Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Single Shots Who are the top makers of single shots?

I see Ballard advertise and Dakota but not many others. Are these makers any good?

Mr. EDMHunter;
There are a few makers that come to mind, but they do vary on what the final rifle looks like.

In the US, as well as the 2 makers you mentioned, you have the TC line, the new Knight, the Ruger No. 1, the NEF line and if not new, then there should be used Brownings. There seem to be a number of shops making Sharps, Winchester and Remington rolling block style rifles as well.

The Europeans have some Sharps and Remington single shots that I am aware of and there are the Merkel and Blaser single shot rifles that I have seen advertised. I haven't handled either of the last two, but the reviews seem to be very good on them.

There is a custom shop here in Canada, Martini and Hagn that make a drop block single shot action that many seem to be very happy with.

The prices on the individual models, as you can imagine, tend to vary considerably. Hopefully I haven�t omitted too many makers in my list, its still early for me.

Good luck in your search.

Regards,
Dwayne

Ballard,
Shiloh
C.Sharps Arms
Meacham
Lone Star
CPA
and a bunch of others.
Pedersoli makes pretty accurate rifles by all acounts as well - in the Sharps and Winchester configurations.

I should add that I would buy a Ballard any day that I can afford one. I would never by a Dakota, but I have no direct experience with them. Just not hearing good things about them in recent years.

I'd put the Martin & Hagn near the top of the list. If I had the moola I'd have the little one case colored and full stocked by a guild member in 6.5x55 or 250 Savage. That's dream is unlikely to be fulfilled.

Martini & Hagn! And they do perfect case coloring, stocking, engraving... well, it looks pretty perfect to me anyway! They do make magazine rifles too, but they are renowned for their single shots. Here is some porn from their website Martini & Hagn

The first one is a takedown (with both .22-250 and .308 win barrels









John (who has handled some of these fine rifles, but who has not (yet!) succumbed to temptation!

Drool!

Have you ever fondled a VO Vapen?

They use flash picts, so I can only link.

http://www.vovapen.com/production/elephant/index.html

Sadly, only one. Lovely workmanship, but the one I saw was definitely stocked for somebody with even larger hands than I (the stock had a rather thick wrist). Not a criticism -- these are custom rifles of course!

For anybody interested, the website (in English) (as given above) is VO Vapen in Sweden Personally, my tastes run to more restrained English scroll engraving, but I have to admit their engraving (even if a bit too Germanic for me!) was high quality.

I did read a test of their takedown system, and it got high marks for repeatability and the ability to compensate for any eventual wear.




Their website sure shows some nice pieces of walnut if you like marblecake!

Well hell, I'd be as excited as a tick on a monkey if I got to hold one.

I'm not sure how you got the picts up, but thanks fer sharing the love.

I find it hard to get excited over works of art. Beautiful to look at but functionally useless in the real world.

Not meant to be functional, if I had the coin I'd have a fine collection.

OMG............. [size:14pt]they're.. BEAUTIFUL ![/size]

I like em to, but the bottom line for me is how do they SHOOT.
S/S

Suit yerself, but I've never met a deer that could discern a 2MOA rifle from a 1MOA rifle inside my MPBR.

Well I would not have a problem with a 2 MOA rifle for hunting big game, but at my age I shoot alot more than I hunt so It would have to shoot at least as good as my tuned # 1's.

Does anyone know just how good a group they will shoot at 100 yds. ? or are they more like what MickinColo said, works of art, beautiful to look at, but functionally useless for huntin and/or shootin.
S/S

They are exponentially out of my price range, so I have no clue. I have no reason to believe either the Martini & Hagn nor the VO Vapen shoot poorly. I would be devastated if I scratched up the marblecake walnut root. I'd need a full rifle condom before I took it into the mesquite thicket.

I would be devastated if I scratched all the money it takes to buy one and it only shot 2 or 3 inch groups.
S/S

I would be devastated if I scratched up all the money it takes to buy one and it only shot 2 or 3 inch groups.
S/S

Those MH's sure are nice, but dang, way outa my league. And then if had that kind of capitol ,,I could have one custom Encore barrel for every week of the year, or 3 #1's for every continent.

Dave

If I was buying a modern singleshot rifle, I'd be buying a Ballard or a Shiloh Sharps. Both are extremely well put together, and can be purchased for less money than an original of the same name.
Of course my tastes run toward old style singles, so that is my reason for choosing these two makers.

SS