Wow, I am not sure what I started here! I had been looking at the C. Sharps and the Shiloh Sharps sights and was thinking of getting a cartridge rifle to shoot at the range and maybe do some hunting with. There was a C. Sharps '74 in a local gun shop and that is about the only one I've seen, so maybe I need to get out to Big Timber and take a look at the rifles. Or get out to a BPCR shoot. Any big ones coming up on the east coast?
I agree with Otter. You didn't start anything.
As to Sharps, I'm not as experienced as some. I have owned two of the older type "1874" replicas made in Italy, a real 1859 Cavalry Conversion Carbine, two 1874 newer Pedersolis and a Shiloh. The first two aren't even exact replicas. The two newer Pedersolis are nice weapons. The old, antique Sharps was what it was. The Shiloh is best of all, better even than the antique-of course it was nearly new and the antique was very old.
The Shiloh I got shot hunting groups right after I got it home with non-tailored ammo that probably has bullets too short for the twist. Longer, heavier ones will probably dial it in even better when I get to that. Point-being, they are accurate guns with great potential. These aren't even handloads tailored to the rifle.
The Pedersolis are okay but not in the class of a Shiloh. IMO they are too high for what they are. A Quigley model which has some upgrades, is probably $1500 new whereas you can probably spend $700 more and get a Shiloh. To me, it's not worth the savings to fool with the Italian gun, plus you get an heirloom that was made here by people here with the Shiloh. I don't think you could find a $600 Pedersoli now that was one of the newer, desirable ones.
I tailored loads and shot my little carbine too. It was fun with real black and 500 grain homemade bullets. The old guns are old guns though and a carbine is not the same as an 1874 hunter, buffalo, target, silhouette or whatever gun.
I wouldn't have one of the early Italian guns. One of mine wouldn't even fire though it was brand-new, just out of the box. Those guns show up quite a bit and don't even look right.
