Edition 2016-1 Published by C. Sharps Arms Co., Inc.

Manufacturers of A WORLD FAMOUS SERIES of Classic Metallic Cartridge Rifles and Classic Sights

P.O. Box 885, Big Timber, MT 59011 Phone: 406-932-4353 Fax: 406-932-4443

2016 www.csharpsarms.com * info@csharpsarms.com 2016

THE AMERICAN SHARPS SHOOTERS

Publisher: C. Sharps Arms Co. Inc., John R. Schoffstall – President

Mike Nesbitt - - - Editor (miken54@centurylink.net)

Allen Cunniff --- Field Contributor (tpigskin@comcast.net)

Dangerous Don McDowell - - Field Contributor (ranch13@hotmail.com)

Table of contents: Page

MY RIFLE, SIGHTS, AND LUBE by Ashley Garman …………………..….. 3

THE 4TH (HOPEFULLY ANNUAL) ICICLE MATCH by Mike Nesbitt……7

OLD WEST CENTERFIRES by Bob Gietz ........................................ …………9

Outstanding Products ……………………………………………………..….. 12

MY “TAKE” ON THE .44/77’S HISTORY by Mike Nesbitt……………….. 19

“America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose

our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves,” Abraham Lincoln.

MY RIFLE, sights, AND LUBE

By Ashley Garman

After my story about paper patching bullets came out, Mike asked me

for more details about my rifle and some of my other ways and doin’s. So here

is that follow-up, hopefully with the details you readers will appreciate.

My rifle gun is a C. Sharps Arms Model 1874 Hartford Sporting Rifle

with semi-fancy wood, standard Military & Sporting semi-crescent steel butt

plate, and German silver nose cap. It was built in early 2012 and has one of last

of the Badger barrels; a 34-inch No. 1 heavy tapered octagon with no Harford

Collar. It is .45 caliber, nominally chambered for the 2⅞-inch case. It has a

buckhorn barrel sight, an MVA #113 low profile spirit level globe front sight, and MVA #103 long range

Buffalo Soule rear sight.

The rifle originally came with a hooded post front sight and deluxe long range rear. At my first

Rattlesnake Mountain long-range match in March 2013 we had a 30 mph crosswind at 1000 yards. That

amount of wind used up all 14 points of windage adjustment on my sight and I still had to hold two targets

(about 20 feet) to the left, just to get close. Records show I actually hit the paper once in that relay. I soon

replaced the hooded post front with a wind gauge spirit level globe front sight, giving me an additional 22

points of windage adjustment. Some days that still wasn’t enough.

And while it worked OK, that wind gauge front sight was always a concern, being so fragile and

vulnerable sticking out the way it did. A bigger problem with it (One you might want to share with John S.) is

that the spirit level was very difficult to see in anything but ideal light conditions. I filed the notch deeper to

expose more of the glass vial, but the color of the fluid did not enhance visibility at all. A cheap yellow level

snipped from a plastic stud finder and held in place on the top barrel flat with a rubber band actually worked a

whole lot better – similar to your spirit level in the barrel dovetail.

Fast forward a year. In the summer of 2014 I gave up on using a blow tube and switched to

wiping. Wiping necessitates folding down the rear sight between shots. I very quickly discovered that

my C. Sharps Arms Deluxe Long Range rear sight wouldn’t hold elevation. The problem is in the original

design. On that type sight, windage adjustments are held by tightening the eyecup, while elevation adjustments

are held by tightening a set screw against one rail of the sight staff.

Unfortunately, the long range staff is -- well, long. With elevation settings in the middle range of

adjustment, tightening the set screw causes the rail to flex. The set screw bottoms out without putting sufficient

pressure on the staff to keep the elevator from slipping. In long range matches I learned to check my elevation

setting when I flipped the sight back up after wiping. But occasionally I’d forget; and when I did I often got an

ugly surprise.

In BPCR silhouettes there simply wasn’t time to count the ticks on the Vernier scale to verify the sight

setting for every shot. After losing a number of matches I should have won (even if I do say so myself), I gave

up on the C. Sharps Arms sights and ordered the MVA

combination which I have now.

