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The Sharps is working

homebrew.357

Aluminum
Joined
Nov 4, 2013
Location
New Zealand
Hi all, thought I would give an update on my Quigley down under Sharps rifle. I an having a heap of fun shooting her and just shot it in a metallic silhouette shoot using black powder and got the first pic of me firing the beast. I`m only using lead bullets 420gr with bl/k and 3031 nitro loads. Will be giving some 500gr bullets a try soon to see if it likes them, Cheers, Homebrew.357.
P1020847.jpg, Lining up on the rams.
image1.jpg, The Sharps in full roar.
P1020846.jpg, those darn things are hard to hit.
 
Its great when you finally get to shoot a gun you made yourself.And not just fitted a barrel and wood,but the whole thing.I made myself a Starr carbine replica,but I closed the business before it was finished.Anyway its finished now,and registered,but its still smoothbore.Rifling will be the last step.Im getting a bit old for heavy recoil,but I can still hit the 300m pigs with a 577/450.
 
That's really cool. Building a sharps 45/70 is one of the reasons i purchased a mill and am buying a lathe. Can I ask where you found the plans for it at and would you do anything differently? Congrats on your build, Ty
 
Ive built a couple of old time single shots using no more than the drawings in De Haas book....."Singleshot rifles and actions"........note I said actions......the hard part is the lock,and IMHO this is best purchased complete and working....Track of the Wolf come to mind.
 
Hi, I got the plans on Ebay, The Quigley down under 1874 Sharps it`s the original 1871/74 plans, nine sheets measured, complete full size drawings all parts. 24x36. The only part I did not make was the butt plate, re T O T W and I had the hole for the breach block done at a tool shop for a good fit. I have now upgraded my rifling setup to a sine bar system and now can get twists of 1-18" to 1-70" RIGHT hand!!!. My Hawken plains rifle has a 27" .45 barrel so thought I would try making a .50 cal swap one for the same stock. Have done it , but only 21" long, could only get a 30"gun drill and with the chip box that's only as far as I could go in. So bore is .501"/.4999", eight groves cut rifling with a 1-48" right hand twist.
P1020979.JPG, Nice deep cut rifling.
P1020984.JPG,Fits on stock .
P1020985.jpg, That's a big hole.
 
Homebrew, I've read through maybe all of your threads, including setting up the rifling and such, Very Impressive!
Is that at the old Waitemata fullbore range at Riverhead?
I'd love to buy you a drink and perv at your workshop some time
 
Hi Mihti mate, I`m in west Auckland, That is the Awakeri black powder range, went down for a fun steel shoot. I`m with the A K L deer stalkers and shoot at their riverhead range in the forest. My work shop is only half my double garage and not much gear, well, lathe, drill press and grinder, that's it. The sine bar setup is a 1m length of 1"round shaft fitted to the back of the lathe, can be raised and lowered to change twists, a slider on the shaft gives drive to the rifling cutter assembly, pic`s may help.
P1020943.jpg,Rifling head with small chain loop, slider up and down for cut rifling.
P1020944.jpg,.50 barrel being cut rifled, cutter head has come out, removing small chips.
P1020981.jpg, round barrel setup for cutting the octagonal.
 
I have made a slider with ali blocks that slides on the lathe bead ways, this is wound up and down vie a loop of bike chain. Top of the loop is bolted to the slide. On top of it is a square ali section which has a small loop of chain bolted to a slider that is forced up and down by a connection arm to the back shaft, in this loop is also a sprocket that is on the rifling rod so when large slide is moved shaft drives the rifling cutter rod. :codger:, Now have you all got that!!. pic`s.
P1020997.jpg, Looking down on to the back shaft and top assy, you can see slider with arm to top ali box that lifts it up and down.
P1020998.jpg,Back of the lathe is adjustment for twist rate and the brake cylinder slider on shaft, yes, it`s all comeinhandy bits.
P1020943.jpg,Rifling cutter rod and drive sprocket in place.
 
