Gentlemen one and all.

Thank you for your responses and I think i am beginning to see "'the wood for the trees".
I have several  1 lb pots of Alliant UNIQUE which says on the pot "Most versatile powder made, good in all popular pistol calibres". Made with pride in the U.S.A."

It does indeed suit my ML Nitro converted muzzle loading revolvers and my 94 Winchester carbine.

In the table of relative burn rates kindly pointed out by oneatatime,UNIQUE appears as No 32  out of 150 meaning it is, I assume, quite a fast powder.

As a complete ignoramus, should I assume this is NOT good for a long .45 /  32" barrel.

Conversely Vita Vuori ( of which I have a a goodly supply), appears at No 101 of 150, meaning it is slower.

I use 38 grains of this in my  1898 Long Lee Enfield .303 and my 1918 SMLE .303. very successfully. (a Lady Friend of mine got  five out of ten in the black at 1000 yards at Bisley, with the' Long Lee' rifle resting on  her haversack. (vernier rear sight).

Therefor, would this be a better powder for the Sharps with its even longer barrel and heavier bullet ?????

Going back to Unique, 12 grains has been suggested but bullet wt. not specified and, 25 grains of 5744 (burn rate 68 in the table) with a 405 bullet. and at about the same burn rate, 4198,   24/28 grains and 405 bullet.

BUT, sheutzenmiester says he read 24 Grains of 2400, (57 in the table), would blow up a trapdoor. (but they are weaker than a falling block I gather).

Before I found this site and with no real knowledge I loaded
13 grains of UNIQUE behind a 410 Grain RN-FP  bullet, with little recoil and a not very good group.

I have now loaded, but not fired, 15 grains of UNIQUE behind a 530 Gn. Postell bullet. The pointy/round part, about the first half of the length, measures .442 and is like a **** in a dustbin at the muzzle end but the bottom half has four grease grooves and measures .456.

I have not 'slugged' the bore but a caliper at the front end  reads  .456 so can I take it this bullet should engage the rifling o.k. allowing for a touch of 'obduration'.

I seems to me that in future, I should look at Vita Vuori N 140, (101 in the table), as an alternative to UNIQUE,  (32 in the table), being  considerably slower burning.

Am I moving slowly in the right direction your views would be appreciated

Regards

John D

John, N140 sits between our IMR4895 and IMR4320 in the table so it shoud be usuable. For 350 to 450 grain bullets both of the IMRs can be used in the 38 to 43 grain range and be safe in our old Trapdoor Springfields so should be fine in a Sharps. I saw one reference to 40 grains of 4895 giving 1365 fps with a 405 grain bullet. If you have a chronograph and stay in the 1250 to 1350 fps ballpark with your N140 you and your shoulder should be OK,

Hi premod and oneatatime.

I have printed off the info on slugging a barrel that you suggested and will give it a try having made a suitable slug.

4895 is faster than Vitavuori 140 so I'm encouraged to give Vitavuori 140 a try.

I do not have access to a chronograph more's the pity. I guess the people I shoot with are not quite into the high tech stuff.

With limited funds available and the difficulty of getting reloading supplies in the abundance and variety available in the U.S. I will just have to 'trial and error' with what is to be obtained.

I really did not want to risk damaging what to me was a huge investment and I think joining this forum has been well worth while in view of the information that has been forthcoming.

Many thanks

John D

Another thing about the possible dangers of using the burn rate charts besides the changing characteristics with loading of different types is that you cannot see how big the 'jumps' are between any two groups of powder. While experimenting, you may look at two or three that seem to be just a wee bit faster, say, than the last one and then go to the forth and find that the small increment is now a big leap faster. Stay safe out there boys.

John, I think Viht N-140 might be a little on the slow side even with that heavy Postell bullet. The program I run shows low efficiency and only burning about 80 or so percent with the bullet against the lands. It is worse for the light bullet. I might try N-133 or even N-130 depending on how fast you want to go. Loading density goes down as you try to slow it up and faster powder usually does better. For what it's worth. Thanks, ratseye

Gentlemen,

Since many of you kindly offered advice on Smokeless loads for my Sharps 45/70, I thought I should note the results of my experiments so far.

Having put 45 rounds down range in groups of five, all slightly different, the best results so far, (albeit at only 125 yds.), have been.

28 gn. of 4198 under a 535 gn Postell soft lead bullet.   0.6 gn Cotton wool and thin card wad. Federal 215 Magnum Primer  3 holes virtually touching, the remaining 2 at  1- 1/2"  and 2 1/2" off.

14 gn Unique under 412 gn RNFP  0.6 gn cotton wool and thin card wad. Federal 210 Primer.  2 touching,  remaining 3 within 1- 1/2".

15 gn Unique under 535 gn Postell  a  Fed 210 Primer.            
      2- 1/2" group.
NO cotton wool OR wad.

4198 used in five out of the nine details always seemed to leave unburned powder in the barrel.

The four groups using Unique did not.

Probably not great results but then I'm not that good a shot with this rifle yet, trigger control could improve and the bull had a lot of daylight round it in the foresight aperture ring. Might try the insert with the very fine cross hairs next time.

Now to see how it performs with Swiss No 3.

John D