I’m not suggesting the MVA sights are any better

than CSA. Precision and quality are probably about the

same – in both cases, excellent. And I actually prefer the

traditional style long range sight. I think it looks more

appropriate on a Sharps 74. But the Soule style is clearly

better suited for target shooting, particularly if one

intends to wipe between shots, because on a Soule the

eyecup locks the elevator, allowing the sight staff to be

folded up and down repeatedly without losing the

elevation setting. I considered buying the C. Sharps long range Soule. But the MVA Buffalo Soule had twice

the windage adjustment, allowing me to dispense with that delicate wind gauge front and its invisible spirit

level.

I do have a pet peeve with the MVA though. The elevation markings on the vertical sight staff are

harder to read than the C. Sharps, and to me the windage markings on the drum make no sense at all. The

windage drum is marked in ½ minute increments with five of those, or 2 ½ minutes, making one full

revolution. Two complete revolutions of the windage drum would make 5 minutes. Four revolutions would

make 10 minutes. To keep track of the windage settings it would make sense for the hash marks on the sight

base to have three short lines representing 2 .5, 5, and 7.5 minutes; followed by a long line representing 10

minutes. Instead, MVA marks the sight base with four short lines, then a long one for each 12 ½

minutes! Whuh?

As for my homemade lube, I originally got the recipe from a listing I found somewhere of historical

bullet lubes. Many of the lubes listed were difficult or impossible to replicate because they contained

unavailable ingredients like whale oil, or difficult to find and expensive substances like Japan wax. But there

on the list was the U.S. Army’s standard lube formula, circa 1880, comprised of three parts tallow and one part

beeswax.

Further research confirmed that the Army’s standard bullet lube in the 1880’s was 3:1 tallow and

beeswax. Leave it to the Army to come up with something relatively cheap and readily available. What I

couldn’t find was details. Was that supposed to be beef tallow or mutton tallow? Were those proportions by

weight or by volume? Since I don’t recall reading about great sheep drives and government sheep contracts in

the late 19th century, I have to assume the Army was mostly buying beef, and that therefore beef tallow would

have been much more readily available.

A trip to the local butcher shop yielded all the beef fat I could use, for free. One-pound blocks of

beeswax were available from the local craft store for a not-too-unreasonable price. Rendering the fat isn’t

difficult; but it takes a while and is a bit messy and smelly. That’s a chore best done on a day the wife is

away. Once the tallow is rendered I store it in mason jars in the back of the refrigerator.

To mix the lube I use a double boiler – a mason jar in a pot of boiling water. I cut chunks of tallow and

wax and weigh them on a postage scale, then combine them proportionally by weight, three parts beef tallow

and one part beeswax. Once melted and mixed, it forms a solution that does not separate. It can be melted and

re-used over and over. I use it for grease cookies and to waterproof my paper patches. But it would probably

work just as well to lubricate grease groove bullets, either by pan lubing or pouring warm into a lubricator-sizer

and letting it cool.

On page 346 of Frank Sellers’ book Sharps Firearms, he describes the original “lubricator molds”

pictured on page 350. The molds are described as being 3/16-inch thick. Taking that as the standard, I set out

to produce grease wads of that thickness or just a little thinner.

Using the containers available in my kitchen, and a little high school geometry, I came up with a method

to produce consistent 1/8-inch thick “float cakes” of bullet lube. Fill a 3-pound Darigold cottage cheese tub

with boiling water to the level of the heavy horizontal bar at the top of the "Nutrition Facts" column (just below

where it reads; "Servings per Container about 12"). Gently pour a full 2 oz (53 cc) measuring scoop of melted

lube onto the tub of hot water. Allow to cool overnight in the refrigerator, then remove the cake, pat it dry with

paper towel and store it in in refrigerator in a folded sheet of wax paper in a gallon Zip-loc bag. Lube discs are

then punched out of this hardened “float cake” of lube.