Homebrew,

Your threads where impressive and your results are also. Congratulations and well done.

There must be immense satisfaction building the COMPLETE, functioning rifle at your home shop after being told that it can't be done.

Vlad
 
Yep, You have got to have a hobby, keeps the old brain working and got mine going with making a front sight to fit on the barrel. Milled the V slots and used a flip up back sight I had laying around. As I was on my hunting trip I gave the .50 barrel a proof test with 90gr 2f and a 490 p ball, all`s good, just need to give it a range check to set the sights.
P1020989.JPG,Front sight on.
P1020990.JPG,Back sight set ready for range test.
 
Range report, Went to the range and tried the new .50 muzzle loader barrel out at 50m with .490" patched ball and 65grs 2f Swiss black powder. Sights are on line horizontally but 7 1/2" low, last two shots under the red patch with flip sight set at 100ys . So need to chop off .032" from front sight to get it up and online with the back sight, but not bad for a home made barrel. Cheers, homebrew.357.
P1030004.jpg,Eleven shots, bench rest.
 
Hi John, K, Your lucky, when I did the build for my two rifles I took pic`s as I build them, so if you go to www, " Making a Sharps barrel on my lathe" you will get my thread of making the Sharps barrel,/rifle. On the N Z hunting and fishing forum look at thread #3, it covers the rifling head cutter. I made the cutters out of skill saw TC tipped blades, much better than HSS, but need a diamond grind wheel to shape them. Hop this helps you. Cheers, Homebrew.357. P S, Also go back up to thread # 9 on this thread, you will see my new sine bar system for rifling.
 
No, The cutter only cuts when it is pulled through the barrel, when it comes out chips are cleared and the large nut at the end is pushed out, this pulls the inside ramp back so cutter can go down into the body. When going back it`s in a different track because of the slack in the gear train, if up it would stuff up the rifling. Remember cuts are very light , at the start on no1 slowly wind the large nut out until you get a bit of swarf/ fine cut, them do the whole six groves, each one 25 times then out a weebit more, well that's the way I do it. Mauckalee I have posted the Sharps and Hawken builds on this forum, just do a search on my past posts. P S found it, go back to #10 and look down the list, posted on the 09/25/2014.
 
I should have realized there would be considerable backlash there......I probably will use a QD arrangement for a simpler cutter,and detach after each stroke.....Ill be using hydraulics,because I have tons of the stuff going to scrap ,and the lathe I will be using is a biggie,a refugee from scrap,and would be a effort to do anything manually...I wont be drilling,but using drawn hydraulic tube as a liner and rifling that.It got a mirror internal finish,and I just need to straighten accurately,and it slips nicely into the hydraulic ram bar I have with an internal bore.Net material cost zero.The only slight catch is the hardchrome on the ram shaft is hard on tooling for the first cut.The hydraulic tube is available in sizes that finish nicely to 44 cal and 54 cal.,and each length is proof tested to around 10,000psi.
 
The best way to get rid of the chrome would be to grind it off, other than that it can be stripped in a caustic solution making the shaft the anode with a battery charger. Should be something on the net about it. Or t/c cutter and cut under the chrome on the steel first cut, the chrome will flak of, chrome is not/should not be very think, but watch the stuff on the lathe, can scratch the bedways, Hop this helps.
 
i tried dissolving the chrome with HCl,but that produces a hexavalent chromium waste solution.....gotta be very careful now of getting a "polluted site"......turning off the chrome means the swarf can just go in the rubbish.Its also a lot quicker,just a bit hard on insert life.Thirty years ago I knew guys used to paddle in chrome solutions.....best friend died of a horrible bone cancer,which I put down to chrome exposure.....he was head hardchromer for the RAAF at Amberley.....when the facility closed ,they gave him all the solutions etc,and he continued in a shed in his house yard.Years later there was a massive fuss when the creek at the airforce base was found heavily polluted with chrome waste.
 








 
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