It took 10 years.

[6pt-sika]

It took 10 years for me to finally decide to buy a Shiloh Sharps .

Called them and gave them the downpayment last evening .

Ordered a #1 Sporter with semi fancy wood , pewter forend tip , heavy octagon barrel , shotgun butt , and buckhorn sights .

The caliber I chose is the 50-90 [smilie=1:

Well it took 10 years , but better late then never :drinks:

[6pt-sika]

Now I suppose I have to wait for 18 months and accumulate the other stuff to get it shooting.

This will be my first experience with a Sharps .

Also my first experience with actual black powder [smilie=1:

Any ML's I use granulated Triple 7 .

[Murphy]

Congratulations on your new purchase 6pt-sika. May it bring you many years of pleasure.

I can relate to lusting after a firearm for many years before being in a position to finally buy it.

I'm sure you'll won't regret it.

Murphy

[boommer]

well you you will have fun with it 6-pt sika but ! those big smoke poles are
like a sickness ! I KNOW ! BEFORE YOU KNOW IT you go smokeless powder
whats that!! I cant even tell bad it will get you you will cancel your order!!


You'll hear
that big slug slap !!! at the other end !
YOUR HOOKED !!!!!!

[John-n-va]

that Shiloh is to shoot. I am still like a kid whith his first rifle when I go to the range. You have plenty of time to get the necessary stuff together. To pass the time I made allot of 20-1 alloy and cast allot of bullets, got all my brass and dies and prepared the cases for the big day.

It seems like the rifle will never ship, but believe me the wait is worth it.

[John-n-va]

I notice you are from Central VA. I live up around Warrenton. If you would like to get together sometime you are welcome to shoot my 45-90 Shiloh.

[Bad Ass Wallace]

Congratulations on taking the step.
My gummit decided that handguns with short barrels were a menace to society and gave me lots of money to hand them over. I used the money to buy the biggest muther of a rifle that I could legally own - A Pedersoli Sharps "Boss Gun" in 50/90.
The next thing on your list should be a custom boolit mould from the likes of Paul Jones. I purchased a 650gn Creedmoor style. Loaded with 105gn Wano FG it very accurate and sure packs a punch at both ends

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v152/BAWallace/50002.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v152/BAWallace/5090cch.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v152/BAWallace/Spirit.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v152/BAWallace/Picture747.jpg

[powderburnerr]

a nice rifle and intrigueing calibre . most shy away from it but it is a real fun rifle to shoot and pretty easy to load for.... and it hits like no other ... Dean

[Jon K]

6pt-sika,

Congrats, it is not a sickness as some call it, yes, it is addicting, but I like to think of it as a "Labor of Love". Just like one of your kids, it is never ending. Now you'll feel like the brown truck & white truck w/purple lettering are following you- they're always there at your door.
BTW, Paul Jones phone # is 323 262-1510. He's easy to talk to and a guy could get spoiled using one of his molds. Not cheap, but I spent more money trying cheap. Tried all the production molds, had to learn the hard way.

Have fun Shooting,
Jon
:castmine:

[WBH]

Congratulations on converting to the "real" gunpowder. Don't get me wrong, I shoot plenty of the "white powder" but I love to shoot black. I have the same Paul Jones bullet for my 50-90. I shoot it out of a 34" #6 Green Mountain barrel put on an original Remington RB action built for me by John King. It weighs 16#'s. He has done 3 RB's for me, and every one is exceptional. You will cherish your Shiloh for years to come. Sights will make a world of difference in your shooting....buy the best you can afford. Nothing like throwing 8 to the pound bullets down range. I have been using Bell brass on the Big Fifty, and like the quality.

[44man]

There is only one thing to keep in mind. The price will go up before you get your rifle. You will have to pay the additional money. If you send them the balance now, you will be locked in to the current price. I would check with them on that detail.

[6pt-sika]

I notice you are from Central VA. I live up around Warrenton. If you would like to get together sometime you are welcome to shoot my 45-90 Shiloh.

Thanks for the offer I would enjoy that .I am in the process of rejoining the Piedmont Sportsmans Club in Orange . They have up to 350 yards on their rifle range . You'd be more then welcome to shoot down here . Or I am not adverse to driving up there . Do you by any chance belong to Fairfax Rod and Gun ?

I live in Orange County , which is on the other side of Culpeper from you .

How far are you from Clark Brothers ?

