Over in the Whitetail Forum is a picture of the deer I took on the 10th.  This thread covers the firearm used and the load/cartridge.

Below are posted several images.  The first image being my Sharps .54 caliber that uses a paper cartridge.

The next image shows the Flash Paper (fp) the dowel (b) and the single edged razor (d).  You work out the length you want the 'paper cartridge' with regard to the charge.  In this instance the charge is 60 grains of 2f... item marked (h).  You cut the paper, wrap it around dowel (b) lined up on mark (c) and put a very thin layer of Duco Cement along the edge to make a cylinder.  

While on the dowel you fold over the end and put a dab of Duco to hold the one end closed.  You charge the paper cylinder with 2f black powder (h) using powder measure (k).  You then fold over the remaining end making paper cartridge (t).  The cartridges and cast bullets are carried in the leather box on your belt in divided compartments.

To load: You lower the lever, drop the cast bullet (u) into the chamber, push in the paper cartridge (t) and raise the lever which has a sharpened upper edge.  This shears off the end of the paper cartridge and exposes the black powder to the priming flash.

The hammer is put on halfcock and a musket cap (m) is placed on the nipple.  From this point on you must depend on your own hunting skills.

Point blank range is about 100 yards and I wouldn't personally shoot with open sights over about 150 yards unless it was a large bull elk.   I would have to be pretty confident at estimating the range.  This 200 yard max shot on elk would depend on you taking the trouble to actually shoot at a target at 200 yards and find out the limit of your abilities.

Thanks for sharing that info Jay.

Thanks Quig.  You know, an interesting design feature of this rifle is the seal in the breechblock.  Here you can see plate (d) which slides into the recessed portion of the breechblock (c).  When the powder ignites, the seal moves forward against the back end of the barrel forming a relatively good seal.  This seal also provides the cutting edge that shears off the end of the paper cartridge.  The breech block is held in by the pin on the right.

The history of this little design must be interesting reading and, someday, I might try to track it down.  I'm always curious as to whether the problem is solved by an engineer or inspiration and understanding of someone who 'came up through the ranks'.

Jay,
that's a good looking rifle. What make is it? I have a friend that uses paper cartriges in his. He actually glues the paper around the base of the bullet. Any differences to the way you do it, or is it just personal preference?

That's a SILE Sharps replica Stryker and I picked it up in the 80s.  I really don't know how old it is.

My personal preference is to have a separate paper cartridge that is not attached to the bullet.  This give me a chance to change my mind and not to have to unload the rifle if I do so.  I do have the bullet always in (during hunting) as it is held in place by the lubricant.

The loading process can be done by 'feel' and you do not have to take your eyes off the game.  A musket cap is so much larger than a standard rifle cap that the cap can be put on by 'feel' as well.  The whole design is made to make it easy for the soldier (CW) and the hunter.

Jay,
If memory serves, Sile's was an importer of Italian rifles back in the 70's.

Hi All,
 
    As I understand it SILE is an Italian company who for one thing made stocks. At least two of my Parker-Hales have Sile stocks on them and I had a sporterised No1 Mk111 Enfield which also had Sile wood on it some years ago. Now I know that Sile had place in the US as they also did handgun stocks so they might have be agents and importing other Italian made arms as well. So the comapny Sile was still going at least in 1995 as my last made P-H 1200 the 7.92mm one has Sile marked wod on it if I remember correctly.

Quote from: BrithunterHi All, As I understand it SILE is an Italian company...

[/color][/size]

You know, you got me interested in finding out a little more about this rifle BH.  So I hied down to the metalshop and gave it the once over... then I did a little snooping on the internet.

OK...so SILE is simply the importer.  The manufacturer is IAB MARCHENO in Italy.  

I ran across one article that stated the author (in 2004) had his SILE import for "20 years".  That would make it 1984 and I believe I picked mine up shortly after that.  For all I know they might have been made earlier but I cannot find out one way or the other.

Dixie Gun Works (Turner Kirkland) seems to have been among the first, or maybe even the first, to go to Italy and contract with various companies to produce what was then speciality firearms.

Many different blackpowder firearms came boiling up out of Italy and, at first, we thought they all were junk.  What we didn't know was that the firearms were made to fit a specific price range.  In other words, very fine firearms could be had if one would pay the money.  

On looking over my IAB MARCHENO/SILE import I can see that it is very well made, follows the originally faithfully and performs better than I can hold.  It is stamped 'SHARPS' and I would believe it if it were really true.  Since the real thing is out of my reach I believe I will hold on to this one.