Lube discs can be cut out of the flat cake using the mouth of the charged and compressed case, but doing

that smears grease down the inside of the case. When the final fiber wad is seated over the lube disc, the grease

seals the wad, trapping air underneath, causing the wad and seated bullet to pop up unless there is sufficient

neck tension to hold them down.

A better solution is to cut out the lube discs in advance. For that I use a .45 Long Colt case with a

roofing nail stuck through the drilled-out flash hole for a plunger. I remove the float cake from the refrigerator

and let it warm for a few minutes at room temperature so it doesn’t crack when I cut it. Then I cut out a disc of

lube using the .45 case, push it back out with the nail, and set it on wax paper. I get about 80 lube discs out of

one 5¼-inch float cake.

Those are stored in the refrigerator until well

chilled, preferably overnight. After charging my cases and

compressing the powder charge under a .060 veggie wad, I

set the loading tray in the refrigerator for a few minutes to

chill. When everything is ready I quickly spear the lube

discs and carefully place them in the chilled charged

cases. Keeping everything cool prevents grease smears

and trapped air.

Also the .45 Colt case is slightly smaller in

diameter than the .45 Sharps, so the lube discs slide into

the cases a bit much more easily.

For the grease cookie in my heavy long-range

loads, I use one lube disc topped with a .030 Walter’s

Top men shooters at Quigley, Ash is standing 2nd from left veggie wad. For my lighter short-range loads I use two

lube wads topped with a .060 Walter’s veggie wad. The double-thick grease cookie takes up a bit more space

and puts a bit more grease in the barrel to support using a blow tube. Grease and veggie wads are then pressed

down firmly onto the compressed powder charge and measured to ensure consistent height and to determine the

minimum seating depth.

I use a seater die to seat all the bullets to a uniform depth just below the lowest measurement found. For

example: on my last batch of long-range cartridges, the case mouth-to-wad measurements all fell between .549”

and .555” so I seated all the bullets to .560”.

The same stuff is used to waterproof my paper patches. After the bullets have be wet-patched and the

patches allowed to dry for several hours, or overnight, I smear them with a thin coat of my 3:1 homebrew. The

easiest method I’ve found is to wipe each bullet using a cotton rag dampened with melted lube. I tried cotton

balls dipped in melted lube but they left lint. Same thing with Q-tips. And both of those applicators got the

lube too thick.

The late Paul Matthews suggested that anything which turns the patch translucent is bad. Wiping the

bullets with a rag or dauber dipped in melted lube did exactly that. It also made the patches come unwrapped.

The solution is a 3x5-inch piece of an old cotton t-shirt with a pea-sized piece of lube folded in the

middle. I hold the folded cloth in front of a space heater until the lube melts and wets the cloth. I can wipe 5 or

6 bullets before the melted lube starts to congeal. Then it is held in front of the space heater for a few more

seconds before wiping a few more bullets. After wiping 20 or 30 bullets, depending on how saturated the rag

was to start with, I add another little piece of lube.

Wiped bullets are stood on end on an aluminum cookie sheet until cool and hardened, then stored point-

down in plastic cartridge boxes. To avoid scraping off the lube or snagging the end of the paper patch, I guide

each bullet into its slot in the box with a little funnel made from rolled up scrap paper. The longer 540-grain

bullets fit in boxes designed for .44 Mag/45 Long Colt cartridges. The shorter 480-grain bullets fit better in

boxes intended for .45 ACP cartridges.

That’s about all I can say about my rifle, its sights, and the lube used in my ammo. It seems to work for

me. Good shooting to you!!

THE 4TH (HOPEFULLY ANNUAL) ICICLE MATCH

By Mike Nesbitt

The black powder cartridge silhouette match held at Eatonville, Washington last December had a real different

twist to it. That was their 4th Annual Icicle Match, being named in honor of the general weather conditions plus the

special awards. I knew nothing about this special match when I got to the range that morning except that we’d be given

the choice of shooting a regular NRA match or a “fun match.”