[6pt-sika]

I have a copy of Venturino's book on Buffalo Rifles . And was checking out the section on the 50-90 and 50-70 . Anyway they seemed to have pretty decent luck with the Lyman and RCBS moulds . And Midway happens to have Lyman 450 grain and 515 grain moulds in stock at the moment . Along with Lyman reloading dies , lube-sizer die and top punch . So I think I will drop the first $200 there . I'm thinking on using Starline 50-90 brass . It's not cheap at $1.36 a stick when you buy 100 pieces , but it could be a lot worse.

[WBH]

Before you go and spend any money, talk to others with the same rifle and twist to see what bullet they are happy with. I have never found the lighter bullets to be satisfactory. Do not buy any Bevel Base bullet moulds, they are just not worth casting. I thought would be to BUY a bunch of different sample to see what your gun likes. Dan at the Bull Shop would be glad to sell you 20 or so of each to experiment before you buy moulds that don't perform in your rifle. You don't need to buy 100 pieces of brass at once. Huntington's has Bell and maybe Starline. Again, buy 20 of each and see how it goes. Don't be in a rush to buy alot of stuff (I know it's hard with a new toy), but take it from experience, slow and researched buying will save you a bunch of headaches and money in the long run.

[6pt-sika]

Before you go and spend any money, talk to others with the same rifle and twist to see what bullet they are happy with. I have never found the lighter bullets to be satisfactory. Do not buy any Bevel Base bullet moulds, they are just not worth casting. I thought would be to BUY a bunch of different sample to see what your gun likes. Dan at the Bull Shop would be glad to sell you 20 or so of each to experiment before you buy moulds that don't perform in your rifle. You don't need to buy 100 pieces of brass at once. Huntington's has Bell and maybe Starline. Again, buy 20 of each and see how it goes. Don't be in a rush to buy alot of stuff (I know it's hard with a new toy), but take it from experience, slow and researched buying will save you a bunch of headaches and money in the long run.


I know what you are saying !!!!

You should see my loading room now [smilie=1:

I load for practically every lever action cartridge Marlin ever chambered for (only one I'm missing is the 45-90). And have at least two moulds for each caliber .

[6pt-sika]

To pass the time I made allot of 20-1 alloy and cast allot of bullets.


John do you have a source close by Warrenton for good quality lead ?

By that I mean good 99% pure lead and 100% tin or possibly 20/1 or 25/1 alloy

As all I have on hand at the moment is WW's .

[WBH]

Just buy 50/50 solder for your tin. I mix 10# pure Pb with 1# 50/50 to get my 20:1alloy.

[STP]

Specifying a twist rate for your rifle can be a lesson in itself.
We had a club member that ordered a 50-140 Sharps with most of the upgrades...but did not specify a particular twist for the barrel. In the 2-3 year wait for it to be built, he drove to Pa. and spent nearly a whole day with Fred Cornell for a custom paperpatch adjustable mould. (Fred has a tendency to talk a bit) His delivered mould was absolutely top notch.
Much to my friends surprise, the heavier bullets cast from the PP adjustable mould would not stabilize at all...
Dunno what the delivered twist was, but it would not stabilize any bullet approaching "heavy" status for the caliber at 100/200yds.
I got a few trys on the range prior to the discovery of his mistake and it confirmed that one needs to turn their baseball hat around backwards, otherwise, it ends up on the ground behind you.

[BruceB]

I have a 3-die set of RCBS .50-90 (2.5") dies which are now un-needed. They're in excellent shape. Want 'em? I'm easy to deal with....make me an offer.

My Shiloh used to be a .50-2.5", but it was made very early in Shiloh's existence and had the original "paper patch" throat and slow-twist rifling. I believe the twist was 1-38". I was unable to make contact with the rifling origin with any conventional bullet I tried, even with only 1/10" of the base inside the casemouth. Accuracy was only so-so at the VERY best, and I had no desire to get into paper patching.

I contacted Shiloh (now under different ownership from when mine was made in New York around 1980) and they offered me a HALF-PRICE rebarreling job in any caliber they make. I selected the .45-70, and the rifle now shoots great. How's that for customer service?

The current .50s are made with a conventional chamber and much faster-twist rifling, and should be a much better proposition than mine was. You are going to have a lot of fun! I DO hope you opted for the shotgun butt? Even in .45-70, those pointy steel ends on the buttplate aren't much fun. On the .50, particularly with some my real BIG loads, the rifle buttplate was flat-out miserable.

[kodiak1]

6pt you didn't spend money You just made an investment. I am sure you will love this piece when you get it.
Good Luck Ken.

