40 sbn

[Sarge]

Anybody shooting the 40-70sbn? I see much mentioned about 40-70 straight but not so much on the 40-70sbn or have I just missed it?

Sarge

[Don McDowell]

Powderburner and Stephen are both messin with them weenie guns.
I think it would be a neat little dinkin cartridge especially in a light barreled rifle, like a carbine or such.

[Sarge]

My apologies Don, I edited it, left off the 70 part.

Sarge

[Don McDowell]

Bobw is the only one I know of shooting a 40-70 bn. Plenty of folks with the 70 ss tho.

[Mike]

I had a .40/70 BN several years ago. That's the only gun I've gotten from C. Sharps Arms that I sold. Nuff said... Shoot sharp, Mike

[Caprock]

I guess me and Bob must be a team then cause Ive got one too!

[Don McDowell]

Well dang Sam tell us about that

[Stephen Borud]

The 40/50 BN is a fun little cartridge to shoot, easy on lead and powder. I have a friends 40-65 at the house. Waiting on him to order a bullet mold. I loaded up 10 rounds with my 265 grain bullet thinking we would fire a few today but he got busy! Maybe in a few more weeks.

Stephen

[Caprock]

The ODG saw something they liked in the 40 SBN but modern times haven't been kind to bottlenecks in general. Likewise with the 40 SBN which suffers from having its nose rubbed in the dirt by a well known writer and the rep has stuck. Namely that it is prone to create hard fouling in front of the chamber whereby accuracy suffers. I think using the cartridge as designed, i.e. paper patched, and with a grease cookie takes care of the so-called carbon ring or least I don't have a problem with it. The rifle likes 70gr of Kik 1.5, .60 veg wad, 3/16 grease cookie, 030 wad, and a 400 gr tapered bullet out of a Brooks adjustable mold. Not searing accuracy cause my eyes don't get there but a minute and a half group is average. I don't have a space to shoot more than 200 so can't tell you what the long range prospects are. The worst problem from the start was getting uniform cases as the first Baco were very inconsistent in headspace and overall length. Later ones with properly stretched RP 45-70's are really good! I'll get a pic up in a day or so but it's a #3 ordered in 87 and received in 91. Bound and determined to be historically correct, I ordered a 44-77 to start with but got cold feet over the lack of components available back then and changed the order midway to another caliber first offered by Sharps....the 40-70 sbn. Happily, I did order a 44 a few years ago and now am looking for a 50-70 to round out the stable of cartridges first offered by Sharps in their sporting rifles.

If I were strictly a target shooter I probably wouldn't mess with a SBN, however, I bought them for the experience so I have no regrets in selecting the round. Its fun to shoot...my rifle weighs in at 10.25 lbs and as with any rifle having the military buttplate it will bite you even in this caliber if you're not on a suitable bench or rest. Thats possibly my only regret...not getting a shotgun buttplate or even the Express type stock profile aka RoughRider but then that wouldn't have been historically accurate...an affliction thats cost me a helluva lots of money!!!

[bobw]

The ODG saw something they liked in the 40 SBN but modern times haven't been kind to bottlenecks in general. Likewise with the 40 SBN which suffers from having its nose rubbed in the dirt by a well known writer and the rep has stuck. Namely that it is prone to create hard fouling in front of the chamber whereby accuracy suffers. I think using the cartridge as designed, i.e. paper patched, and with a grease cookie takes care of the so-called carbon ring or least I don't have a problem with it.

I think you hit it dead on the head here. Shooting Fg in mine and never have had the hard fouling problem either. One hell of a lot of Sharps Mid Range rifles were chambered for this round way before the 40-70 SS came out. Tight original style sharps chamber and ppb with lube wads is the answer for this round. I have to neck size each time to hold a patch to bore bullet for mine and sure wish that didn't need to happen at all. The original 330 ppb's were tapered but I use a .392" patched to.399" with good accuracy in mine. bobw