When I signed in I told Beth Morris that my choice was to shoot the regular NRA match because it was my idea

that I might improve my scores and maybe get out of B class. She asked, “Are you sure you don’t want to try the fun

match? How much ammunition did you bring?” I told her I had 100 rounds for my .40/70 SS and then asked her for

more details. She said they were going to shoot the same targets, generally, but with different rules, just for fun.

The different rules; the chickens would be shot at from either sitting or prone while the pigs would be shot at from

the offhand position. Turkeys and rams would be shot at as normally done except that one of the critters would be shot at

with no spotters, as if it was a hunting situation. The “no spotters” target would not be identified until the match was

about to begin. And, the chickens, half of them were “quail,” little California quail with top-knots and everything. Very

tiny for 200 meter shooting.

Well, I was reluctant but Beth was too convincing and I added my name to the “fun shoot” list. So did Sam

Snelson and so he and I became spotting partners for each other. Then we got our relay “assignments” and my first

targets were the turkeys at 385 meters. Just my luck, turkeys are the hardest targets for me to hit. On top of that, we had

to shoot the turkeys with no spotters.

So there we were, shooting an odd-ball silhouette match, in the western Washington fog. Every time a nearby

shooter fired, the smoke from their rifles added to the fog. In addition to that, my scope fogged up! That left me with

rather little to see but I did get some shooting done during the 2nd half of that relay, knocking down two of the highly

elusive turkeys. By the way, for the shooting done with no spotters, there was no limit to the number of shots you could

shoot and I probably fired 15 shots to get those two birds.

Sam probably did better than I on the turkeys, I really don’t remember. He shoots iron sights so he didn’t have

the fogging trouble that I started with. Then we moved to the rams where my score didn’t improve and Sam got even

further ahead of me.

With the second relay behind us, it

was time for lunch. The lunch was prepared

by Diana Mitchell and she certainly deserves

the greatest compliments. No, there wasn’t

anything left of her soup and if you wanted

seconds you needed to be one of the first in

line. A good hot lunch on a cold day is

always a great thing.

Then it was my turn to try shooting

at the chickens and quail. Those quail were

small! Sam tried to cheer me on by

exclaiming, “You’ll never hit one of those!!”

But I got into my sitting position and gave it

a good try. My try was good enough to

clobber two out of the five quail targets.

And when those little quail were hit, they really At least 16 shooters shot at this 4th Annual Icicle Match

sailed through the air. After that, I continued on the chickens and nailed four out of the five of those. I had never done

so well on the chickens so getting so many was simply sweet revenge. (I should have gotten a picture of those quail!)

By the way, the two quail I hit were both gotten with head shots so I didn’t spoil any meat…

The last relay for Sam and me was when we’d shoot at the pigs, 300 meters, offhand. Again, Sam’s confidence in

my shooting echoed off of the trees as he voiced his expectancies of my scores. But to his surprise as well as my own, I

hit four of the pigs while shooting offhand. And I think that was better than what Sam did while shooting his .45-2.6” in

this match.

Awards were then given to the high scoring shooters for both iron sights and scopes. Those two shooters were

Steve Morris and Cary Thorogood. They were both awarded with Santa Claus hats plus “icicles” which were hung from

sash ribbons and worn around their necks. It was near dark when all was finished and it really was a lot of fun.

"The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government."

-- Thomas Jefferson

Old West

Centerfires By Bob Gietz

Our second match of the Old West Centerfires season got underway with

only five shooters plus one absentee who was allowed to do his “paper work”

early along with having a signed witness. The February weather was clear and on the cool side, so the hot

coffee brewed just behind the shooting area was quite welcome. And we had a newcomer, a pilgrim names

Lew Gaiser who joined us while shooting a borrowed .50/70 rifle. (Just watch, he’ll have his own rifle soon.)

In addition to that, we had a visitor named Bill Burgin who has just purchased a Sharps replica in .45/70 and he

came to observe our doin’s in order to help get his act together. Bill says we’ll be seeing him again, at our next

match in April. By the way, Bill was kind enough to take the picture of our shooting group.

