Copper tape for patching bullets.

[markH]

I've been having a problem with my Sharps carbine (Pedersoli). Group size was abysmal and a lot of the bullets were keyholing, even at 25 yards. I tried different reloads with 2 cast bullets and even bought some jacketed bullets.

Always meant to slug the barrel but never got round to it until a week or so ago. I found that the barrel was about 4 thou oversize.

I saw some self adhesive copper "Slug tape" on (It's actually for garden slugs, apparently they won't crawl over it). I thought it was worth a try.

My first thought was that it would probably get dragged off when I seated the bullet, but I put a bit more flare on the case mouth and, lo and behold it worked. A couple of rounds showed slight traces of the copper tape having come off but the majority were perfect.

It was grouping into about 3 inches which was a massive improvement and only 1 showed signs of tumbling. I have 2 further avenues to investigate.

1). The cases were not all the same length so trimming will give me a more consistant flare. I think the ones with less flare were perhaps dragging the tape off

2). I am also wondering how accurate the mould is. It's a 5 cavity and I wonder if one casts a slightly smaller bullet.

A major improvement would come from replacing the sights, which are truly awful. I'll have to look into that.