Sharps/Lawrence Pellet system

[kotkinjs1]

A while back I was lucky enough to come across a Lawrence pellet cartridge for the Sharps carbine for sale so I quickly gobbled it up....knowing that my Sharps carbine would be out of layaway soon. Well my carbine came in the mail today and my first order of business was taking apart the pellet system, seeing how it works, and cleaning it all up (the attached article was indispensable since that's the only thing my research could find). It's really ingenious, even if it never fared too well in combat. I certainly won't be trying to install the primers from the cartridge into the system but it's nice to be able to display them together. I've never seen one in person before so it's awesome to now own it. It even still has 12 of the fulminate disks inside it. The temptation to try and load it up is great but no, never. haha

 

[UCVRelics]

We want to see photos of both

 

[kotkinjs1]

haha ok after dinner!

 

[mofederal]

I would like to see a pic of one. I have only read about them.

 

[kotkinjs1]

The pellet cartridge is half empty - I think it originally came with 24 pellets. There's some tissue stuffed in the end to keep the rest from falling out and to try and keep the thin copper tube from crushing. The whole tube is installed into the hole just behind the nipple by pressing the spring-loaded plunger in the receiver wall down then using the wooden dowel/handle on the cartridge to push all the pellets into the receiver. Then the sliding arm is pushed back to its forward position to secure all the pellets from jumping back out. When the hammer is cocked each time it pulls back the loading slide and when the hammer is released that same slide forces a pellet to the nipple at the same speed as the hammer is falling (the hammer and the pellet mechanism are connected - it explains it better in the pdf I attached up above). Multiple pellet cartridges could be kept in the patch box.

 

[JOHN42768]

A while back I was lucky enough to come across a Lawrence pellet cartridge for the Sharps carbine for sale so I quickly gobbled it up....knowing that my Sharps carbine would be out of layaway soon. Well my carbine came in the mail today and my first order of business was taking apart the pellet system, seeing how it works, and cleaning it all up (the attached article was indispensable since that's the only thing my research could find). It's really ingenious, even if it never fared too well in combat. I certainly won't be trying to install the primers from the cartridge into the system but it's nice to be able to display them together. I've never seen one in person before so it's awesome to now own it. It even still has 12 of the fulminate disks inside it. The temptation to try and load it up is great but no, never. haha

Thanks for posting the article. The tube originally had 25 pellets. Nice Carbine

 

[plymouthairrifle]

Thank you so much for posting the PDF article. I just had my 1853 apart to clean and wondered how the system worked and what I was missing.

 

[kotkinjs1]

T....I just had my 1853 apart to clean.....

DROOL! An 1853?

 

[gary]

Thanks for sharing the images.