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BLACK POWDER: OF SPOTS SOFT AND SORE

BLACK POWDER

Three “Big .50” cartridges surrounded by a heavy buffalo rifle in that caliber, as well as skinning knives and other emblems of the era.

OF SPOTS SOFT AND SORE

The 'Big .50' Sharps is an interesting cartridge for history buffs and buffalo-hunting-era rifle fans.

STORY AND PHOTOS BY MIKE NESBITT

The “Big .50” Sharps has teased a soft spot in my heart, as well as created a sore spot on my shoulder, for over 40 years. When I started “Sharps shooting” with my first Sharps rifle, that was the caliber or cartridge I chose. At the time, that wasn’t a bad choice because I was mainly interested in hunting. But now my interests are much more in favor of target work and competitive shooting, areas where the Big .50 Sharps might not be the best choice for several reasons – its size and recoil topping the list.

Before getting into my shooting tales with this cartridge, let me clarify that the Big .50 Sharps is what we commonly call the .50-90, or the .502½-inch Sharps. There is a larger .50-caliber cartridge that is usually credited to Sharps and that is the .50-140, or the .50-3¼-inch. While Sharps rifles can be found with that chambering, the .50-140 didn’t appear until 1882 or so, at least a year after the

With its 30-inch barrel, author Mike Nesbitt’s ’74 Sharps by C. Sharps Arms weighs 14 pounds.

Sharps company closed its doors. So, the .50-140 really shouldn’t be referred to as an original Sharps cartridge.

Calling the .50-90 a Sharps cartridge is correct, even though that was never a Sharps loading. Sharps never loaded their .50-2½-inch cartridge with less than 100 grains of powder, so it should be remembered as the .50-2½-inch Sharps, as was commonly designated on the rifle barrels. And, just to make the water surrounding this cartridge a little muddier, Sharps also loaded their .502½-inch cartridge with heavier charges of powder, depending on the bullet weight. The .50-90 loading was a very popular load for the Sharps rifles from Union Metallic Cartridge Company, which fired a 473-grain paper-patched bullet. The UMC loading was popular enough that the .50-2½-inch Sharps cartridge became generally known as the .50-90.

THE .50-90 WAS introduced in 1872 and the first rifle of that caliber left the Sharps factory in August of that year. Its primary intended purpose was for bu alo hunting and it is interesting that one noted bu alo hunter, J. Wright Mooar, had two rifles of this caliber, which should still be in the family. Another hunter of note, Jim White, had three of the heavy .50-caliber rifles, according to O.P. Hanna, White’s partner in Montana. White’s rifles were stolen when he was murdered in 1880, so Hanna’s story is all we have left. One of the most remembered bu alo hunters was Billy Dixon and it is said that he used a borrowed .50-90 to make his famous long shot that brought an end to the Battle of Adobe Walls in 1874.

Sharps’ Big .50 certainly had the power, and it was said that more oneshot kills on bu alo could be made with it than with any other rifle. At the same time, the .50-90 had some drawbacks. The biggest drawback was its accuracy and we have found no record of it being used for long-range, or Creedmoor, competition. In fact, it was said that the Sharps .44s could do at 1,000 yards what the .50s could only do at 600 yards. That might be a factual comparison, as the .44-caliber rifles, as well as the later .45s, were certainly recognized for their superior accuracy.

But even as a rifle for bu alo hunting, the .50-90s were made in rather small numbers. In his highly detailed book, Sharps Firearms: Volume II, Roy Marcot estimates that only about 320 Sharps sporting rifles were made in this impressive caliber. That estimate is probably pretty close and it was made after extensive research. If you recall, the .50-90 was introduced in mid-1872 and it was discontinued as a standard caliber by Sharps in early 1876 when the .45-caliber rifles, both the .45-70 and what we today call the .45-110 Sharps, were introduced. After the company’s move to Bridgeport, Connecticut, in 1876, the .50-90 was still available but only on special order.

