I had the Pedersoli percussion Sharps. It was well made, if just a bit 'rougher', especially the stock, than the Shilo Sharps.
; The 3-1/4" cases are difficult to load for with smokeless powders. This matters not if they are .45 or .50 as fillers seem to be a necessity in them.
: The 2-7/8" case is much better & actually holds 120gr. 2F. A 2' or 3' drop tube is used in loading to get the best compaction of BP so it burns better, giving the best ballistics. a FED215 primer is also suggested for more even velocities.
: Lyman's cast bullet book has data, or was it the #46? I have all, but could only easily lay my hands on the #47 this AM, which didn't have the .45x3-1/4" data when I checked.
: We had good results in my Bro's .45 3-1/4" Shilo, with its 2-1/2 thou rifling, suing jacketed 300gr. Hornady bullets. Using 62gr. Reloader#7, it gave 2,200fps and exited on a broadside, double lung shot on a bull moose at approximately 70yards. the moose walked a small circle and fell dead. other years, he used a 100gr. BP load with 8(I believe) 1/10" card wads, then a 460gr. (Lee mould) cast bullet as well as 100gr.2F BP and Lyman #462560 mould csting a 560gr. flatnosed bullet. Both these case bullets exited their moose, dropping them within a step of impact. Both heavier cast bullets exited as well as a 500gr. Hornady RB jacketed with the saem 100gr. powder and card wads to compress the powder. The 500gr. shot into 1" and less, every time he targeted it at 100meters.(tang sight and pin-head front.
; We got the long case to shoot, but it took some trials and much error in loading it. About 7 years were combined to find the good loads - it was a long period of poor shooting in it's shallow rifling barrel.
; Jacketed bullets seemed to be the only thing capable of tight grouping, until we tried undersized paper patched pure lead bullets, patched to .451" max dia. With 100gr. 2F, the card wads, lube wad and the udnersized bullets, the rifle then shot into the same groups as jacketed- that being 1" and less at 100meters.
: Cleaning those long cases is a pain.
Pictured, is the 4 cavity .44 mag mould we re-bored to cast .440" smoothsided bullets in 440gr. and 540gr. 2 Wrapps of .003" paper brought them to .451" which easily seated up into the rifling and gave consecutive shot accuracy when using a lube wad separated from the powder by a disk of waxpaper. This allowed the powder to melt the lube and coat the bore with the BP lube, which softened the fouling, allowing many shots without any fouling problems. Alox lubes shot with hard crusty fouling. 60:40 Beeswax/Vaseline lube shot cleanly as did SPG. The paper patch was rubbed with SPG in concert with the lube ball.
: I should add that Taylor's Sharps shot best when loaded as a .45 2-7/8"(.45/100) with wads taking up the extra space.
: My RBlock in the same chambering, preferred 120 to 125gr.2F. with the same bullets.
: The 2.5" .50 is a much better proposition for all hunting, now that they are using a faster twist. Either 100gr.2f or with low pressure smokeless loads to 4,000FPE.(in my most humble opinion, of course)