CowboyTutt wrote: ↑Thu Oct 20, 2022 3:47 pm
I thought I would look and see if there was any data for the 50-140 cartridge in Quick Load already. Doesn't appear to be although I could pretty easily modify another 50 caliber I think (50-70 was in there but it's the "auto" one?) Anyhow, your not interested in going smokeless I know, but it would be a fun project for some of us.
Earl, if you get a chance, can you search your copy of QL and see if I'm reading that right? I looked under cartridges in 0.500 and 0.510 size and "no love". I still don't know the program that well really. I'm a little surprised nothing in there on it.
-Tutt
I have found smokeless data at Accurate for the .50-140, but all the data is for pretty hot loads. Not so hot the Sharps can't handle it, but I'm not a fan of recoil, and the loads were in the 1600-2000 fps range. I have run the .500 Nitro Express, which is almost identical through y Gordon's Reloading program, and worked up loads for smokeless and IMR4198 with a 425 gr. bullet that are around 1400 fps. But everything I work up states the loads have around a 75% burn rate, and may have a fair amount of deviation in velocity between shots. So it appears you'd have to run the loads up hotter with smokeless to get consistency. I may revisit smokeless once I've wrung out a good BP load.
My letter from Dick Labowskie showed up yesterday. It confirms some of what his email said, but also adds info, and shows some different info than what he originally offered. Or clarifies the info.
In the letter he states that Carlos Gove and JP Lower bought a large amount of these "A" rifles in February 1880, but he clarified that they were competitors at that time, so Sharps sent separate shipments to the two separate shops, not one shipment. He didn't reveal how many guns were sent to each, so no idea how many they bought. But the guns were all pretty basic versions with little special order features since they were assembled from leftover parts. Sharps was in financial trouble at the time, and headed towards bankruptcy, so whatever they could toss together they did.
The letter also states my Sharps left the factory as a .45-70, so appears it got rebored, or rebarreled at a later date to be the .50-140 it is now. I suspected it would not be as it left the factory since "A" rifles were bare bones and this is pretty deluxe.