These bullets are perfect for your reproduction 1859 Infantry or Berdan Sharps rifles. They are cast on a Moose Moulds 544-400 mold, and have a flat base. These are meant to be constructed into flat-base combustible cartridges but they can also be shot “loose”. They can also be shot in the various carbine reproductions, but please bear in mind THIS BULLET WILL BE TOO LARGE FOR SOME ORIGINAL SHARPS. Many originals are in .52 caliber, and these bullets are .54 caliber!

The “ringtail” bullet is somehow much more common today, but the tied cartridges they are designed for are the earlier version of the cartridge. This design was in the process of being replaced just before the American Civil War began, and while they are found on battlefields, they were more commonly used in carbine ammunition. The 1859 Sharps was not designed to cut the tail of the cartridge off, and was almost exclusively used with flat-base bullets in glued, combustible cartridges. The Berdan Sharpshooters in particular were very picky with their ammunition, and would reject anything but flat-based bullets in linen cartridges unless there was no alternative.

If you intend to construct these into cartridge form, be sure to measure your chamber depth. This way you can make cartridges that fit flush with the breech-face, and guarantee ignition. You may need to use cornmeal or cream of wheat filler with card wad in addition to your powder charge to bring them to the correct length. I use rag vellum paper or sized, beetled linen for the tube body and nitrated tissue paper for the base. I don’t sell the cartridge tubes (yet!), but there are a number of very good tutorial videos on YouTube that will walk you through construction.

They are cast in lead/tin alloy, weigh 410gr on average, are .544″ in diameter and .875″ in overall length. SOLD IN BOXES OF 36!