[John Rogers]

4 or 5 years ago when I still had my black powder 45-70 Sharps and an original Rolling Block I was at the range and young fellow (AR-15 shooter) showed up at our range with an original Sharps 50-140! He had a dozen cases (huge) and couple dozen cast lead bullets but no primers or black powder and he wanted to shoot his great grandfather's rifle. S000000 I primered up half a dozen cases and went with nearly a full load of Goex FFG black powder. The cases had been expanded some so we could just push the bullet in after a card wad on top of the powder.

The rifle weighed about 16 pounds so we sat it on a couple sandbags and pulled the trigger. I thought the whole 300 yard range moved back about a yard or so and it took 20 seconds for the huge cloud of smoke to clear! Since the guy was 6 foot 2 he decided to shoot it off hand and he was actually able to manage it although muzzle rise was substantial! Not until we were all done did think of shooting a video, but he decided he had enough.