This was a short range match with paper targets positioned at 50

and 100 yards. The target at 50 yards was the double bullseye buffalo

which is usually shot at with muzzle-loaders. At 100 yards another

muzzle-loading target was used, the standard 100 yard bullseye.

These are the same targets that we have previously used at those

distances. Our shooters are primarily members of muzzle-loading

clubs and those targets are what we have on hand. While our targets

and the distances we shoot them at might be different than most other

black powder cartridge matches, the challenge and competition are

still the same.

Previously we did not allow scopes or spotters at our matches.

Lew Gaiser at his first bpcr match. That was a hold-over from our primitive habits with the muzzle-

loaders. But beginning with the 2016 season we are allowing scopes and spotters. And now, after using the

scopes and spotters for only two matches, we encourage their use. Having the spotters is a very real benefit and

the added time required for additional relays is very slight. We’ll use scopes and spotters from now on, much

like almost all other black powder cartridge rifle matches.

At this match the shooting started with all competitors beginning with their targets at 50 yards. It did

seem like everyone’s sights were out of adjustment, and fresh adjustments were made after the spotters located

the hits. That was basically true for all shooters except for Jeff Ritter, our absentee shooter. Jeff had gone to

the range a week early with Mike Nesbitt in order to get his targets perforated because he had duties that would

keep him away from the match. He did very well and his score at 50 yards, a 94 out of 100, simply couldn’t be

beaten. That gave Jeff a head-start in points and the other shooters never caught up.

Jim Dickerman did give catching up a real good try. He shot a 92 at 50 yards and then outshot Jeff at

100 yards by one point. As you can see in the scores, that put Jim just one point behind Jeff for the match.

We’ll have to see how this little battle continues at our next match, where the shooting goes to 200 yards.

Sam Snelson’s .45/100 could be heard roaring as he did his best to beat the other scores. Sam doesn’t

use full loads in his .45-2.6” from C. Sharps Arms but he does use load with more powder than any of the other

shooters at this match. His 50 yard target was just a bit lacking but he did his best to make up for it at 100

yards. In fact, his 100 yard target held the high score for the day at that distance. While he did make a good

valent try, he still finished one point behind Jim.

Then we get down to Mike Nesbitt’s level. Mike was using another new rifle. Actually, it was the Billy

Dixon rifle from C. Sharps Arms that he wrote about three years ago but now it is re-barreled to .50/70 caliber.

That gives him a 13+ pound .50/70 that should lay bullets in on top of each other. While we might expect that,

it hasn’t happened yet. Let’s just say that Mike hasn’t found the bullet this heavy rifle really likes yet.

Lew Gaiser was shooting another of Mike

Nesbitt’s .50/70 rifles, the round barreled

“Hartford” from C. Sharps Arms. That rifle has a

sporting tang rear sight which is not readily

adjustable and Lew simply used it be holding at 6

o’clock on the bullseyes at 50 yards, then holding

for the middle of the bullseye at 100 yards.

Holding that way on the targets generally takes care

of any trajectory and Mike did the same thing with

this rifle about two years ago, with very good

results. Lew didn’t do bad at all and we expect to

see him coming back.

Down at the bottom of the list for this match

we find Don Kerr. Don has not practiced and his

score reflect as much. We’ll see him ‘catch on’ at

later matches and his .45/90 Hartford by C. Sharps

Arms is a rifle that will give him very high scores

after some practice shots are taken.

Here’s the group of shooters for this match All in all, our short range match was a lot of

fun and it was a very good way to spend the morning. Sharps-oriented prizes were awarded to all shooters and

everyone is going to try to do better at our next match, which will be on April 2, 2016. Join us if you’re in the

area of the Capitol City Rifle & Pistol Club, out of Littlerock, Washington.

