Low wall.

C. Sharps Arms Co., Inc.

Edition 2012-1 Published by C. Sharps Arms Co., Inc. 10 Shots with.45-75-400 loads Manufacturers of A WORLD FAMOUS SERIES of Classic Metallic Cartridge Rifles and Classic Sights P.O. Box 885, Big Timber,