[John-n-va]

I live about 5 miles from Clark Brothers. I don't shoot there too much because its so darned crowded most of the time. I use a range in the Phelps Preserve thats only open from Sept till March. I would love some more information on the Piedmont Sportsmans Club if you could pass it along. I am not a member of Fairfax and they have a waiting list that is impossible.

As far as a source for lead.....I have been scrounging for about 30 years since I used to shoot muzzle loaders. There really isn't anywhere to get good lead in any quantities. I have about 500 lbs. squirreled away and am always keeping my eyes open for more. Had a friend who works for the FBI drop by the other day with 10 twenty six lb. lead bricks they use for some secret deal. He said they were gonna throw it away but that doesn't happen too often. I don't think you will want to use WW's in your Shiloh, at least I wouldn't.

I use 1 lb. 50/50 solder bars for my alloy. Weigh out 9.5 lbs of pure lead and throw in one of those for a 20/1 mix.

Why did you decide on the 50-90? I feel like it is quite abit more expensive to shoot and components and equipment are allot harder to get. My 45-2.4 only costs me .25 a shot or less. Plus the fact that my old beat-up body would probably scream at the recoil from that big .50:neutral:

[6pt-sika]

Why did you decide on the 50-90? :


For some unknown reason I'm fascinated with 50 cals .

I have a NIB Marlin 1895G just waiting to be sent off and turned into a 50AK . If I like fooling with this 50-90 and I can scrape the money up later I would like to get a Lone Star rollingblock in 50-70 .

Also know where there's an Original 1895 Marlin circa 1897 that was rebored and made into a 50-110 . Would love to have it but the guy wants about $3250.

And last but not least the Uberti version of the Winchester 1876 in 50-95 is quite intresting as well . Had an original Winchester 1876 in 50-95 in my hands about two years ago . The guy wanted $6500 , and I was about $4000 short :(

[6pt-sika]

I have a 3-die set of RCBS .50-90 (2.5") dies which are now un-needed. They're in excellent shape. Want 'em? I'm easy to deal with....make me an offer.

.

Bruse sent you a PM [smilie=1:

[longhorn]

I'm not sure why John would avoid wheelweights; aircooled wheelweight bullets with a little tin added shoot beautifully in both my Browning BPCR and my Shiloh saddle rifle-and no leading problems, as some complain about w/black powder and wheelweights. I assume (I know, I know) that the stories about wheelweights leading badly with black have to do with undersize bullets and possibly oversized bores, especially in original rifles. OTOH, using wheelweights, even ingots from big batches, probably does introduce another variable, and many BPCR shooters are adamant about reducing variables, hence the popularity of known alloys from reputable suppliers. You'll like that Shiloh!

[John-n-va]

Longhorn is right. Probably lots of folks use them with success in their BPCRs. I made the comment about not wanting to use ww's because of the unknown content and the repeatability factor. Like he said though, if you can smelt them into large lots that shouldn't be a problem until you start on the next large lot:-D

I have a lot of ww ingots also and have thought about maybe trying them in my Shiloh. I do worry about leading though. The harder ww's might not bump up enough to compensate for any difference in barrel and bullet dia. I know my 20-1 is gonna fill my bore...heck I have bumped em up just pushing on the lubrisizer handle too hard:)

[6pt-sika]

Well I have about 1200 pounds of WW's .

When it gets here I may just start with them :drinks:

[powderburnerr]

the nice thing about that 50 is it wont take very long to go through that 1200 lbs of ww . you can always anneal them and shoot them up quickly ... Dean

[longhorn]

Let's see, 1200 pounds of alloy should be at least 12,000 bullets. With casting, sorting, and lubing, I end up with at least 3 hours into 100 good bullets-and that's just bullet prep, not complete reloading, which is also slow, what with drop tubing, compressing and all. Good thing shooting BPCR is relatively slow paced! I should also admit that buying good alloy is relatively cheap, and certainly worth experimenting with-that's probably my next rifle project, I just need to buy an additional Waage pot.

[hydraulic]

I have a Pedersoli .45-70 with set triggers. Set the rear trigger, cock hammer to the first notch, load, cock hammer to full cock, get ready to pull the front trigger. Half way to the shoulder the gun fires. Backed out the set screw, no help, finally removed the set screw entirely. The trigger (front) is still extremely light. I had a custom Bedford County ML , years ago, and the front trigger could be used as a regular trigger, or you could set the rear one at any time. On the Pedersoli, the hammer won't catch at all unless the rear (set) trigger is pulled. Normal, or is there something wrong?

