1859 Sharps Carbine - historical questions

[Tangle Eye]

I finally got to the range to shoot my new 1859 Sharps carbine this afternoon.  Fun - I love it. Its probably all in my head but this rifle seems a bit more "laid back" than my BP cartridge rifles.  I guess its just a state of mind cause I expect such pinpoint accuracy from the big Sharps, Browning, and Remmington Roller with all the fancy sights and stuff. The carbine with standard sights shooting at short distance is just fun - and suprisingly accurate with my first attempt at paper cartridges and using bullets that weren't quite made for the gun but will do in a pinch.

I did have a little problem with the CCI Musket caps not firing consistently.  I'm not sure if I may have a bad batch of caps or if there's a problem with the nipple in some way.  I've ordered a different nipple and some RWS caps to try out to improve the firing regularity.

Anyway -- since my great-great-grandfather probably used one of these at least in the latter part of the War Between the States I'd like to learn more about the rifle's actual field use.  Does anybody know what type bullet and actual powder load were supposed to be used in the rifle by the military? Was there a standard military way to load it? That is did they use loose bullets with paper powder cartridges or were the paper cartridges attached to the bullet as a unit?  Anybody have any info about this stuff?

[Tommy tornado]

A good place to start looking is www.n-ssa.org .  On the bulletin board you can search the archives and find some information.  Don't think it is still up and running but www.civilwarguns.com used to be a good site for information.  Otherwise look up a fellow named Joe Bilby.  He wrote an excellent book on Civil War firearms.  I believe he writes for a CW reenacting rag about civil war guns.

[SGT John Chapman]

That flash has a ways to travel in those Sharps rifles make sure it's VERY clean and use just as hot a cap as you can find,......

[Tangle Eye]

Right you are - I fooled around with some loose powder charges last weekend and the Dynamit-Nobel caps would not light a 30 or 40 grain charge at all (I was pretty surprised). As a matter of fact - ignition was pretty unreliable with these no matter what powder charge I used. I was out of CCI musket caps by this time but I had shot some earlier - they seem obviously hotter than the Dynamit-Nobel ones.  Of course just about any cap will set off the Enfield - but not the Sharps.