Scores for this Match

Name Rifle/Cartridge 50yd. 100yd Total Jeff Ritter 1874 Shiloh Sharps .45/70 94 86 180

Jim Dickerman 1874 Shiloh Sharps .45/70 92 87 179

Sam Snelson 1874 C. Sharps Arms .45/100 85 93 X 178 X

Mike Nesbitt 1874 C Sharps Arms .50/70 90 80 170

Lew Gaiser 1874 C Sharps Arms .50/70 87 69 156

Don Kerr 1874 C Sharps Arms .45/90 87 68 155

At the end of this season of Old West Centerfire matches we will again award prizes for the aggregate of

scores. This is simply done by adding up each shooters’ five highest match scores which were fired during this

season of matches. We will have a total of six Old West Centerfire matches during the season and this means

our shooters can miss one match and still be in the running for top scores in the aggregate.

Season’s Accumulative Scores (Not In Order)

Name Rifle & Cartridge Accumulative scores

Allen Cunniff 1874 C Sharps Arms .45/70 193 5X

Jim Dickerman 1874 Shiloh Sharps .45/70 361 3X

Jeff Ritter 1874 Shiloh Sharps .45/70 357 3X

Mike Nesbitt Remington Rolling Block .44/77, Sharps .50/70 338 3X

Mike Moran 1874 C Sharps Arms .44/77 167 2X

Bob DeLisle 1874 Pedersoli Sharps .45/70 166 X

Don Kerr 1874 C Sharps Arms .45/90 315 2X

Sam Snelson 1874 C. Sharps Arms .45/100 178 X

Lew Gaiser 1874 C. Sharps Arms .50/70 156

“We have the best government that money can buy.” Mark Twain

OUTSTANDING PRODUCTS: by Mike Nesbitt

Cyberguy's Lube Pans

In addition to custom cutters, Cyberguy

also offers a dandy covered lube pan. Having a

lube pan with a cover is an advantage that can

quickly speak for itself because it can be put on

the shelf without the fear of having dust or dirt

fall into the lube. Seen at the left is my own

lube pan from Cyberguy loaded with a mixture

of 44/77 and .50/70 bullets, ready to be cut out

of the lube cake.

These rather small lube pans measure

just 4 7/8” across and they’re about 7/8” deep.

While I refer to that as being rather small, I do

think they are plenty big enough. I can lube up

to thirty .50 caliber bullets for my .50/70 at one

time, maybe more but I haven’t needed to try.

Of course, if you have more to lube it only

takes a few minutes to melt the lube again and

then begin cutting out the second batch.

In fact, I like this size of lube pan because it doesn’t take a whole brick of lube to fill it. I do have a

larger pan for lubing paper patched bullets but the lube in that is very shallow when compared to the lube

needed for grease groove bullets, even the rather short .50/70 bullets.

When I started pan lubing bullets, I began by using empty shallow pet food cans. A sardine can was

tried too. That did work, quite well in fact, but this covered lube pan has a lot of advantages. Being covered,

which I’ve already mentioned, and its size are the two biggest advantage, for sure.

Cyberguy can supply these small covered pans for $3 each and shipping is another $3 for one to three

pans purchased in the same order. Having more than one pan would be an advantage for shooters who might

like to dedicate pans to specific sizes of bullets, either calibers or bullet lengths. If requested, Cyberguy can put

labels on the lids to those pans.

If you were thinking about getting one or more of his custom cutters, it might only seem convenient to

add one or more of these lube pans to your order. Again, payment is accepted in checks or money orders but he

actually prefers PayPal. (Paypal doesn’t require him to go to the bank.) The address, again, is Cyberguy’s

Custom Cutters, 632 Lovell Road, Sweden, Maine 04040.

He says to email him with any questions at thecyberguy@hotmail.com.

"Nothing is more essential to the establishment of manners in a State than that all persons employed in places of power and trust must be men of unexceptionable characters." —Samuel Adams, 1775

New .40/82 WCF Brass from Jamison Captech International recently

announced a new run of brass for the

.40/82 Winchester and this will certainly

be warmly received. The .40/82,

generally regarded as one of the headline

chamberings for the Model 1886

Winchester lever action, is now being

used somewhat for black powder

cartridge silhouette shooting, putting a

little more bounce to the ounce on those

.40 caliber bullets headed out to claim

their rams or turkeys. Brass for the

.40/82 can be formed from .45/90 (2.4”)

cases but it’s always nice to have

properly headstamped ammunition. Of

course, folks looking for ammo to feed

their old Model 1886 rifles will love it

too.

This brass takes the standard #14

RCBS shell holder, the same as the

.45/70. One more possible use for these

new .40/82 cases is to use them in rifles

chambered for the .40/70 WCF because

the .40/70 Winchester case is identical to

the .40/82 but used a different loading.

These new cases can also be shorten and

sized to form the .40/70 Sharps BN brass. Yes, then it wouldn’t have the appropriate headstamp but I don’t

know of “ready to roll” brass being made for either of these .40/70s, WCF or Sharps BN.

If I could, I’d give you a short shooting test with this new brass. Being without a .40/82 rifle, I’ll have

to simply alert you to the availability of these new cases. Orders can be placed directly to Jamison Brass and

Ammunition, Captech International, 2441 Dakota Craft Drive, Rapid City, South Dakota 57701. For telephone

orders call 605-791-1974 or by email to info@captechintl.com. Prices for the new Jamison .40/82 brass include

20 cases for $35.00 and larger orders can be made.

“We the people are rightful masters of both Congress and the Courts, not to overthrow the Constitution but to overthrow the men who would pervert the Constitution.” -- Abraham Lincoln

G. R. Thomas, Holster Maker One side-line to Sharps shooting that I enjoy doing is shooting revolvers from the general buffalo

hunting era, or more correctly, newly made copies of the revolvers from the buffalo hunting era. Those

revolvers, mostly Colt Single Actions in .45 Colt and .44/40 plus the Uberti copy of the Smith & Wesson

Russian Model #3 in .44 Russian, of course, need to be equipped with reloading gear, bullet molds, and carrying

gear, namely belts and holsters. This also serves as a good warning to you that more will be said about these

revolvers and revolver shooting in editions yet to come.

Right now I want to call your

attention to a holster made for me by

Gary Thomas. It was made to fit a

Smith & Wesson #3 New Model but

it will also fit the Schofield and the

Russian Models. Those were all

different versions of the #3 and they

all have the same frame size. This,

naturally, includes the modern copies

of the old Smith & Wesson’s guns

and the six-gun included in the photo

here is a .44 Russian by Uberti. This

holster was made to fit a #3 with a 5-

inch long barrel but the holster is long

enough and open bottomed so it can

very comfortably carry the Russian

Model with the 6 ½-inch long barrel.

This is a holster that I expect

will see a lot of use. It is made to be worn on my left side for a crossdraw but it can be worn on the right with

only a slight angle of back-slant. Please give me a little time to try

each of those positions in actual use.

Gary does not have a catalog. Instead he prefers to

interview each potential customer to find out what kind of holster is

desired, for what gun, and how the holster will be worn. His

finished product stands out as being very professional and for a

holster similar to this one he will ask $75 to $100 dollars depending

on the gun’s barrel length. Other features, options or characteristics

are open to discussion. To contact Gary you can write to him by

mail at Gary Thomas, 132 Fairgrounds Road, Salmon, Idaho

83467 or email him at muskrat14@hotmail.com.

One of the penalties of not participating in politics is that you will be governed by your inferiors." Plato

IXL ENTERPRSES Sight Insert Cards

One of my favorite front sights is the Globe sight

with changeable inserts and spirit level made by C.

Sharps Arms. However, in some of our small local

matches (that you get wind of in Bob Gietz’s reports

about the Old West Centerfires shoots) we

sometimes use bullseye targets that are either too

close or simply too big for the largest aperture in the

inserts supplied by C. Sharps Arms for that sight.

As you can guess even if you haven’t experienced

this; it’s hard to hold center when you can’t see the

edges of the bullseye. Other front sights such as the

MVA models might also have this problem and IXL

Enterprises has come to the rescue.

