Originally Posted by
Bent Ramrod
The bores on Shilohs are tapered as well.
I got the Factory Tour from Bob (I think; maybe it was Kirk and Bob showed me the Foundry) a few years back, and he handed me some drilled and reamed, but as yet unrifled barrel blanks. He pointed out to me that the shadow lines were isoceles triangles from breech to muzzle, indicating a steady taper all the way along the bore.
I asked Bob (or Kirk) how he did that, and he said, “I could tell you, but then I’d have to kill you.”
Shiloh is really a fully-tooled-up custom gun shop; comparing their product with a factory doing mass production isn’t exactly fair. The Pedersolis are built to better standards of precision than most of the originals, at least, and can hold their own with any other factory product. There’s nothing standing in the way of further improvement in their products, if sufficient customer interest and complaints are noted and they can be accomplished in a cost effective manner.
In that respect, Dick Trenk’s passing was a real loss, as he seemed to be the conduit for passing American customer wishes over to the Italians. If he’d stayed with us a few more years, a Pedersoli might have won a 5-at-200 or two.
One of our National Champions shoots a Pedersoli Gibbs muzzle loader. If he could find any defects in its shooting, I would imagine that he would spring for one of Lee Shaver’s handmade versions. But he hasn’t.
I recall a time when even the Elect were complaining about and unscrewing Shiloh Sharps barrels and replacing them with Badgers and Green Mountains, and this was well into the Big Timber era, not just the notorious early Farmingdale product. But the factory quality came up and most of the replacing stopped.
I myself have started plinking away at water bottles with my Garrett Sharps carbine again. As soon as Fish&Game finishes their repairs to our Silhouette range, I have a bunch of loads to test in my Pedersoli/Cabela’s Long Range Sharps that was pooched out to .45-2.6”. Still haven’t gotten a Paper Patch load to work, and picked up several new boolit moulds to play with. I’ve kind of been missing the Fun aspect of Sharps shooting lately in the grim pursuit of better Silhouette scores. (At my age, I don’t think a National Championship is in the cards, but nobody has more Fun than I do.) The Italian clones are plenty good enough to take care of that aspect of the sport. My poor record of luring people, who have the guns and the loads, out to compete in our matches is a pretty good indication of what a rarefied, small market the Serious Competitors actually are. And will continue to be.