War Dept approval on a Shiloh 1874 Sporter #3

[country gent]

I use the MCA sights and like them the soules are very good. I have one windgage front. Where I use it and how is on windy days I make the rough correction on the front at the start of the relay, using the rear soules windage to make fine and keep up. ( hopefully ahead off). The problem with the front wind gage sight is you have to move the rifle around so much to make corrections using it for every adjustment. Thin about sliding the roofle back and forth to get to the front sight for every adjustment.

[Tom Herman]

20 months and they are just getting around to build it now?!? OUCH!!!
Glad that your dream rifle is going to be a reality soon.
I lucked into a Pedersoli #3 Sporter... Really happy with it.
Doubly so for the 1859 ORIGINAL Sharps I blundered into recently...
Hope your retirement is going well!

-Tom

[Big Mak]

Thanks for the feedback.
I've decided to go with the Baldwin, long range and front site.

[BrentD]

That will work well. Very well.

[Big Mak]

That will work well. Very well.

Steve was very prompt in getting back to me with questions I had. That sold me! He will send them to Shiloh with my order number and send me and invoice.

Some mentioned getting it drill and tap at 10 and 13" spacung for an A scope should my eyesight start failing me in the future.
What do y'all think of this?

[sharpsguy]

Not much. When your eyes start to go, GET GLASSES. Don't go drilling a bunch of holes in the barrel.

[BrentD]

Nothing wrong with thinking ahead. but I would STRONGLY recommend 7.2" spacing not 10 or 13".

Scopes are nice from time to time, they can double the amount of match shooting you can do sometimes, and they make things like load development a bit easier though not necessarily better.

[Tom Herman]

Not much. When your eyes start to go, GET GLASSES.

I wear glasses and they do NOT help me to see through both the front and rear sights at the SAME time... I think a scope would be a good idea.
My question would be where to put the holes: What is standard, and/or period correct?

[BrentD]

I wear glasses and they do NOT help me to see through both the front and rear sights at the SAME time... I think a scope would be a good idea.
My question would be where to put the holes: What is standard, and/or period correct?

There is no period correct position for a scope. Decide upon the scope and usage. But I highly recommend 7.2" because MOST scopes work better that way. On the other hand, if you want a super long Malcomb style of scope, then other spacing will be mandated, but you will lose some functionality.

What distances, uses, and types of scopes do you have in mind?

I prefer an MVA Winchester 5B with #2 mounts. 7.2 is really the only sane choice for such a scope. It will reach from chickens to pigs. It is a little bit modern relative to Sharps rifles, but then all scopes will be somewhat modern for a Sharps in someways. I use it for silhouette from 200-500 meters. It won't reach 1000 without different mounting blocks. I do not, however, shoot scope at 1000 yds.
https://montanavintagearms.com/produ...th-no-2-mount/

Alternatively, you could go for an older style of scope. Looks cool but is not quite so functional, esp. the really long ones.
https://www.theguardian.com/commenti...-man-terrorist

If your plan is to shoot way out to 1000, scope choice will be really challenging and may require separate blocks to reach that far, but the challenge will be proportionally more difficult as the spacing between the mounts get longer. Think about the geometry.

[Bent Ramrod]

If you have a family history of poor vision with aging, cataracts, etc, you might do well to get scope holes drilled in your barrel for any future contingencies. I had to drill and tap and mount scope blocks on two of my rifles after my “good” eye got a detached retina. I had to switch to left-handed shooting with my “less bad” eye for iron sights, but scoped two of the rifles so I could continue to shoot right-handed. As things turned out, I shoot (pretty much) left-handed for everything now, just to keep the muscle memory from fading.

If you get the barrel factory drilled, tapped and plugged for later use, Shiloh may be able to arrange the barrel markings so the scope blocks don’t obscure them. If you get it done later, you will almost certainly cover up the caliber marking, anyway. Whether this bothers you or not is your call. I have a couple rifles I’m keeping iron-sighted, because they look better to me that way, and can still be shot well enough off the bench for load experiments, etc, when the light is right.

The 7.2” spacing is for the Winchester A and B scopes and their copies, Lyman Targetspots, and so forth. The short-spacing scopes don’t look right to me on a buffalo rifle, but they have an advantage of much more elevation potential than the longer ones. Longer scopes (the longer the better) look more “period” to me; I got the 28-1/2” MVA with the 10” block spacing (so each division on the screw was 1 MOA) but had to put a riser under the rear block to get out into the 900+ yard gongs. The Zero scope setting is on at 200 meters, but the rifle is only used for target shooting, so this isn’t a problem for me. I have to aim low for 150 yard offhand targets, but that can be managed. Gary, my sometime spotter, has a MVA B5 on his Rolling Block; it screams “anachronism!!” every time I see it, but he can dial it in for anything between 10 and 800 yards or more.

I wanted a full-length scope (if I had to have a scope at all) but Jim Gier at MVA pointed out that it was too long to get any really practical long-range elevations with, and I’d be spending a lot of time wiping smoke and lube off the front lens. A phone consultation with MVA might be to your advantage in figuring out what you really want and can live with.

[Gunlaker]

I shoot with a number of different BPCR scopes. I don't have the newer A series scope, but it apparently has a long enough Pope rib to work with either 7.2" or 10.23" spacing. The earlier 23" scopes ( 2000 series ) won't work with a 7.2" spacing. At least not on any of my rifles as the eye relief is wrong. My rifles with 7.2" spacing use DZ Arms scopes, but I plan on trying an 8x "A" series scope as it will work with most of my rifles.

7.2" will give you the most range in elevation, as well as simpler arithmetic when adjusting the knobs. I do have a number of rifles with the 10.23" spacing and they work fine, but you have to be able to deal with 0.003" per MOA adjustments which requires you to be good at arithmetic when under time pressure .

As mentioned previously, the closer spacing has the advantage of keeping your head lower on the stock. The longer scopes like the MVA 28" with a 17" mount spacing makes this pretty apparent. One of my long range rifles has this setup and while it works just fine, it would be nice to keep my head lower at long range. Interestingly enough though, the height of the eye piece on my 34" barreled Shiloh is pretty much identical at 1000 yards whether using my 28" scope or MVA Soule sight.

Regardless, I'd get it drilled and tapped, even if you end up just putting in filler screws for now.

Chris.

[Big Mak]

Gunlaker, Brent and Bent...good input. Thank you.

[WBH]

I had the barrel blocks installed by John King for myMVA scope. 3/4" tube of course, but period approriate. I think the scope was about $1000 ten years ago.
Good luck with your rifle. Shilo makes a fine one. I remember when they were in Farmingdale NY a block over from my business back then.