They produce a sight insert card of blued .012”

thick spring steel featuring 10 apertures with much a greater range of aperture sizes. I believe 6 of those

apertures are larger than the largest among the inserts supplied by C. Sharps Arms with their sights. And the

IXL Enterprises Front Sight Insert card comes only with apertures. It does not contain any posts, cross hairs, or

other types of front sight images. Just the nice wide range of apertures, from .085 to .155 in diameter.

The two apertures from this card that I’ve used came from the middle of those sizes and my problem of

not seeing the entire bullseye is quickly cured. Now we’ll have to see if that helps. (Or course, it should!)

Ordering one or more of these sight index cards is simple. Just send a check, no credit cards please, to

Ron Snover, 1245 Delta Valley Road, Greeneville, Tennessee 37745. The price per index card is $25.00 and

that is postpaid. Similar sight index cards are also made to fit the Lyman 17A front sights. If you need to call

in order to get more information the phone number is 423-234-0184 or email rwsnover@comcast.net.

“A government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong enough to take everything you have.” -- Thomas Jefferson

“We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office.” – Aesop

“To Learn Who Rules Over You, Simply Find Out Who You Are

Not Allowed To Criticize.” --Voltaire

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 59011-Phone: 406-932-4353.

You can also order these shirts from our

web site at

www.csharpsarms.com

These new shirts do make a “timely”

statement. Let’s spread the news by

declaring our loyalty and faith.

MY “TAKE” ON THE .44/77’S HISTORY

By Mike Nesbitt

The history of the .44/77 has never

been made completely clear, in my most

humble opinion, and I’d like to plant some

seeds of thought in your minds about when

and where this notable cartridge was

developed. Please bear in mind that I am

actually guessing at some of this but my few

guesses are made, I hope you will agree, with

a rather fair foundation.

First of all, as Frank Sellers said in his

book Sharps Firearms, the .44/77 was based

on a Remington cartridge. Too many of us

have believed that Remington had the .44/77

first and that Sharps simply adopted it as a

chambering in their Sporting rifle of 1869.

Remington did have their .43 Spanish at that

time so let me ask, why would Remington

introduce such a similar cartridge firing a bullet

only .007” larger than the .43 when such a move

would not be worth the tooling to do it?

My assumption is this; Sharps borrowed the

case from the .43 Spanish (maybe from the .42

Berdan) but adapted it to the .44 caliber barrels they

had already been making for their .44 percussion

sporting rifles. Admittedly, I have not found a

Sharps .44 caliber percussion rifle to verify this but

we do know that Sharps was making .44 caliber

rifles with percussion ignition. It would have been

rather natural to use existing tooling for those

barrels.

Also worthy of possible note is that Ballard

bought their target barrels in .44 and .45 calibers

from Sharps. Sharps barrels did have a fine

reputation.

We also know that the “.44/77” was a

Remington loading and that Sharps always referred

to this cartridge as the .44-2 ¼” loading it with

either 70 or 75 grains of powder under 380 and 405

grain bullets. According to Roy Marcot in his

excellent book about Remington Rolling Block

Sporting and Target Rifles, the earliest mention of

the .44/77 by Remington did not take place until the

latter part of 1872, about the time that production of

their #1 Sporting Rifle really got under way.

To me this all strongly suggests that the .44-

2 ¼” cartridge was originally made and developed

by Sharps, either from the .43 Spanish which was

also developed in 1869 by UMC or, like the .43

Spanish, developed from the .42 Berdan which also

used 77 grains of powder. Sharps and Berdan were

certainly not strangers. Three years later

Remington adopted the .44-2 ¼” as a chambering

for their Sporting Rifles and gave it their own

designation, the .44/77.

We can also echo Frank Sellers again by

mentioning that until 1876 the .44-2 ¼” was the

most popular cartridge in the Sharps sporting rifles.

It continued to enjoy a very fair popularity even

after Sharps dropped it from regular production.

Lettin' the cat outta the bag is a whole lot easier'n puttin' it back. – Will Rogers