It took me awhile to understand that other countries could produce fine firearms if the price were paid.  I admit to maintaining about a 99% average for American firearms but I will not claim that all American made firearms are the best.  I will maintain that many foreign firearms (well made firearms) are over priced and rest mostly on the names that their ancestors built.  I do believe that foreign firearms manufacturers are hampered to a great extent by laws, licenses and taxes which drive up their costs.

However, given the option, I have enough knowledge of firearms in general that my 99% quota will probably stay that way.

Hi Jay,

    I do not who ws the first to go the Italy for replicar firearms production but I understand that Val Fogget of Navy Arms did so back in 1967 or 68 for the then fledgling  North-South skirmish assoc. They had terrible trouble importing an original Colt percussion pistol into Italy for the makers to copy. If  remember right it took them 6 months to chaive this, the firm chosen was not a known anme to us but it was a major contractor to Berretta. The pistols they made were in two styles of the .36 Navy, one had a steel frame which was called the "Yank" the other had the brass frame whihc was called the "Reb".
 
   I have a 5" barreled version of the Reb which according to the proof marks was made in 1968. I brought this some years ago S/H and it's surprisingly accurate and with a little precautionary grease on the cyclinder spindle can be shot many times without fouling binding up the cyclinder. he most I have shot in one session was just under 100 balls, had a few left out of a new box when we packed up due to tie constraints and no other reason:rolleyes: .
 
    Toby Bridges gives some information on this subject in a Book called:-
"Advanced Muzzle loading"
 
     Oh this might peak your interest  a certain gunsmith and dealer here has spent a fw years lining up a deal in which he has cleared some warehouse in Bleguim and gotten hold of a load of original new unfinished Twisted steel barrels of various sizes and form. Some of octagonal form which could be finised bored and rifled to make rifle barrels, some are already fitted up for S/S shotguns but need final striking off. Interesting Huh? Oh the guys name is Peter Dyson, I could not remember it whilst typing the rest it just came to me Doh!!!!!!!!!:o

Quote from: BrithunterOh this might peak your interest  a certain gunsmith and dealer here has spent a fw years lining up a deal in which he has cleared some warehouse in Bleguim and gotten hold of a load of original new unfinished Twisted steel barrels of various sizes and form. Some of octagonal form which could be finised bored and rifled to make rifle barrels, some are already fitted up for S/S shotguns but need final striking off. Interesting Huh? Oh the guys name is Peter Dyson, I could not remember it whilst typing the rest it just came to me...

[/size]

That is interesting BH, makes you wonder how many 'deals' are just sitting waiting to be discovered and put into action.

You know, I comlpletely forgot about Navy Arms when I was writing the above.  I went over to their website and it doesn't have a lot of specific information that would help out.  The site states that Navy Arms was formed in 1956 versus Dixie Gun Works in 1954.  That doesn't help out with specific dates regarding Italian contracts but Dixie claims a lot of 'firsts' on their website.  I'm going to reprint it here:
 
 
The Dixie Story, by Turner E. Kirkland

Dixie Gun Works was formally founded in 1954, but it could be said, however, that Dixie Gun Works actually began many years before. In 1931 I paid seventy five cents for a "dug" 1849 Colt Pocket pistol. My father soon realized I loved guns and began buying a few at depression prices and giving them to me. Most of the time these old guns were purchased for less than a dollar; the majority cost twenty-five to fifty cents. By the time I entered college in 1938, I owned about one hundred guns.

Following a stint in the army during World War II, with two years in the Pacific and seven service medals, I began a career as a traveling wholesale jewelry salesman, selling jewelry to department stores. Since I was seeing a lot of different towns I continued my hobby of buying and trading old guns, transactions I conducted out of the trunk of my car after business hours. Soon I found that not only were other gun lovers interested in old guns, but they were also in dire need of parts with which to repair guns they wished to shoot or restore for sentimental reasons. It didn't take long to realize that this was a way to generate income to keep my gun collection going. The contacts I made by mail and at gun shows over the years put me in touch with collectors with surplus parts and, more importantly, I knew those obscure craftsmen who were producing replacement parts for old guns.

I liked to deal in parts since through the years I was able to keep some of my own guns going by working on them.(My "amicitia" of old guns is "magnus"!) Though I am not a good repairman or even efficient at it, I do know what needs to be done to fix an old gun and how it can be done. The parts and gun business prospered until the day, Friday, April 10, 1954, when I arrived home from one of my jewelry selling trips to find that nearly all the guns and parts I had advertised had been sold. Since it took me three or four days to take care of these orders, this was the time I realized I just might be able to make a living at what had been a hobby and since I couldn't be in worse shape financially, I resigned my job as a jewelry salesman and returned the samples to the company. This was when I started working full time in my business and could be called the beginning of Dixie Gun Works. A Model T garage was the first home of Dixie Gun Works.