What this might mean is that it’s very likely that more .50-90s are in use today than there were back during “the great bu alo harvest.” That’s just a guess on my part because I have not contacted either C. Sharps Arms or Shiloh about the number of Big .50s they have made.

FOR SHOOTING WITH the Big .50, I prefer to load my ammo basically the same way it was loaded back in the 1870s, whether by the ammunition companies or by the bu alo hunters right in camp, with black powder and paper-patched bullets. To make those loads, a list of certain ingredients is needed, and we’ll talk about the items on that list in detail.

First let’s talk about the brass cases for the .50-2½-inch, and those are

The 2½-inch-long case of the .50-90 towers over a .50-70 cartridge.

currently on the list at Starline. There are some other custom brassmakers, such as Roberson Cartridge Company and Bu alo Arms Company, but Starline is a prominent outfit with a good product. Brass by Starline is also probably the easiest to find. Check availability at starlinebrass.com. The Starline brass for the .50-90 is well made, properly head-stamped, and accepts standard large rifle primers.

Next, let’s select a favorite black powder. I recently used Swiss 1½ Fg, just 90 grains of it. I say “just” 90 grains because the .50-90 case can certainly hold more. The old Sharps loading could be easily copied by using 100 grains of powder. If I found the heavier powder charge to have advantages, I’d certainly use it. My recent loads with the 90 grains of Swiss loaded very nicely with no need for compression of the powder.

Over the powder, we’d want a fiber wad. I used the .060-inch-thick wads

Here’s Nesbitt’s five-shot group fired with paper-patched 473-grain bullets. “More shooting and perhaps tweaking of the load should produce a better group, along with some sight adjustment,” he writes.

from John Walters. He has a very wide selection of wads with other thicknesses available. I pretty much use the .060-inch wads as standard.

Then we’d need some bullets. Let me recommend the swaged bullets for paper-patching from Bu alo Arms Company. It’s good to try some of those, along with getting some patching paper, before buying an expensive bullet mold to make your own. Trying some bullets of di ering diameters will also give you some good hints on what diameter you want a bullet mold to cast.

My own choice of mold is from KAL Tool & Die (kal.castpics.net) in Winnipeg, Manitoba. They make a very impressive adjustable mold for the Sharps paper-patched bullet with the Sharps style of nose. This bullet style is basically a copy of the old Sharps bullet and the adjustable feature is an added bonus. In my rifle, because of the barrel’s rate of twist, heavier bullets would probably perform with greater accuracy, but because I am more interested in duplicating the old loads, my mold is adjusted to cast bullets weighing 473 grains. Those tapered bullets have a diameter near the base of .498 inch, although smaller diameters can be ordered.

After casting, the bullets are patched with two wraps of patching paper, available from Bu alo Arms. The paper is .002 inch thick and the double wrapping gives the bullets an overall diameter of .506 inch at the base, with the front of the bullet slightly smaller so it enters the rifling very easily.

Before the bullets are seated in the cases, a lube wad approximately 1/8inch thick – made by BPC Lube and available from C. Sharps Arms – is put over the wad, which is over the powder. That is to keep the black powder fouling soft. Then the bullets are inserted with fingertips, not with the seating die. Push the bullets down over the lube wad, pushing just hard enough so some of the lube is forced into the cup base of the bullet. After that, the loaded cartridges can be run through a taper crimp die just to remove the “bell” of the case mouths and to firmly hold the paper-patched bullets in place.

I PREPARED JUST five .50-90 cartridges like that and took the 14-pound rifle to the range. I fired at a 100-yard target, depending on the old sight setting for getting some shots on paper. The fiveshot group was on the edge of the black, to the bottom right of the bull’s-eye. More shooting and perhaps tweaking of the load should produce a better group, along with some sight adjustment. That might be done sometime soon, maybe for another story.

Several legends about the Big .50 Sharps remain, long after the days of bu alo hunting have passed. Many of those legends are supported with well-documented facts. We can easily assume that the .50-90 holds the record for one-shot kills on bu alo. That’s why I always say, “There’s nothing like a .50.” 

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