1859 pedersoli sharps ignition problems

[hja4941]

Hello I recently purchased one of the 1859 Uberti Sharps military rifles. I finally took it out to the range today. I loaded paper cartridges with Swiss 2 f 70 grain charge and folded the bottom of the nitrated paper over the base one time. With this one layer of paper the cartridges would not fire. When I pinched off the base I could get them to fire, but very inconsistently. I was using CCI 4 wing musket caps.

I would apreciate any help on this as the five shots which did fire, made one ragged hole from 25 yards.

 

[BHP FAN]

Mine had some stupid tiny plastic bb's in the blast hole, wich I finally blew out by putting a pinch of 4f in under the nipple, and firing with a musket cap.

 

[rocky branch]

These guns are finicky-prolly why it was a short lived design.
Good advice to ream out the touchhole.
Anothe issue in itself is the chamber insert.
It is too long to extract for cleaning-care must be taken to keep it free moving.
There is a fix, but it involves removing the barrel and it costs $.
They cut the sleeve in half and join them with O rings.
This way it can be removed for cleaning.

I love charcoal burners, but the come with a price.

 

[BHP FAN]

mine is not finicky at all...once I got the packing material [or what ever it was] blown out of the blast hole.

 

[hja4941]

Thanks for the information. I cleaned out the firing chanel when I got home and found nothing in it. I'll try reaming out the touch hole.

 

[BHP FAN]

Before you go reaming it out, try my method...blowing it out with a pinch of powder. there may be some crud your cleaning missed...at least, that was the case with mine.

 

[hja4941]

Makes sense. I'll try blowing it out first.

 

[arcticap]

Could the way that the cartridges are assembled have anything to do with it?
The 80 grain paper cartridges in this video are tied off at the bottom, and he could be using more heavily nitrated paper that he made himself.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WuGzA1-HbNo