I recently traded a Pedersoli P53 for a Pedresoli Sharps. It could only get off about 10 shots before the action fouled up, but I sent it to Larry Flees and he did his action job and the first time I took it shooting I got off 89 consecutive shots with no change in performance. I highly recommend his work.
I'm shooting the Pedersoli 317-541 bullet, because I got the mold with the gun. It's ring tail is 1/2" in diameter which means I can use a standard 1/2" dowel for rolling cartridges.
I made cartridges using standard 20 pound computer paper, nitrated computer paper, and 17 pound recycled vellum. I think I like the vellum the best.
The standard paper does well, and only occasionally leaves ash/remnants in the chamber. The nitrated paper burns up more completely, seldom leaving ash/remnants in the chamber. But the nitrated paper makes me nervous. If you drop a spark on nitrated paper, it will immediately start to burn like a slow fuse. So if you were to push a non-nitrated cartridge onto a small ember, it would likely snuff it out. But if you push a nitrated cartridge onto a small ember, it is going to cook off.
I'm going to do some tests with the 3 kinds of cartridges and burn a piece of nitrated paper up to them and see which ones cook off. I fully expect the nitrated cartridge to go off.
The vellum cartridges fully consume and don't require nitrating.
This one is made of computer paper:
While it seems the old debate up-thread was resolved, Hawg is right - the Sharps is designed to handle an air gap and there is no way to eliminate it if you wanted to.
First of all the original cartridges are smaller in diameter than the chamber. So there is going to be air gap all around your cartridge as it sits in the chamber. Secondly and more importantly the breech block has a large cavity in it that guarantees an fixed volume of air in the chamber on loading - even if you filled the chamber to the rim full of powder.
My Sharps with 1/2" dowel-formed cartridges and this Pedersoli bullet will only hold 62 grains 3F Goex maximum.
These are my load workup results from 25 grains through 60 grains, off a bench at 50 yards:
25 grains through 40 grains:
http://imgur.com/nQViB1R
45 grains through 60 grains:
http://imgur.com/9M8llFq
30 grains actually gave the best group, but I think 45 grains is where I need to be. It shoots directly to point of aim and if I discount the flier it's just as good.
I've got another batch of 50 rounds of 45-grainers made up to test.
Steve