A Real "Western" Rifle. The Shiloh Sharps

[Wyatt Burp]

Some guns are just western. Like this Shiloh Sharps. This one is a very basic #3 Sporter I ordered with no extras except a Shiloh tang sight. But I did specify a tapered 30" half round/half octogon barrel. It's 45-70 to make reloading simple. This is not heavy by Sharps standards but still a hefty chunk of steel. You ever pick up a rifle and it feels like it was just made for you? Well, this was made for me but length of pull is standard and fits me perfect. And I prefer straight stock with no pistol grip. Just simple. Gotta go. I hear the thundering of buffalo coming this way.

 

[feralmerril]

Hey matt-- I wrote this elsewhere.
Nice! When I worked security for lockheed many years ago a wheel rode along with me for a night checking a strike line. Whileing away the time we got talking guns. He told me he had a sharps that was in his family for generations. He mentioned he was thinking of selling it and buying a .357. I worked out a trade and gave him a almost new s&w 27-2 8 3/8" for it. It was a carbine that had the old goverment conversion to 50-70. The bore looked new!
Sometime later he told me his family was giveing him static for tradeing it off. I said okay bob I will trade you back. He said I already sold the smith. I said give me the price of a new one. He almost stepped on my head scratching out for the credit union atm! That sharps had to be worth two or three smiths! I knew it, but I could also understand his perdicument with his family. I dont think the fact that he was almost near the top level of lockheed and in a way my boss about 4 levels above me had anything to do with it. Still would like to have that sharps back! Anyway I owned a real sharps for a few months.

 

[Wyo]

Wonderful rifle! I have a No. 1 Deluxe that I bought back in the early '80's. It's actually a New York rifle though I bought it just after they moved to Big Timber, MT. In those days you could order one up and have it in about three weeks. No more!

Mine is a 45/70 also. It has the old long throat for paper patched bullets so that's what I mostly shot in it, usually with a duplex load of 4 gr. of IMR4198 and the case full of FFG black. Put a card wad and a lubricating wad on top of the powder, then hand-seated the bullet with no crimp to keep from tearing the patch. Very labor intensive! Lately, I've gotten lazy so usually the old 500 gr. Lyman round nose bullet with a charge of 5744. That's a very accurate load too.

I don't shoot it as much as I used to, but I've used it on elk, mule deer, antelope, jack rabbits, coyotes, a couple of heifer cows that needed to be put down, cottontails, carp (it penetrates water well), and just about anything else you can shoot a rifle at. Penetration is unbelieveable - I've never had a bullet stop in any animal at any distance, including some good-sized elk taken at well over 200 yds.

The old timers gave up nothing when they used the Sharps. It'll kill critters today just about as well or better than any other rifle. Ya got yourself a good one there! Enjoy it!

 

[Wyatt Burp]

Wyo, you sound like you are putting your gun to the same use Elmer Keith did as described in "Hell, I was There!" And even though I'm more west than you, the gun just seems more appropriate in the wide open spaces where you hang out for obvious reasons.

 

[Harrison]

Most excellent rifle. Very high quality workmanship, and you can't beat the accuracy of a properly loaded 45-70. They will put a lot of modern bolt guns to shame. You can be real proud to own that rifle.

 

[Iggy]

I could use WYO's post durn near verbatim except I haven't converted to smokless powders.
Heck of a rifle. Those paper patched "flying telephone poles" are just plain impressive.

 

[Roadtrash]

Always wanted one but if I order one today I may not live long enough to get it. It can take 2 or 3 years to get one of them now from what I have read.

 

[semperfi71]

I have a Shiloh Sharps made in Farmingdale, New York when Wolfgang was still there. I bought it used from a gunshop 22 years ago one week after I proposed to my dear wife.

Its a .45-70 but I do not think its a "paper-patch" although I heard he made a lot of them when he first got started. It has a 30 inch full octagon barrel and after market tang and front globe sight made locally by a now deceased gunsmith. It prefers 520 grain bullets so far with FFG black powder.

