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Sharps barrel info needed
hairface
Member Posts: 17 ✭✭
Will a barrel off a Pedersoli sharps fit on an original sharps carbine? I was told they were both threaded the same but have since been told different, maybe just to sell me a new barrel? Any info would be a help.
Comments
I seem to remember that the threads on the original Sharps were 10 square therads to the inch, but, I can't remember the size of the shank and I can't find my references at the moment. I think the shank diameter was 1.125",but I am not sure. I don't know what the size of the Pedersoli barrel is or the shape of the thread.
It depends entirely on which pedersoli barrel you have in mind.
the inch pattern barrel should thread into the sharps reciever. Later Pedersoli sharps are metric pattern and will not fit without extensive rework. If the barrel is inch, depending on production date, it may still require some modification, and will in any case, require fitting to the Sharps reciever. Unless highly skilled, refer this job to a custom rifle smith. I did this project five years ago. It got an old Sharps smokin again, .45-120-505, and with a 34 inch barrel, it will reach out there. Hope this helps.
One thing however, Sharps never chambered their rifles for any of the 3-1/4" cartridge cases such as the .45-120-550-3-1/4 inch case. These long cases were brought out by Winchester in the late 1880's after the Sharps company had gone out of business. While some Sharps will be found chambered for these cartridges, it was done after the rifles left the Sharps factory. The longest cartridge case ever chambered by the Sharps company was the .45-110-2-7/8 inch case.
I really don't mean to sound like a smart *, but have you tried to screw the barrel into the action? I would think that you would know right away if it will fit or not. To set the headspace you may have to remove some metal from the barrel shoulder, on the other hand, if the shank is to long you will have to remove metal from the rear of the barrel and then recut the chamber and the recess for the rim and also for the extractor.
Yeah I know. I decided since the gun was no longer original and therefore, no collector value, I would take creative liberty with it. Pedersoli, took great pains to dulicate the sharps, and remained as true as possible to original dementions and specs. There are sources for sharps barrels, rather barrels for sharps, Douglas springs to mind. Early productions Pedersoli's were near carbon copies, later they switched to the metric pattern, I suppose the metric system just worked better for their purposes. My current Sharps project, by the way, will be chambered .50-150-575. Should be a blast,,,no pun intended.
This subject still intrigues me. I own almost two dozen original Sharps rifles and carbines and I am always looking for parts. As many members of the forum may recall, I have talked about my model 1877 Sharps No.1 long range target rifle here on the forum several times.
As to replacement barrels, I always liked Badger barrels better then Douglas. I had the barrel on a model 1878 Sharps-Borchardt replaced with a new .45-70 Badger barrel and they did an excellent job. This rifle came to me literally in pieces and working on it part time, it took nearly a year to put it all back together. Loaded with 65 grains of FFg black powder and a 420 grain paper patched bullet this rifle keep all it's shots in 1 inch and sometimes less, at 100 yards and I use it for black powder cartridge silhouette matches.
I hope that you plan to use black powder in that huge case, as smokeless powder is not really very efficient in a case of that volume.
Best of luck with your project.
Scout
I would never use smokeless powder in any of my Sharps,Sprindfield,Spencer or Henry rifles. Hell the cloud of smoke
is half the fun of shooting them. Especially, when waiting to see if the steel target you set up at 600 yards is still standing or not.
Over the years I have managed to gather together a large inventory of parts for these old rifles. I use them as patterns to reproduce usable parts for repairs and resorations. I use a CNC machining center to reproduce the things I need for incomplete rifles or broken parts.As I mentioned earlier, the first 3 or 4 years, Pedersoli was nearly obssesed with carbon copy perfection in their Sharps rifles. I suppose the cost of production and tooling factored into the changes.
They are still the finest reproduction, in my opinion, out there. The parts from these early examples were about as close as you will find to original parts. Unfortunately, these have been all but exhausted,except of course, for the ocational used barrel, hammer, breach block, etc. If I can assist in a parts quest, please don't hesitate to ask. I may well have it or can reproduce it.
Kill all the lawyers and the world will be much better for it.