Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting Elk with a sharps!

Who has done it? I have a 45/70 sharps that I want to take out west. Looking at a cow/spike hunt in Utah on horseback. Never been out west or elk hunted, but thought it would mean more to kill one with the old sharps. I'm fine with tag soup but at the same time I want to make sure my equipt will do the job and not be chasing a wounded animal all over the mountains. I load 405 hard casts at about 1300fps. I have no doubt about putting one in the boiler room at 150 or less. Is this feasible, or do I need to just take my 375 h&h or 30-06

Can’t see why not if that’s what you want to do.

I carried an1886 Win 45-70, that weighed 13 pounds fully loaded, shooting 405 gr jacketed bullets and killed a few elk with it, so a Sharps will do the same thing.I got tired of lugging it around and it was hard to keep my saddle straight when it was riding in the scabbard. As long as you are not hunting big open country, go for it.Mine carried a Williams receiver sight .The two elk I killed with it were less than 50 feet.

My sharps prob is in the 11lb range. Ive never been a long range person as its not common where I hunt here in SC unless you hunt beanfields. Furthest shot at a deer was 210 yds. Most have been 100 or less. I thought about taking my marlin or even one of my 375's. Ive been eyeing some win 71's as well. All my guns are heavy so it will be a tossup picking the lightest. I didn't want to overthink it and I figured Id have pretty good opportunity to get close with a cow or spike tag. I'm odd and like doing things the hard way. Hopefully this season i'll lay a few whitetails down with it. Decided not to pick up another rifle until the sharps gets to bark.

Sounds like fun. But for your first elk, may be asking quite a bit. Especially if you are going on a DIY hunt.

What Ive done with similar armament, I REALLY recommend a jacketed soft point over the hard cast. If you insist on using hard cast, aim for bone. Thank me later.

This will be guided. It shoots the 350gr hornadys well too. I can push tgem a hair faster too since i dont have to worry about leading. Maybe work up a 400 gr jacketed load?

Sounds interesting. Who will you be hunting with? I have a sharps saddle rifle that should be perfect for this type hunt.

I've carried a 45-70 Sharps to Africa shooting cast bullets at 1240 fps. It worked like a champ. Go to youtube and look up "Black Powder zebra kill" to see a Sharps put it on a zebra at 161 yards. Definitely use a hardcast flatnosed bullet. I have also taken two elk with a 45-70 Sharps with black powder and cast lead bullets. I can't for the life of me see why anyone would want to use a jacketed bullet when a hard cast flatnosed bullet works so well.

I use 405 laser cast over 3031. My guide gun will shoot em in the same hole and my sharps will do about the same. Ive always been of the mindset to keep the 45/70 for what it is. It killed a pile of stuff with a 405gr lead bullet at 12-1400 fps. If you want more, buy a 458 win mag imo. I load my 45 colts the same way. 255 swc at 900fps.

That bullet and 3031 is a great combination. I would say you are good to go.

Just watched that video. That was stellar sir. Older I get the less I'm concerned about what I kill and more concerned about how I do it. In a day of instant gratification, its nice to really appreciate the hunt whether you kill anything or not. Ive talked to the guide and his everyday rifle is a marlin 95 cowboy with iron sights. When I mentioned about wanting to hunt with a sharps, he sounded pretty excited. I figured a horseback hunt with cabin tents and cooks, it would only be fitting to use a levergun or a sharps and have a 45 single action on your hip. Its the stuff you dream of doing as a kid reading Elmer Keith

People kill elk with bows and arrows. I doubt there is an elk made capable of stopping that slug (405). Have at it.

One of the elk I killed with the 405 gr and 3031, I shot it broadside about 30 feet, it turned, came down the hill towards me and dropped about 5 feet in front of me

I have killed elk w/ a 45-70 & a 50-90, both loaded w/ the "Holy Black"
They worked as well as anything else! At bp velocities use a soft(40 or 50-1)
alloy. The 50 weighed right at 9 pounds, you knew you had fired a real rifle!

any of ya'll use verniers on your sharps? Ive been thinking about adding one and there are so many, its hard to know which would be the best for the money and the job

Both of mine had tang sights, think the Marble, Lyman types one would see on a Savage
or Winchester lever action. I like any aperture type sight! I use a vernier for match shooting
and believe it may be a little delicate??

Whatever you put on there for a sight make sure it is tough. Horses tend to be hard on stuff.

Keep the Vernier off your hunting gun. Not only are they fragile, but most importantly, they are too slow to adjust for different distances. BTDT. The standard barrel ladder sights, correlated with a laser rangefinder, are the way to go. An elk broadside at 400 yards is an absolute gimme with a ladder buckhorn sight and a blade front. I have taken numerous animals in Africa at distances in excess of 300 yards with barrel sights and blade front, including kudu, wildebeest, springbok, and blesbok. I have taken blesbok at 451 yards, and a springbok at 540 yards, first shot, with barrel sights and cast bullets. I have most of it on dvd. Learn to use the barrel sights, and you are way ahead of the game.

good deal, that's what I wanted to know. I wish mine was a buckhorn. Its a tiny little narrow rear sight. I wanna see if the buckhorn from c sharps will work on it

if you ever get a wild hair to make a copy of that DVD id love to watch it

The buckhorn from C. Sharps is not the one to have. Leave it alone.

