How Did You Get Started In Single Shots?

[No_1]

I will start. Bought a Siamese Mauser Sported at a local gunshow that was chambered in 30-40 Krag. Took it to the gunsmith for a re-barrel to 45-70. He checked it out and convinced me to keep it as is since he test fired it and proclaimed "it is a shooter". I promtly ordered 1000 cases and a boat-load of j word bullets then proceeded to work up loads. After the first range session while cleaning the brass I noticed the cases had a strange bulge in them. Close inspection found a bad chamber job. I burried the rifle in the back of the safe until I could find a ackley improved reamer to try to clean it up. Meanwhile there is a chili cook-off / junk sale at the local range one Saturday. While browsing around I find this #3 in 30-40 with a fixed 12x scope on it for $400. Beautiful rifle. Just so happens it is on the table of an old guy that I see a lot at the range. We chatted a little and he dropped the price to $300. After that I was hooked. Bought 3 more #3's in about a 2 month period the started getting #1's. I love those rifles! I have thinned out all the guns in my safe that mean nothing to me and have started collecting the single shots. Don't get me wrong, there will always be other gun styles that catch my eye which I buy but I truely love the singles.

Robert

[AkMike]

Many moons ago, my Granddad would let me have only one 22 shell per day for my bolt Stevens unless I showed him a sparrow that I colllected with that shell. If'n I missed I didn't get another shell til the next day.
Long after that I found my first schutzen Ballard with the complete kit. I've still got her!

[threett1]

Well, I was 11 years old and was nagging my Dad for a 22....

[dragonrider]

My first single shot was a TC Contender with a 10" 357 barrel, I promptly bought several more barrels, then a TCR 87 came along for a good price with a 45/70 barrel, and I had a Mauser barrel hanging around in 7.62x39 so I made a mono-bloc for the TCR and mounted that barrel in it. That worked out pretty well so I will be making some more. So many calibers, so little time.
Being older and slower than I used to be makes the single shots more appealing.

[kodiak1]

Seen A Sharps on T.V back when they were only in Black and White and at 7 years old I swore to myself that I would buy one of them. Well the older I got the more things got in the way wife, kids, grandkids you know how it goes. Well when I turned 45 I said that's it I have put off whagt I want for almost fourty years and things are getting to a pace that I can handle with my family soooo,
I bought meself a C.Sharps 1875 in 40-90SBN. Love it as much as my wife. Well one is never enough and you always see something else that you should own.
Ken.

[cabezaverde]

I think I fell into it. Just liked the idea of loading a single cartridge, that feeling of I'm dropping this into the chamber and it is my only chance (when hunting).

Started with Contender pistol and carbines, graduated to Ruger #3 and #1 rifles, and have lately been fooling around with an H&R Target Rifle.

[Bigjohn]

I think I sort of mellowed into it. Started the burn up the ammo as fast as possible with Semi-Autos and Auto in the Military.

Bolts and levers came and went then the single shot breech loading lever action rifles in Black and white powders. I think I will stay.

John

[No_1]

I am very found of the falling blocks. I have looked at the break-actions but to me they just don't have the appeal that warms my blood. Want to loan me a contender for a short spell? Maybe something in 7-30 waters? It may change my mind.

Robert


I think I fell into it. Just liked the idea of loading a single cartridge, that feeling of I'm dropping this into the chamber and it is my only chance (when hunting).

Started with Contender pistol and carbines, graduated to Ruger #3 and #1 rifles, and have lately been fooling around with an H&R Target Rifle.

[waksupi]

I believe the movie was Winchester 73. I seem to recall that the rifle was stolen from the hero, and he got a Sharps out. He poked around a bit, getting set, and plugged the guy off his horse at long range. I knew I had to have one.

[Four Fingers of Death]

My first centrefire was a 310 cadet. Had a No1 in 220Swift some years back and now have a Browning BPCR and a H&R Trapdoor in 45/70. You couldn't really call me a single shot shooter as I have had about three hundred rifles between those three :D

[cabezaverde]

I am very found of the falling blocks. I have looked at the break-actions but to me they just don't have the appeal that warms my blood. Want to loan me a contender for a short spell? Maybe something in 7-30 waters? It may change my mind.