By the fall of 1955 the business had prospered so much that I had to purchase a 4000 square foot, former automobile dealership building. In 1960 Dixie Gun Works moved into a 12,000 square foot building built especially for the business. Eight years later, in 1968, Dixie Gun Works moved to its current location where a 30,000 square foot addition in 1974 brought the present size of Dixie Gun Works' buildings to a total of 46,000 square feet, just over an acre.

From a small ad placed in Muzzle Blasts magazine in October 1948 by a traveling jewelry salesman dealing in antique guns out of the trunk of his car, Dixie Gun Works has grown to be the largest supplier of blackpowder shooting equipment, parts and antique guns in the world. That three inch ad cost $3.50; I made $16.00 when my wage as a salesman was $20.00 a week. My goodness!

Today, orders are taken on seven, toll free, incoming telephone lines in addition to those placed by mail, fax and internet. There are five other telephone lines used to service customer needs as well as handle advertising and ordering. Computers process orders and update inventory. Five thousand square feet of showroom displays the one to two thousand antique guns on hand available for sale. The very modest, twelve page, pocket size edition of the Dixie Gun Works Catalogue first issued in 1954 has grown into an 8 X 10 inch, 700 plus page publication that illustrates the more than 10,000 items Dixie Gun Works offers for sale. Each year 75,000 of these go out to blackpowder enthusiasts.

An Antique Arms Catalogue is published two times a year. The Dixie Gun Works Blackpowder Annual, first published in 1978, is the only publication dedicated to blackpowder and the blackpowder era that appears on newsstands and in bookstores all over the world. The Blackpowder Annual has a circulation of 75,000 and is compiled by the Dixie Gun Works staff.

Dixie Gun Works is proud of these firsts!

• First replica large scale shooting cannon.
  
• First production made replica muzzleloading rifle.
  
• First production made replica flint and percussion locks.
  
• First production replica single and double set triggers for muzzleloading rifles and pistols.
  
• First to produce a round ball bullet mould at an attractive price.
  
• First to assemble a comprehensive array of products made by cottage industries related to blackpowder into one catalogue.
  
• First annual publication dedicated to the blackpowder era.
  

The Dixie Gun Works Old Car Museum is a direct result of my fascination with machinery. In addition to thirty-six antique cars, the Old Car Museum has thousands of interesting antique mechanical devices and appendages. Come Visit!

A recent addition to the Old Car Museum is an 1850's period log cabin gun shop complete with all the tools necessary to build an authentic longrifle. There are two rifling guides, a barrel reamer, forge with a real bellows, and six treadle (foot powered) type machines used for grinding, shaping, metal-cutting lathe work as well as burnishing and polishing. Complementing these larger working pieces are over 1000 hand tools. Viewing this complete antique work shop allows one to step back in time to an era before any of our modern power driven tools were developed.

Dixie Gun Works and the Old Car Museum represent a dream come true for me. I have been able to make a living from an activity I loved. The business is now in the hands of my sons.

In 1989 the National Alliance of Stocking Gun Dealers presented me with the Lifetime Achievement Award for my "...entrepreneurial skill and guidance" in founding and directing Dixie Gun Works to where it is today. In 1955, when I produced the first production made muzzleloading rifle, The Dixie Kentucky Rifle, I visualized a revolution in muzzleloading shooting here in the United States. But I did not foresee that revolution spreading to other first world nations. I can only say that all my life I have wanted to make a difference: to be a proponent and not an opponent. Dixie Gun Works illustrates the growth of an American culture, a complex culture of human interaction and responsibility, fanciful, proud and ambitious. As retired Chairman of the Board of Dixie Gun Works I plan to devote my time to research and writing, another career I hope will be as fulfilling as the first.

Turner Kirkland died July 26, 1997. He was 77 years old.

Hi Jay,
 
   Ahh it looks like Val may have beaten Turner to being first with the Colt pistol replicars just as Toby says in his book. As for te Belgian barrels well they were still making them for certain orders and certainly some export orders up till the Great War and possibly after that. I know that Turner got a load of original patch boxes for hit rifles from store in Belguim, darned if I can remember where I read that though.
 
   I will try to get some better pictures taken of my Reb Navy pistol, the only ones I ahve are 35mm prints and my scanner is down, so I will have to get some photos, digital ones, of this little beastie.

So SILE imported the IAB. I knew it was Italian. From what I've read IAB was the import to own until Davide Pedersoli got into the game.