[6pt-sika]

the nice thing about that 50 is it wont take very long to go through that 1200 lbs of ww . you can always anneal them and shoot them up quickly ... Dean

I have about 40 Marlin's that eat bullets cast of WW's .

The Sharps takes a backseat to them [smilie=1:

I will most likely start with some 20/1 or 30/1 from Midway first .

[Jon K]

hydraulic,

Don't set the rear trigger til the hammer is at full cock.

6pt,

When you want to try WW in the Shiloh, 7parts WW/1part linotype(12%) = 10 bhn(lead/tin 20/1 = 10 bhn) I tried it, and it shoots good. I tried it because I didn't have any 20/1 for a duplex load, I shot it for a Buffalo Match w/40-65. BTW- flux & skim often.

Midway is offering FREE shipping this month on 20/1 & 30/1.

Jon

[6pt-sika]

When you want to try WW in the Shiloh, 7parts WW/1part linotype(12%) = 10 bhn(lead/tin 20/1 = 10 bhn) I tried it, and it shoots good. I tried it because I didn't have any 20/1 for a duplex load, I shot it for a Buffalo Match w/40-65. BTW- flux & skim often.

Midway is offering FREE shipping this month on 20/1 & 30/1.

Jon


There "was" a guy up around Crownsville that had a bunch of Linotype . May have to see if I can still find his number .

Any decent sources in the Warrenton area for the stuff ?

[John-n-va]

I'll let you have one of those 26 lb. bricks of pure pb I have and all you'll have to do is get you some 50/50 roofing solder and you will have enough to make a couple hundred of those big 50's. Thats the least I can do for you helping me with the gun club thing. Let me know and I'll give you my address and you can stop by one afternoon.

You might as well start out with some quality 20-1....that way you'll reduce your variables.

[WBH]

hydraulic....get that trigger fixed!!!! All the Pedersoli's I have handled as well as owned do not behave like that. Scary.

[wills]

Have you looked at Pedersoli's instructions on trigger adjustment?

http://www.davide-pedersoli.com/pdf/manualsEn.pdf

[6pt-sika]

I'll let you have one of those 26 lb. bricks of pure pb I have and all you'll have to do is get you some 50/50 roofing solder and you will have enough to make a couple hundred of those big 50's. Thats the least I can do for you helping me with the gun club thing. Let me know and I'll give you my address and you can stop by one afternoon.

You might as well start out with some quality 20-1....that way you'll reduce your variables.

I have one pound of 50/50 I was gonna use to make Lyman #2 with the WW's .

I was thinking about ordering some 20/1 and or 30/1 from Midway [smilie=1:

I can't believe I have refrained from ordering a couple moulds from Midway :???:

[Steelbanger]

6pt-sika,

I have a friend who happens to own a print shop and has probably 2 tons plus of lino. If you're willing to drive up here (about halfway between Harrisburg & Scranton) he's selling it for 50¢/lb. He's only interested in cash & carry, no shipping. I could meet you somewhere here and direct you to the shop.

[6pt-sika]

6pt-sika,

I have a friend who happens to own a print shop and has probably 2 tons plus of lino. If you're willing to drive up here (about halfway between Harrisburg & Scranton) he's selling it for 50¢/lb. He's only interested in cash & carry, no shipping. I could meet you somewhere here and direct you to the shop.

How far off 81 is he ?

As you are well aware I'm sure I have traveled 81 from Harrisburg to Scranton quite a bit [smilie=1:

You think he'd give me a bit better price if I bought say 750 pounds ?

[Steelbanger]

6pt-sika,

Shop is about 20 miles off of I-81, Exit 116.

I'll e-mail him tomorrow about price on 750. No promises, but he's a reasonable man. I'll let you know his response.

Best regards,

[6pt-sika]

6pt-sika,

Shop is about 20 miles off of I-81, Exit 116.

I'll e-mail him tomorrow about price on 750. No promises, but he's a reasonable man. I'll let you know his response.

Best regards,

Well lets see the Lebanon exit to Shirks is #90 and the Dickson City exit is #190.

So this place is about 270 miles from me . From my house to where I stayed in Dickson City was 325 miles.

[hydraulic]

Wills: I am obliged to you for solving my problem. I have run off a hard copy of those instructions. I bought the rifle in the aisle of the Tulsa show, and it came without the instruction book.

[wills]

Happy to be of assistance.