CSA .40-70 Straight success finally...kind of

[throck3]

I've been having trouble getting a C. Sharps 1874 in .40-70 Straight to shoot like I think it should. I've been shooting BPCR for years but just hadn't quite got this rifle to shoot well. I have been shooting 20-1 375 grain GG bullets from a Steve Brooks mold, seated just into the rifling. This seems to work in my other CSA in .45 2 1/10th, which will shoot 7/8" groups at 100 yds. also with a Brooks bullet. I finally found that 62 grains of 2f OE with a .030 veg fiber wad gets pretty good results, but there was room to work still. Today, I loaded up 50 rounds with the 62 gr OE load, but with the bullet set back to jump a little into the rifling. Also, I loaded half of them with .060 wads.

I was not getting the results I had hoped for when shooting the loads with the .030 wads. I cleaned the rifle, and then started shooting the loads with the .060 wads. I have never seen such an immediate dramatic change in rifle performance than this rifle with the thicker wads. Even my fouling shots were all grouped in a tight group and I have never had that happen. My rifles typically take about four shots to settle in to shooting groups. I then shot ten round strings on clean targets. My next seven shots went into a 3/4" group and I couldn't have been happier. Then, ...I shot a flyer about an inch out. No big deal, I thought. My 61 year old eyes do that on a regular basis. The potential of this load still had me excited as this has been a long process, and I had been running out of tricks to tweak this load. I fired the next two rounds of the string and each one flew a little further out. Sh!t.

I then shot the final ten round string and it was a disaster. I was at a total loss as to what was going on. I did notice, though, that on two of the rounds, the breach acted like it wanted to stick in place. The rifle had never done that before, but I though maybe I had pierced the primers. I was shooting BR-2s, and have had that happen with a Savage Model 12 in 6.5 Creedmoor with a pretty hot load, spo wrote it off to that batch of primers. Finally, while cleaning the rifle at home, the breach totally locked up in the closed position. I then remembered people in the forums talking about firing pins breaking on Sharps '74s. I took my cleaning rod, ran it down the barrel and pushed the firing pin back into the breach block, and it freed right up. I took the breach block apart, and sure enough, a broken firing pin. It was my first and was sure as hell frustrating after having such a success finally, and then having it fall apart. Kind of like jamming on the gas pedal and then standing on the brakes. Oh well, I'm a little wiser. (I hope.)

When I get the new firing pin (plus a spare!) installed, I'll get back to work with the .060 wads, and then some 400 grain bullets as well.