On Friday I hit the half century mark and my wife has agreed that it is time for me to order an 1874 Shiloh Sharps. :smile: I have been wanting one of these for 25 years. I wanted to seek the advise of experienced people in a few of the options.
Intended use would be target shooting, aspiring to move into longer range competitions.
I am planning on the pack case hardening, 34" octagon barrel, double trigger, with the Hartford collar and pewter forearm tip. For wood I'm thinking semi-fancy with the AA finish in a military configuration stock with the steel military buttplate and no cheekpiece. I was planning on the forearm bedding.
Question #1: Caliber. I'm old enough to not want something so punishing that I won't want to shoot it at every range session, but I still love the idea of the cigar sized cartridges. Just going through the options, I am thinking 40-90 straight, 40-90 bottleneck, 45-110, 50-70, or 40-70. I don't want a 45-70 because I already shoot a couple of trapdoors. My concerns are brass availability, longer range accuracy, and loading difficulty. I would love to hear other shooters experiences with these rounds.
Question #2: Sights. I am pretty set on an MVA #113 front sight. For the rear I was thinking either the #102 MVA medium range buffalo soule or the #103 MVA long range buffalo soule.
https://shilohrifle.com/sights/