Another Special One For Higgins

tabs · 12-15-2008, 12:35 PM

This little number is another one right up Higgins alley...

Just picked this little spoon up on Sunday. A nice C Sharps Custom 1874 Sharps spoon. The caliber is 50/90, 30 inch #2 Heavy Badger Match Barrel (Hartford Collar), pewter forend, Soule Midrange Tang Sight and Globe Front Sight. The rifle comes with shells and reloading dies...this spoon was bought in 2004. I got it for a little over 50 cents on the USD. Which really is the best way to buy these things..

tabs · 12-15-2008, 01:34 PM

Also on Sunday I picked up a 1938 S42 Luger spoon, with matching number & one matching number mag, the 2nd does not match. Holster and US GI Bring Back Certificate dated 1946. Roughly 95% plus condition...got that for about half the going rate at an estate in LODI...only about 6 or 7 spoons in the auction.

I stumbled on this one...friend down in ole Mississippi is hot for the Lugers and is always showing this or that...so I got interested, saw this on in the chattle list and checked it out..decided to bid and got it cheap...

At one of the auctions this wekeend a 1916 DWM Luger 95% plus with 2 matching mags and holster was at $3400.00 before the end of the auction. The matching mags really drive the price on these things...as in doubling the price..

Jeff Higgins · 12-15-2008, 02:03 PM

Very nice Sharps, tabby. That .50-90, aka .50-2.5, or "Big Fifty", has got to be one of the nastiest black powder cartridges to actually fire, however. Especially when loaded with the proper 650-75- grain bullets. I know a few guys who thought they would make great long range match rifles, due to the high ballistic coefficient and bullet weight. They all gave up. Some wuite shooting them years ago and are still flinching...

Just one minor, nit picky correction - that is not a Soule pattern sight. It's a Sharps adaptation long range sight. Sharps added the windage adjustment on the rear sight a few years after beginning production on it , as their originals had none. Windage was originally adjusted on the front sight. Sharps' adaptation works well enough, but since the eyepiece moves between the vertical legs of the staff, it is very limited in windage adjustment. It only has about ten minutes either way. It is also lacking the precision inherent in the micrometer barrel of the Soule pattern.

Lots of romance and history associated with the Big Fifty. The Hartford collar and forearm lend a bit of class as well. Nice rifle.

tabs · 12-15-2008, 03:09 PM

I had a 50/140 Shiloh LR Express....that was brutal, left a bruise on the shoulder even with a slip on Pachmeyer recoil pad...that bullet sounded like a howizer whizzing out there.

So a 50/90 is going to be mild by comparison. and with the heavier barrel...it ought to dampen the recoil...

We shall see..that is probably why the guy decided to sell it...to much yank..

I kept the RCBS 50/585 mold for it along with a bunch of Bell 50 Basic Brass and bullet sizing die..always with the thought of getting a 50/90 one day...so I saw the oportunity and decided the price was right so why not give it a try.

The caliber of choich for the LR Creedmore matches back in the day was 44/100 and then the 45/100....so 50/90 is going to be in that league.

tabs · 12-15-2008, 03:13 PM

Also going to use FFG and not FFFG...big difference in recoil...

Jeff Higgins · 12-15-2008, 07:13 PM

Some guys have gone to Fg in the really big boomers. 50-90, .45-100, and .45-110. They claim increased accuracy and reduced fouling and recoil. The only way to reduce recoil in these guns (with bullet weight a constant) is to reduce velocity. The use of Fg in the big cases does just that. So, what's the point? Seems to me they would accomplish the same thing with FFg in the .45-70 or .45-90 using FFg. That is all they are really doing, is hamstringing the bigger cases down to lesser performance levels. So, hell yeah - load that Big Fifty up with FFg behind that 585 grain RCBS, and let it "speak" with all its authority. Billy Dixon would be proud.

tabs · 12-16-2008, 01:04 PM

When your punching paper it doesn't matter how many extra ft lbs you have.

vash · vash's Garage

you ever shoot these things?

Jeff Higgins · 12-16-2008, 02:10 PM

Wind drift, tabby, think wind drift. Heavier for caliber bullets, with their higher ballistic coefficients, don't stray as far from the intended path for a given side wind. Makes it far easier to stay on target in gusting, unpredictable winds. In no wind or a steady wind it makes no difference, but we rarely have the chance to shoot in either at long range (1,000 yards).

The bigger cases come into their own by launching heavier bullets at the same velocities as the smallers cases can launch lighter bullets. For example, my .45-100 will start either a 540 grain Paul Jones Creedmoor bullet or a 550 grain Hoch at almost 1,300 fps with 90 grains of Swiss 1.5 Fg (equivilent to GOEX 2 Fg). To achive those velocities in the .45-70, I have to drop down to the Lymann #457193, a 420 grain bullet. The .45-70 will barely break 1,100 fps with either of the two heavier bullets, and is actually not even legal for NRA long range at that velocity (.45's have to start a 500 grain or heavier bullet at 1,200 fps of more, due to impact angle in the target pits). The ballistic coefficient of the two heavier bullets is somewhere in the high .400's, approaching .500. The 420 grain bullet is in the low .300's. The difference in long range performance is very noticable.

So, you are quite right in that foot pounds of energy mean nothing in target shooting. However, aerodynamic performance does. That is what we are after with the heavy bullets. And it takes more powder to launch those heavey bullets at the desired velocities. It has to be the right powder, though. Fg often wont give those heavy bullets the velocity they need, even from the biggest cases. Best to stick with FFg (GOEX) or 1.5 Fg (Swiss).