Robert

I agree 100%. I live in an area of NY where one cannot hunt deer with a rifle, but can with a handgun chambered in a rifle cartridge as long as the hunter has a NY pistol permit. Hence keeping the Contenders.

[Bent Ramrod]

I saw the picture of the Low Wall Deluxe .22 Hornet in Howe's gunsmithing book and later bought DeHaas' "Single Shot Rifles and Actions" and figured that was the way rifles ought to look. The range in Tucson didn't allow any but single loading for rifles anyway, so it wasn't too impractical that I could see. I've branched out some since, but the single shots are the ones I look for first when I go to a store or show.

[floodgate]

I was given an off-brand ("Continental Arms Co.") .22 single-shot bolt action when I was 12; a friend of my Dad's had won it off a punchboard in a bar (anyone here remember punchboards?), and started my shooting career with it in the mid-'40's. Then I saw an ad from Jim Serven's shop in Santa Ana, advertising Trapdoor .45-70's for $10.00, $12.50 and $15.00; I talked my folks into loaning me enough to go the "whole hog", and the local Undersheriff gave me a handful of old loaded cartridges they'd had lying around for years; that was my start with REAL S/S's. Now I've got a battered but solid old Ballard No. 5 "Pathetic", rebored to .45-70, and am finishing up the No.44 Stevens "parts" piece in .22 Maynard we talked about last week or so; georgewxxx kindly "gave" me a #228151 Ideal mould for it he'd picked up at a recent gun show (of course, I now owe him one - and glad of the chance!). Great folks here!

floodgate

[boommer]

WELL you can believe this or not true story !! got aH@R 410 when I was about 12 YRS old and I was hunting pheasants in south west colorado It was great birding there this bird jumped almost stept on him shot him I thought I picked him up started
walking along and then all of a sudden I mean he came to life freaked me out !!
off went my first pheasant I think the blast knocked him out first bird I had shot with a shotgun and there he went GOOD-BYE I need a pump!!!!!!!!!

[357maximum]

stevens favorite 22 from dad at the ripe age of 5 or 6, stevens crackshot was borrowed forever as fate would have it from a dear old uncle at age 8. from there the list changed a lot of times, went through the whole repeater/pump/auto/bolt fad, and now find myself happy with singles of various flavors spiced up with a few levers,bolters, da revolvers,and O/U's to waste ammo in and one big boom boom semi auto goose gun to teach big things that fly about gravity....still have the crackshot, like i said I borrowed it forever, or until someone borrows it from me forever, I think the nephew will get it...

Now that i have the encore platform to work with,,, a few safe queens may get turned into barrels...but I just cannot decide what ones to part with yet...

I generally choose to deer/rabbit/squirrel hunt with a single shot, something different when you get just that one poke....always has...always will I spose...and seldom do you need more than one...it just kinda works...

[PPpastordon]

My first single shot was an Essex 20guage shotgun. I was only about 8 then. It seemed that single shot did everything I could hope for. My first single shot rifle was a Winchester Low Wall that, after I bought it, I found out how badly I had been suckered. It had been rebarreled (actually, junked) into a .256 Winchester Magnum and the chamber was oval. In a short time the barrel came loose. I then traded it to the man I had got it from for his original Stevens Tip-Up target pistol. Sometimes I am a little slow. But after this second "deal" with this man, I quit dealing with him because I found out this original wasn't.
However, two bad deals still got me hooked on single shots and I have not been without one in the 39 years since then. It was also during this time I met a man named Maurice "Stoke" Stokenberry (hope that is spelled right) from the Shawnee Mission, KS, area who was a true single shot fan. He had several High Walls with single set triggers, double set triggers, and close coupled triggers. He had an engraved Remington-Hepburn action, and many other exotic single shot actions and firearms. He influenced me greatly in my love of single shots.

[dk17hmr]

My dad bought me one of these little critters on my 8th b-day...
http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f208/dk17hmr/chip.jpg
In doing so he turned me into what some might call a firearms finatic


By the way that is a custom made adaptor so I can shoot it now without looking like a retard. They are suprising accurate with federal bulk ammo. I have taken many a head of squirrel and rabbit with that little rifle.

[Kraschenbirn]

Picked up a Savage 219 in .22 Hornet (along with a dozen boxes of old military survival gun ammo) in trade deal back in the late 1970s. Found that I really liked the Hornet and traded the Savage (and an old S&W .38) for a Ruger #3, also in Hornet. Around that same time, I became involved with IHMSA and there followed the inevitable string of TC Contenders and barrels along with a couple of XP-100s. Got out of the silhouette game a few years back and sold/traded most of the TC stuff and the XPs. My current stable of single-shots consists of that first Ruger #3, an H&R Trapdoor carbine, a McGowan-barrelled .308 built on a Rem. 700 action, and an SSK Contender in 7mm JDJ #2 that I couldn't bear to part with when the rest of my silhouette stuff went down the road. Shopping around for an RB or, maybe, an M71 Mauser.

Bill

[threett1]

Kraschenbirn, wonder if I have your old 219. Wanted one for a long time and finally come across one last year. Has a Weaver K4 on it and I can do an honest inch at 100 with 45gr jwords, Lil Gun and small pistol primers. Love it.

[Kraschenbirn]

Kraschenbirn, wonder if I have your old 219. Wanted one for a long time and finally come across one last year. Has a Weaver K4 on it and I can do an honest inch at 100 with 45gr jwords, Lil Gun and small pistol primers. Love it.

If it's been somewhat worked over...reblued, muzzle crowned, stock refinished, Herter's recoil pad to extend the length of pull (I've got long arms), etc...it just might be. When I got it the piece was pretty beat up; the previous owner (an Air Force captain) had just returned from Alaska where he'd packed it as a survival gun when flying bush planes off-duty. After a bit of TLC, it shot pretty good, too. Used to pop rats off the piles of spoiled corn left after cleaning the grain dryers and those hot military FMJs would sort of vaporize the little rascals.

Bill

[Frank46]

I started off with singleshots about1967 after I got out of the navy. First was a 1884 ramrod trapdoor. No matter what I did I could get anything even remotely resembling a group. Sometimes you could hear the bullets wizzing away. Next was a lo-wall in 32-20. That shot fairly nice even at 100yds. Someone smarter that me bought both of them for my asking price. He shows up at the range and now the trapdoor is bellowing white smoke and doing bulleyes. The lo-wall he changed the bullet (I had been using #311316 gc) He was shooting a loverin type bullet. So during those years most shooting was done with military rifles and J-word bullets. About 6 years ago the bug bite me and bought a Ruger #1 in 45/70.
Largest GCbullet lyman makes just squeeks by at .459. Does fair shooting buy need something fatter in the way of diameter. Gonna have LBT make up a .462 bullet mold and see what happens next. Also have a martini greener special police shotgun that will most likely become a 45/70. No crash and burn loads. Just safe and sane ones. Then there is a winchester hi-wall action that I have had for over twenty years. Double set triggers w/schutzen trigger guard. That has me stumped for caliber though. Thinking some type 38/375 caliber for cast. AsI've gotten older I don't hunt anymore but like to sit down with a single shot and do my thing. Oh yes, almost forgot the 310 cadet marting that I recently got a bbl for ogg ebone. Or did up a old and tired BSA 12 or 12/15 and have a new 32-20 bbl on it with a faster twist to shoot 150 160 gr cast bullets. Frank

[Boz330]

Frank,
I have that mold from LBT and could send you a couple boolits to try if you would like to try some before you spend the bucks. I use them in a 577-450 Martini.

How about a 38-56 in that highwall.

Bob

[hpdrifter]

Ever since I can remember; the Browning...errra Winchester HiWall has been the best looking and the epitome of rifles for me. I wanted one in 45-70 so bad,...I was like the boy in "A Christmas Story". Well, I've never been able to turn loose of the $$$ for one of those, so I've had to settle for the H&R 45-70. I've got the 22" and the 32" barrel fitted to the action.

Lately, since I've got two 45-70's now and have the "hots" for it KINDA outta the system, I've got the "need" for 38-55. So, I might like to have a hiwall in the 38. I KNOW I'd love to have one, but me caliber is ????????.

[Tom W.]

I have always liked the looks of a Ruger #1B, but had a hard time affording one while the boys were in school and I was married to my first wife. I bought two NEF handi-rifles at various times, but still wanted that #1. After I divorced and remarried, and the kids all graduated H.S,/ I found a bit more cash in my pocket. When my Mother-in- law died, she left us a few dollars and I bought a Weatherby MK.V, but after a year still wasn't happy. I took it to a gun show and traded it for a #1B and never looked back! I now have two #1's and two Handi rifles, as well as an Encore pistol in 30/06.

