Otony
06-13-2010, 11:24 AM
Years ago I ordered myself a Shiloh Business Rifle in .50-70 (and yes, I know that is not a rolling block).
It was a terrific rifle, and shot quite well even with my crude handloads. Home cast boolits poured into a Lee mould from lead melted in a pot over a propane stove...outside. Dixie cases packed full of black powder and slighty compressed with a wad punched from cereal boxes. The boolits were hand lubed with TC Bore Butter. Like I said, crude but it was actually my first foray into casting boolits AND loading with BP, although I had been shooting muzzleloaders for years prior to that adventure.
We have all heard that old saw about "too much of a good thing", right? Well, that was my Business Rifle. Excellent as it was, it was too much rifle weight wise for a young fellow 5'7" tall who scaled in at about 150 pounds at the time. The less said about my current tonnage the better at this point, but suffice to say I have increased my mass by about 1/3. :oops:
Anyway, I got it into my feverish little brain that I should send the rifle back to Shiloh to be transformed into a Civilian Carbine. And before long, my heavy rifle became a short and light carbine. It shot just as well as before (thank goodness!) and was the star of my small collection.
We all know that when the "fever" strikes a fellow can go blind to his actual wants and needs, and so it happened with me. Somewhere along the line a friend waved a .357 Ruger Flattop in my face along with quite a bit of cash and the Sharps just disappeared. Literally disappeared, as when I recovered my senses a few days later and tried to buy it back from him, it had already been sold at a gun show to fund a "fever" of his own. We get so soon old and so late smart as my great-aunt Francis was fond of telling me, sigh. :roll:
Over the years I have kept my eyes open for another .50-70 carbine, but even though my parents were both from Sicily, I seem to have a Scotchman's purse. Unless I could find a bargain I didn't want to invest a large sum into a niche rifle.
Patience guys, the gist has arrived. A few days ago I located a Pedersoli rolling block carbine in .45-70 sporting an octagon to round barrel. Nothing unique, just your standard Italian rolling block but it has, as we all probably know, the rather heavy barrels which Pedersoli sees fit to install. The saving grace with this one is the transistion to round from octagon which knocks a fair amount of weight off.
Still not a .45-70 you say? Well, perhaps not now but it is due for a visit to Jesse Ocumpaugh in Cottage Grove, Or for a rebore to, you guessed it, .50-70 Gummint! The best part is that opening the bore to .50 should make it that much livelier to boot. Oh, and the second best part is that I will have less than 700 bucks tied up in the deal, a reasonable enough price in this day and age to bring a smile to any good Scot, and even a 2nd hand Sicilian!
Guess I need to order another set of Lyman dies and a few Lee moulds. Anyone know if Dixie still offers .50-70 brass? :razz:
It was a terrific rifle, and shot quite well even with my crude handloads. Home cast boolits poured into a Lee mould from lead melted in a pot over a propane stove...outside. Dixie cases packed full of black powder and slighty compressed with a wad punched from cereal boxes. The boolits were hand lubed with TC Bore Butter. Like I said, crude but it was actually my first foray into casting boolits AND loading with BP, although I had been shooting muzzleloaders for years prior to that adventure.
We have all heard that old saw about "too much of a good thing", right? Well, that was my Business Rifle. Excellent as it was, it was too much rifle weight wise for a young fellow 5'7" tall who scaled in at about 150 pounds at the time. The less said about my current tonnage the better at this point, but suffice to say I have increased my mass by about 1/3. :oops:
Anyway, I got it into my feverish little brain that I should send the rifle back to Shiloh to be transformed into a Civilian Carbine. And before long, my heavy rifle became a short and light carbine. It shot just as well as before (thank goodness!) and was the star of my small collection.
We all know that when the "fever" strikes a fellow can go blind to his actual wants and needs, and so it happened with me. Somewhere along the line a friend waved a .357 Ruger Flattop in my face along with quite a bit of cash and the Sharps just disappeared. Literally disappeared, as when I recovered my senses a few days later and tried to buy it back from him, it had already been sold at a gun show to fund a "fever" of his own. We get so soon old and so late smart as my great-aunt Francis was fond of telling me, sigh. :roll:
Over the years I have kept my eyes open for another .50-70 carbine, but even though my parents were both from Sicily, I seem to have a Scotchman's purse. Unless I could find a bargain I didn't want to invest a large sum into a niche rifle.
Patience guys, the gist has arrived. A few days ago I located a Pedersoli rolling block carbine in .45-70 sporting an octagon to round barrel. Nothing unique, just your standard Italian rolling block but it has, as we all probably know, the rather heavy barrels which Pedersoli sees fit to install. The saving grace with this one is the transistion to round from octagon which knocks a fair amount of weight off.
Still not a .45-70 you say? Well, perhaps not now but it is due for a visit to Jesse Ocumpaugh in Cottage Grove, Or for a rebore to, you guessed it, .50-70 Gummint! The best part is that opening the bore to .50 should make it that much livelier to boot. Oh, and the second best part is that I will have less than 700 bucks tied up in the deal, a reasonable enough price in this day and age to bring a smile to any good Scot, and even a 2nd hand Sicilian!
Guess I need to order another set of Lyman dies and a few Lee moulds. Anyone know if Dixie still offers .50-70 brass? :razz: