[su_heading size=”35″]Jamison’s New .40-70 Sharps Straight Brass[/su_heading]

Story and photographs by Mike Nesbitt

After what black-powder-cartridge-rifle shooters felt was a long wait, the new brass for the .40-70 Sharps Straight is now available from Jamison, a division of Captech International.  One reason it seemed to take so long was because the .40-70 SS case is somewhat unique.  It can be made from some other cases, such as the .405 Winchester or the .30-40 Krag, but many shooters, including me, prefer to use brass that is properly headstamped for the rifle.  The new brass from Jamison most certainly is.

These new cases are 2.5 inches long and have a rim thickness of .070 of an inch, which might be on the thick side for certain rifles, but it’s a simple task for a gunsmith to correct.

The new brass was first tried with a 370-grain bullet loaded over 65 grains of GOEX’s Olde Eynsford 1 1/2F black powder.  That amount of powder will practically fill the case and no drop tube was used. Then the fire-formed cases were reloaded with the same powder charge, but under a 330-grain, paper-patched bullet.  That duplicated the old factory load, and some serious thoughts are forming about using it with the Sharps rifle for deer hunting.

Even though this cartridge is named the .40-70 SS, it was most commonly loaded with a 65-grain powder charge.  It was introduced by Sharps in 1876 as a replacement to the .40-70 Sharps Bottleneck and became the standard midrange cartridge in 1878.  It’s a fine sporting cartridge and black-powder-cartridge shooters are very pleased that new and correctly marked brass is available for it again.  You can visit them at captechintl.com.  ASJ