I had intended to hunt with it and occassionally join in on a long-range shoot but none of that has happened yet. I'd love to take a buffalo with it.

I saw Valdez take several men off horseback at "............more like 1100 yards." and knew one day I would have to have a Sharps.

I do not own any Pedersolis but I know they can shoot as well as a Shiloh.

 

[Ivan the Butcher]

I have a New York made Shiloh in 45-70. So far, I've only used BP and the 520 gr RN bullets. Mine has the creasant butt plate, get the shotgun style if you can! Go to Shiloh's web sight, the have ready to go rifles for sale. The only Itialian sharps I've owned was an EMF back in the mid 80's. Wouldn't shoot smokless jacketed loads worth a hoot at all! And was only fair with BP/lead loads. The EMF tang sight hindged on the windage adjuster, so folding the sight messed with your settings. If you're going to load BP get the 2' drop tube, works much better tham compressing the powder. I use "Cork" over powder cards and SPG lube, and a friend recomends dipping the bullet in Crisco just before chambering the round. (I'll try this in the spring). Alot op people like Swiss 1 1/2F , my "Crisco" friend uses a Chineese 2F black powder. All I can get locally is Goex. I'm using 68gr of FFg, useing the drop tube makes the powder colium about 1/2 to 5/8" shorter.

 

[Opie]

I have a Shiloh Long Range Express in 40 x 2 1/4 Sharps Bottleneck.

I have used a few different smokeless loads, but am now using only black. Goex is all that is available locally, but I have picked up some Swiss 1.5. I haven't shot it enough yet to see how it really compares to my Goex loads.

I highly recommend the Black Powder Cartridge News magazine and Venturino's Shooting Buffalo Rifles of the Old West as great sources of loading info. J. S. Wolf's book on the .45-70 is great for that round. My trapdoor performs best when I follow Wolf's directions.

The warnings of messy cleanup after shooting BP are false. I can clean my Shiloh quicker after a day of black than any of my modern high power rifles shooting jacketed bullets.

 

[bgrafsr]

When I retired for good in 2008 I wanted a Shiloh Sharps as a gift to myself. Went on line, built one to my specs and the price came to about $5,000.00. I was going to order it, but then found out it would be a 3 to 4 year wait. I wasn't sure I would live long enough to see it, so I didn't order the rifle.

A couple of years later I found a Pedersoli Sharps in .40-65 Winchester and bought it. I really like shooting the steel silhouettes with it.

 

[Wyatt Burp]

Semperfi71 mentioned Valdez Is Coming. Burt Lancaster used a half octagon Sharps that looked like a straight untapered barrel and shnabel forend tip. In "The Trackers" Kris Kristofferson uses an identical rifle. And in Young Guns Kiefer Sutherland uses what appears to be that same Sharps. I suspect this was from a movie armorer rental house and was used in all three films.
If I ever got another Sharps it would be a Cimarron McNelly Texas Ranger carbine in .50-70. But I know I never would get around to it.

 

[semperfi71]

If I ever got another Sharps it would be a Cimarron McNelly Texas Ranger carbine in .50-70. But I know I never would get around to it.

I shoot CAS with a fellow who shoots a Pedersoli Sharps carbine in .50-70 with black-powder. I love watching him shoot that.

 

[Wyo]

I have a Shiloh Long Range Express in 40 x 2 1/4 Sharps Bottleneck

A friend of mine had his great grand daddy's original Sharps in the same caliber - beautiful rifle but he never shot it for lack of ammo. This was back in the day when it was very tough to get black powder cartridges. He finally found a guy to load 20 rounds for him. He took it out and fired 2 to make sure it worked. Then he went to South Dakota and shot 3 buffalo with it. Then he retired it along with the 15 rounds he still had left. I never teased him about his .40 cal. "peashooter" again!