[Frank46]

Bob, 38-56 in a high wall. HUmmm interesting. Is this the case that can be formed out of 45/70 brass??. And whats the specs for the LBT mold. and does it come with gas check?. The ruger is my number one to shoot when I'm in a singleshot frame of mind. But ruger messed up on at least two things. First off the standard sights leave much to be desired. They should have set it up with at least one standing leaf, then another folding leaf for 150yds, then another folding leaf for 200yds and the last a folding leaf for 300yds. And put on a globe front sight with more than half a dozen apertures or soo you could use the same sight apertures the brcr guys do. And lengthen that stubby 22"bbl to more like 26" and make it heavier. Now I gotta get off my soap box. Or bring back the lyman cenntenial rifle they had some years ago. Only saw one in its box since then. Frank

[Phil]

I've just always liked the looks of some single shot rifles. The Ruger No.1, Highwall, Sharps Borchardt and 1875, and Martini in particular. Then there is the Trapdoor, Snider, hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm......................guess I just like single shot rifles in general.

Cheers,

Phil

[44 magnum]

I started with a Ruger #1 in 7mSTW that I bought from my BIL to use in WY on a deer hunt. Love that style rifle. Financial concerns forced the sale of that fine rifle several years later. But then got into TC Contenders/Encores and IHMSA shooting and havent bought any other style handgun since. I really like the single shots!! :mrgreen:


Paul :cool:

[PPpastordon]

Kraschenbirn;
Kind of reminds me of my first experience in a .22 Hornet. I was living in KS at the time and met a guy who was bemoaning having to poison red wing blackbirds. Said poison was a terrible way to go for anything. The wife and I volunteered to begin shooting, along with a few other friends.
I had never hunted anything with that old Hornet (Mod 43 Winchester). I was amazed at how humanely it killed. First shot was just over 100 yards and the next thing I knew there was nothing but a big puff of feathers where the bird had just been. The longest shots available were never much further than that and the results were always the same. Closer shots, like 50 yards or so, simply made bigger puffs of feathers!
It was a more humane death. Quick is better - even for people. An old friend's drinking toast ended with, "and may your soul be in heaven a half hour before the devil knows your dead." Back then I could sure drink to that. Now, I'll just "Amen" it.

[Mickey Rat]

My first gun was a Sears bolt action 410 ss. It sucked. Ther was no bevel going into the chamber, so you had to look at it to load it. I lost a bunch of wounded squirrels by taking my eyes off them long enough to reload.

Year passed and guns accumulated. A few years ago, a quick count reveles over 200 guns. I have since started selling them off. I still have nearly 100 rifles.

I recently realized that a lot of my guns were bought for their action type or caliber, not because I had any real use for them. I realized that a TC Encore would probably be just right for me because I enjoy shooting and reloading more than hunting.

I bought a TC Encore in 375 JDJ on Auction Arms for 415.00. Not a bad price for a complete NIM Encore. I kinda like big bores (I have a 444, 3 45-70, a 375 H&H & a 458 WM) and wildcats. The 375 JDJ (444-375) is just a wildcat 375 Winchester. I went on vacation a few days after recieving the new gun and dies. While on vacation, I bought a 243 barrel for 199.00 at Sportsman's Warehouse.

I plan on using cheap Simmons 3x9x40 scopes (I buy them wholesale for 18.00 each) and leave them on the barrels for load development and just plinking. Any barrels that I plan on hunting with will get a better scope (my favorite is the Burris Balistic Plex mil dot 2x7x42). The more accurate barrels will get target scopes.

I like the 308 based rounds and will probably stick with sub-30 calibers.

[smokemjoe]

Back in the late 60s when the old hunter had Rem. Rolling Blocks for $.92 a pound, Couldnt get one for years later, Then A old boy in Des moines Ia . took me out to shoot and he had Schutezn rifles and that got me going then, about 1982, but I play with anthing that shoots a lead bullet. Smokemjoe

[WBH]

It all started with a Stevens Favorite in .22RF. Now it's up to a 50-90.

I think I'll stop there. My shoulder will appreciate the decision.

