The Black Powder Cartridge News 2022

I am sure that many of you looked forward to the midterm elections as the obvious way to address some of the insanity that has been rampant in politics today. As I have stated before, I am a “one-issue voter” and that issue is the steady eroding of the Second Amendment by our elected officials. If a prospective or incumbent politician does not support and defend the Second Amendment, then he/she doesn’t get my vote. Some readers would say my view is too narrow, but I’m sticking with it. I’m a Constitutionalist, not a Republican or a Democrat and I make no apologies for that. ...Read More >

There’s just something about the Sharps “Big Fifty” cartridge. I think we all have gone through “Big Fifty Fever” at one time or another in our shooting careers and I have to admit to having numerous reinfections of the disease. ...Read More >

It is with an extremely heavy heart that I am reporting the passing of close friend, avid outdoorsman and master gunsmith, Ed Webber. ...Read More >

Thank you for your development and presentation of the article on Norman Brockway. You, as well as I, share the understanding of the importance of passing on this history, as it enhances our appreciation of the development of the precision rifle. ...Read More >

We met with Steve Anderson of Wyoming Sight Drifter fame at the Shiloh “Big Whiskey” Silhouette match and he made us aware of improvements done to his now well-known hand tool. For those of you not familiar with a Drifter, this is quite simply the handiest appliance you will have in your shooting kit or on the workshop bench. It makes the moving of dovetailed sights an easy and precise operation, largely preventing the marring of metal surfaces by over-striking. ...Read More >

A rifle crank’s gun selection for an extended mixed bag hunting trip into parts unknown can be a gamble. We take several guns if transport poses no issues. If it does, one might slip a rifle and a shotgun into a single hard case and cross our fingers that we didn’t make a mistake. There was a time when a drilling may have been one answer, but drillings aren’t for everyone. ...Read More >

Rifle Clubs and Facilities ...Read More >

For shooters who are interested in black-powder cartridge shooting with Sharps rifles, the “Big Fifty” cartridge has a real calling. Commonly identified as the .50-90 Sharps, there is really nothing else quite like it. It was introduced with one thing in mind, buffalo hunting, and yet, it did not remain in production to the end of the buffalo hunts. The .50-90 Sharps was actually made for a rather short time and it was sold in numbers far fewer than what is generally considered. Even so, few rifle cartridges achieve the legendary status that is awarded to the Sharps “Big Fifty.” ...Read More >

If memory serves, my first use of what was to become known as a “blowtube” was in 1975, when, at the tender age of 18, I was determined to make straight black-powder cartridges shoot to an acceptable degree of accuracy. Many shooters then used the smokeless/black-powder duplex form of loading, which worked well (when done correctly) and matches at that time would allow the practice. I had often heard back then the mantra of, “we don’t have the powder that the old-timers had,” which was used as an excuse for not really sorting out what it took to make straight black powder shoot well in a cartridge rifle. ...Read More >

A Richard Lawrence placed “three balls in a row in a ¾-inch sap hole in a Vermont maple tree at twelve rods, or 66 yards.”1 Accomplished in 1838, this might be considered the first recorded minute-of-angle (MOA) group. Lawrence had accomplished this with “his future boss’s turkey rifle which he had installed a peep sight.”2 If the name is familiar, the young shooter went on to become a partner in the firm of Robbins and Lawrence, which manufactured the Sharps carbine under contract in 1852. He also held the patents for the Lawrence sight so commonly seen on the Sharps rifle. ...Read More >

Sometimes a researcher will encounter a hide-hunting story that is so outlandish it would certainly win the “Liar of the Month” contest. However, Charlie Trask avers that it is a true tale of a hide-hunters life on the Yellowstone River in the early days and I certainly have no reason to doubt him. This particular story appeared in The Anaconda Standard, which was published in Anaconda, Montana, on December 21, 1902. ...Read More >

In the late nineteenth- and early twentieth-centuries, .45-caliber revolvers using various cases were combined into a variety of factory loads, both military and commercial. Levels of power desired and perceived recoil drove the development of these. In an effort to understand the drivers of this technology, it was decided to investigate the power, efficiency and recoil of these loads. As almost none of the original loads are available, it was necessary to recreate them so they could be tested. ...Read More >