http://www.levergunscommunity.com/viewt ... =2&t=46806
I was fortunate enough, especially given that I’ve been so busy I have barely been able to make it to the forum once a week in the past two months, to jump on his post early and I bought several of the items he posted, including some .45-120 Sharps rounds.
As luck would have it (and something I didn’t figure out until I was on the plane), I ended up spending the night less than 5 miles from his house the next day while on a business trip. I got a chance to drop by, unannounced, and caught Jason at home. It’s always great to meet a fellow levergunner, and it was nice to be able to pay him in person for my purchase – even if I couldn’t carry it home with me that day (airlines frown on loaded ammunition in carry-on’s!).
Jason recommended that I pull the bullets on these rounds, as he was not the original owner, and wasn’t sure who or how they had been loaded. Having damaged a gun using someone else’s reloads, that was my plan all along. No way I wanted to risk my Pedersoli Sharps 1874 reproduction! I figured, we were only talking 29 rounds, and I have a kinetic bullet puller, so no problem, right?
Right.
We’ll, here’s what they looked like to start.
You can see some of the cases were a bit more corroded than others.
Not damaged, just “crudded-up”.
Apparently, someone (other than Jason) attempted to pull the bullets, and managed to mangle two cases and left half a bullet in one of the cases!
Well, so I figured I’d use my Midway/Frankfort Arsenal kinetic bullet puller:
No problem, right? Like I said, “right”..
After about 30 whacks, the bullet finally dropped free. But wait a minute – it didn’t look like that beforehand!
Oh crud – the kinetic hammer (“puller”) isn’t long enough!
Well, I figured I could just shine the brass by hand, and did so to prove they cleaned up fine. They did - but that doesn’t solve the issue about the loading and risking my Sharps.
So, I figured I would just “get my Pitchy on”, and make myself a new kinetic bullet hammer/puller! Here are the parts, unassembled. ¾” galvanized steel piping.
Putting the puller together:
Using the shell holder from the other puller:
Putting the shell in the new puller:
2 good whacks and she’s out!
Now, that was more like it!
Bullet pulled – no harm, no foul:
A little friction tape, and she’s done:
Took no time to pull them all. Glad I did too. Discovered that several of the cartridges had vastly different amounts of power in them. I am going to weigh some of these I saved in bags just to see what variation I was looking at. All of the rounds used a cardboard card between the powder and bullet – except for three, which used two felt wads per case. In about half the cases, the blackpowder charge was compressed so tightly that the charge wouldn’t drop out without me using a pick to knock it out.
In any case, I was after the brass, which I got. I’ll deprime them next weekend, and also clean them up in the vibratory cleaner. I will be able to reuse about 50% of the bullets, and will recast the rest. Y2K has never fired the Sharps reproduction, so I better get these loaded soon!
When you got a problem you got to hang in there and keep on Pitchin'.
You guys are funny, good job there pard 
