Paper patch load in the 1874 Sharps

[myfriendis410]

I've been playing with this for a couple of months and have a couple of loads that look encouraging. I was intrigued by paper patching because of the limited and diminishing supply of wheelweights, and this allows me to use range lead and achieve jacketed velocities with similar accuracy potential. The load is stout at around 1,450 fps using a Lyman cast round nose, cast from range lead and tin, weight sorted and sized to .452, patched up and sized/lubed to .4580". There is an overpowder card as well. The gun is a Pedersoli "Billy Dixon" fitted with a tang sight and the groups were shot off sandbags at 100 yards. I can't account for the one flyer--maybe an inclusion in that bullet. The other four rounds went into 1/2". I can live with that......