[7BRU]

I got my start with a contender pistol. deer hunting in NE Georgia with a bolt action rifle was just to easy. one weekend I ran off without my shells for my favorite rifle. not a problem a buddy of mine said.

here hunt with this. it was an early model contender pistol in .44 magnum.

the rest is history

BRU

[NoDakJak]

During the early fifties I was a southeern Iowa Farmboy and learned to shoot a friends Stevens Favorite. It is amazing that I ever continued shooting because this thing was evidently an "Asperly Aimless" in drag! Danged, wore out old thing shot as far sideways as it did forward. I have had dozens of singleshots since then but have never managed to acquire a Favorite with a good barrel. Ah well! I love all singleshots but the Martinis are my favorite.
I rarely shoot the big boomers any more as I don't need my brains rattled any further. I sure love English Style Rook Rifles though. Neil
Smokemjoe; I was raised in the Winterset/Lorimer area. Where ya be lad?

[badgeredd]

My Dad and Granddad both emphasized making the first shot count. My first firearm was a break top 410 shotgun from Montgomery Wards when I was 12 from my Dad. Later I bought an old Winchester pump 22 that wouldn't feed so I loaded one at a time. After becoming an adult I bought my fair share of multi shots but got the Single Shot Bug again when I found a nasty, shot out, beat-up Low Wall for the grand total of $200 out the door at a local gun shop. I re-barreled it with a Shilen barrel and chambered it for 218 Mashburn Bee. That little bugger will shoot sub 1" groups anytime I am up to it. NOW I have to start loading cast in it to see how good I can get it to shoot. BTW the low wall impressed me so much, I built 2 more rifles as single shots starting with '93 Mauser (shortened) actions; one in 22 Super Jet and the other in 218 Mashburn Bee.

[ktw]

My first single shot was a bolt action Savage-Anschutz 164 Sporter that I had lost the magazine to. Shot it that way a lot of years, squirrels and metallic silhouette, before picking up some new magazines for it.

I later developed in an interest in traditional muzzleloaders, then falling bloc single shots. Along the way I also ended up with a pair of Contender carbines. Now half of my rifles are single shots and 3/4 of them have external hammers.

-ktw

[SWIAFB]

My first single shot was a beat up, hand made stock, Remington bolt action at 9 years off age. Being a farm boy with a section of land to haunt, the folks let me have free range. Hee Hee Hee, both mom and dad where buying me bricks of shorts. At 12 dad got me a H & R 20 ga single. Funny thing is his 22 and 20 ga where both auto,s. I still have all 4 of the mentioned firearms. NoDakJack, I was raised between Winterset/Greenfield, south of Port, Northwest of Hebron. Do you know any Kirklands ? Their relatives of mine.

[bearcove]

Stevens crackshot. My mom inherited from her uncle. They used it for 30-40- yrs to put down hogs and steers for butchering. 30 years ago I learned to shoot with it. Best thing for a kid teaches them to make it count.

Now I'm a contender and encore fan. 17 barrels and counting.

[StrawHat]

My first rifle was a single shot 22 Winchester (Model 67?).

After that, I went the magazine rifle route but eventually came to prefer 19th century single shots.

Everything from 22 WCF to 50-70.

I will probably be trading off the large bores for medium and small bores as recoil is taking it's toll on me.

[Johnw...ski]

My first single shot was a Navy Arms rolling block that I found in a gun shop as a basket case. It was the rolling block action , stocks and the Navy Arms 45-70 barrel kit unassembled and unheadspaced. Turned into a fine rifle, should have kept it.

I moved on to a Winchester Model 52 C with iron target sights and set up for a Lyman Super Target Spot Scope. Nice but didn't have the appeal of the old single shots.

Next one was another project, a friend sold me a Greener Martini 14 ga. shotgun and a very nice 45-70 barrel. Everything worked out well building it and it was a fine shooting rifle. I managed to lighten up the trigger pull a bit, but it still had to be in the high single digits, thats pounds not ounces. Shot well though, with a Lyman Super Target Spot scope. Another one that got away.

Been building them ever since off and on.

I am the guy with the FDH#2, and the New Single Shot Rifle, that have been in other threads. Other than the Winchester 52, I have never bought a finished single shot. They have all required more rather than a little work.

John