U have a suggestion as to where to get one from?

Check your PM and call me.

45/70 and elk are like peas and carrots

sharpsguy got me squared away. Time to start practicing. Ya'll can post some sharps elk pics if you want though.

Killed a 6x6 bull at 213 lasered yards with my Marlin .45-70 and a 350g North Fork FP launched at 2181fps. The bullet obliterated sections of the left front leg and near rib, shattered a far rib and came to rest under the hide. The bull never took a step. The day before I had killed a nice buck at 197 lasered yards, quartering away. Bullet exited and the fresh snow looked like someone had sloshed blood out of a bucket. The buck made a tight circle, took a few steps and went down forever.

Take your Sharps and have fun. Don't forget a sharp knife.

Sounds like an exciting hunt! Doing it with a Sharps will make it so much more special.

I have shot plenty and seen more big game shot with Sharps cartridges and people seem to think that these big bullets will knock a big animal down. Unless you brain or spine them, they won't go down right away. I have shot more than 70 elk with a 30-06 and 300 WBY, and continue to hunt elk with those cartridges as I don't want to lose an elk.

This buffalo was 4 shoots and all but one passed completely through with 500 grain bullets. The lst shot was in the back of the head with a 405 grain hard cast...

I'll be trying for cow elk this fall with a Sharps rifle and paper patch ammo, haven't decided which cartridge to use yet, shot a bedded 1800 lb bull Eland in the right ham in Africa last November at 60 yards with my 50-90 Sharps and a 750 gr grease groove bullet, he dropped his head and never moved after the shot, the skinner handed me the bullet from his left shoulder, near 9 feet of penetration, the bullet still weighs 743 grains, I was floored with that level of straight line penetration.

Busted a big old blue/black Sable bull at 99 yards too, bullet blew through him like he was made from a sheet of notebook paper.

Thats my plan gunner. Go after a cow or spike and maybe try and sneak in a mulie. Mr Bill got me squared away. Was on vac in mtns chasing trout and had to rush to ER yest morning with what turned out to be gall stones. Now laying in hospital after surgery. Gonna have a week or so off work so itll be time i can do some reloading

Holy Damn! and happy healing Phoneman, hope your stitching holds up and heals in time for elk season.

I have not used a Sharps for elk but, have used my Browning B-78 .45/70 for several. The load I used was a lead 510 gr. paper patched bullet running 1650 fps. The elk either dropped at the shot or made 5 or 6 steps Although that load worked very well still, I thought the bullet should have exited on broadside shots. Were I to do it again, I would maybe get the hardness up to around 12 bhn for more penetration but, since it ain't broke.......
Here is a pic of the load and two recovered bullets from different elk.

Yup, it's just a matter of knowing your limitations with the rifle.

Ranch, what kind of Sharps was that and what caliber??

When sharpsguy speaks Sharps and bullets, consider him as "The Oracle At Delphi." He kindly invited me to his place a few years ago. I didn't know sheitfromshinola about Sharps, black podwer, paper patch bullets, etc. Within about half an hour, he had me hitting his steel ram...at five hundred yards with ladder sights and one of his copper penny front sights he affixed to my rifle. The next year I went buffler hunting with Evil Twin (who gave me the rifle as a retirement gift) and Doc Rocket in Wyoming. It was a classic hunt and a classic scene, right out of the 1870s. I lined this one up at a lazered 92 yards and shot him with a 485gr Parker Hale greaser. When I came off recoil, all I saw were four legs up in the air.

Jorge, Mr Bill and I have talked several times over the past few weeks about sharps and life and all sorts of things. He extended the same offer and I hope that maybe I can extend an AR duck hunting weekend a little further and head to texas and take him up on the offer. Its pretty awesome when someone is passionate about something and is willing to extend their knowledge to a newbie like myself. I hadn't had a chance to really try out the stuff he told me since I had emergency gall bladder surgery right after I talked with him the first time and didn't wanna rip something open. Just been keeping in practice with the old 22's. I gotta say, I do love the site and hope to one day make one of ya'lls meetups.

You will learn more from Bill in one hour than you will anywhere else in ten years.

Its a Taylors I bought about 20 years ago. It's typical Italian, has a very long chamber, so while it's stamped 45-70 it needs a case 2.25 or longer.
The load that it uses best is 85 grains of 1f with a 500-540 gr paper patch bullet.
Poor little raghorn dang near beat his shadow to the ground when that chuck of lead hit him about 204 yards from the muzzle.