Picked up my Sharps today, and I must say I am impressed with the rifle overall! The wood to metal fit was great with only two very tiny gaps that were about 1/4” looks so that tells you how close I looked it over. Their was no proud wood anywhere. The bluing had s nice luster to it, and the case hardening was some of the nicest I have seen, and that is comparing this rifle to a Shiloh and C Sharps rifles! The 32” barrel has a slight taper to it but not much. The long range vernier had been removed and I left it that way, I wanted to see how it shot w regular irons. With the rear sight ladder folded down, it only had a narrow notch for the silver ft blade to fit in so I put the gun on a rest and shot my 125 yd, clanger which is 12” around, and the first shot hit dead center, the next 2 were right under neath it in a 3 shot group that measured about 2.5”! I then took the rifle offhand an hit a 4”canger 3 out of 4 at 100yds. I decided right then and there I was going to deer hunt with that rifle this upcoming season. Now I have done a lot of offhand shooting over the years in local, state, an NMLRA championship matches, and medaled in several of them, but I have picked up very few rifles that I shot this well right out of the gate. I flipped the rear ladder sight up and it had a tiny gap under the bottom of it and the screw was tight so I shot it at 100 yds, way high. I then went too my 200 yd where I have a 10” clanger and holding a fine bead in the rear V notch, I touched off the set trigger and saw a white splash occur about 3” above center, I shot 4 more which crept in underneath the first shot about a 2” lower with 2 on each side for about a 4.5” group off sandbags. I think I was subconsciously holding about 6oclock on the first bullet splash, either way I am tickled pink with the results. I was shooting the 340 gr Lee slug, cast at 459, unsized, lubed with SPG lube, sitting on top of 15 grs of Unique powder. I am going to try some 360 HP’s I cast as well as some 405 grs, but am plenty happy with a quick shoots session that was interrupted by rain. I have been battling back after a hip replacement in Sept., the having to have another surgery in early Oct., due to having MRSA, having the stitches taken out of all the layers of muscle, the bone scraped, and having a lot of muscle tissue removed due to being to far gone. 5 weeks late after starting therapy, I had 3 strokes in a 5 hour period, the first one left me lying on the floor at home unable to get help for 3 hours, finally managed to call the wife at work, she rushed home with an ambulance shot took me to the hospital , where15 minutes after arriving I had the second stroke, which lasted about 20 minutes, the an hour later while having a CAT scan I had the 3 rd one! They could not give me the shot for stroke due to it being out of the 3 hours window. I am still suffering from75% numbness in my right leg, 50% give or take in my right arm, along with chronic fatigue, weakness and can only walk about 100 yds before I give out, but have worked hard to recover most of my upper body strength, and hand/eye coordination is good. My eyesight is as good as ever at 55 years old, and I have gratitude for that. The docs say recovery is a matter of years, not months, but I sure get aggravated at having to walk with a crutch, am hoping to one day not have to depend on it and be able to walk around freely! I did manage to get out and take a buck and huge doe in ML season in mid December, had 2 buddies that were hunting nearby come help me get them out and process them! After going thru all of this, it really makes you appreciate the simple things in life, good friends and God’s blessings!