Home Forums Hunting & Shooting BPCR My first Shiloh Sharps

If you are not a member on Shilo’s forum you should join. A good bunch of knowledgeable and mostly😂 friendly people on there including the owners of Shiloh Kirk and Lucinda Bryant (brother and sister)
https://shilohrifle.com/forums/viewforum.php?f=2&sid=3fb6474e7f8230d711b4fffb1a9e2096

Pacecars,
Thanks for posting again. We never get tired of good Quality Pieces, and Mentioning Sir Bill Bagwell, being the previous owner of the Rough Rider says a lot. IMO!

Nice comparable picture of Both.

HS 58

HS 58,
The Business rifle has a connection to Sir Bagwell also. I had ordered a similar .50-90 rifle but with a heavy octagon barrel through Bill Goodman. Right after I ordered it Sir Bagwell let me know that Goodman had just posted the round barrel Business Rifles on his site. We all know how Bill loved the Business Rifles for hunting. I called Mr Goodman and asked if I could cancel the octagon barreled gun and switch to a Business Rifle. Sir Bagwell told me a .45-70 would be better😉. He also saved me money again by telling me to get the heavy bullets with the twist in the .50-90

Range report.

I threw together some 405 laser cast bullets and a starting load of 5744. I didn't chrono but it should be about 1300 ish. I loaded as long as I could without having to force them to chamber. Oal 2.615. I shot at 110 yards. I shot about 3-4 inch group about 3-4 inches high. I really feel the if my eyes weren't 59 I could have cut the group size in half.
Then I practiced on a paper plate sized steel. It makes a nice impressive whack and really swings it around.
I think I am going to start looking for some type of rear peep just due to my eyes, but I am very happy with my purchase and how it shoots!! Thanks to everyone for the tips! I can't wait to try black and some good cast in the future.

Thanks for straightening me out on that. What a luxury it was for all you Fine gentlemen to have known him!

HS 58

Check the diameter of those bullets, your rifle will shoot best with .458 diameter. That much vertical could be either from needing a bit more load development or check your position on the bench making sure that when you settle into position that you don't need to adjust the rifle very far up down or sideways to get on the center.

The bullets are 459. I don't believe it was position. I think if I upped the charge/velocity it might move a bit lower.

When you put the front sight in the rear sight notch, how much of that front sight is showing? A very small change in the height can give you the amount of POI you are experiencing. Also, if your light source is more to one side or the other, it can affect your lateral dispersion.

These things are some of the pointers that Bill Bagwell emphasized when I was shooting with him at his place. He convinced me to go the copper penny route and to bury the tip of the front sight deep in the rear sight notch with just the bright point of light from the tip of that sight showing.

As to the penny getting dull with corrosion, just remember back to those old movies about frontiersmen who licked their thumb and swiped at the front sight before they shot? They were keeping that front sight tip nice and polished.
Aim small, miss small.

Ed

Yes Bill said the same to me and just a few passes of a coat sleave pulls the tarnish off the copper right slick..mb

5744 hits a sweet spot and anything above and anything below isn't going to shoot well. You probably need to spend a bit of time load testing. But given the range report you have a load that will suffice for hunting as is if you don't have time to do a bit more testing. And you may never get that a 405 grain bullet to shoot real well some rifles are just like that.

Bill Bagwell and I talked a lot, I forget now what size needle file he used to open the notch on the Shiloh barrel sight, but as this rifle is used someone may have already done it.
We talked a lot about the front sight thing too. I did make a couple of penny fronts, but when it comes to crunch time and slogging around in the snow storm and that 30 inch mule deer buck stands up at 100 yards and you can't pick that penny up I suppose the time it would take to rub you coat sleeve off won't make much difference cuz he'll be doing the basketball dribble hop over the ridge and gone anyway. Same with still hunting the dark timber and elk... Penny fronts look cool and do work for some things, but my experience says a silver or brass blade gives better results..

Naw Don I only shine it up at the start of the season and it don't catch anymore snow than any other kind. If you just don't like it because I suggested it say so. If you don't like it because Bill B came up with it say so. It was a well thought out idea that flat works and it don't disappear in the snow background like silver does or fade in poor light like black does. You shoot whatever you like but everybody has the right to their own opinion and I'll state mine whether you like it or not...mb

Bob read what I wrote again
I didn’t say I don’t like them because of what you or anybody else suggested
I said I prefer to stick with the silver or brass after I tried the penny sight ,two of them.

When someone mentions a big .50 it gets me interested. I think I have spent enough lead down range shooting my Calamity have great great love for the caliber.
If any of you mew .50 Cal shooters are having a tough time finding brass drop me a line. I know where there are around 600 laying around.

As far as copper or what ever front sight on a shooter, I have used and still use copper, silver, iron and brass beads as well as bronze blade. They all work but I prefer the bronze. It all depends on how the angle is cut on the blade.

Kurt

I always had trouble with the factory silver blade from Shiloh. I love the copper penny Bill put on the .40-70 and I need to file down the “Hartford” sight post on the Business Rifle. I just installed it and haven’t dialed it in yet. It was made by Stephen Borud

Stephen makes a darn good Hartord sight, and it's hard to desitnquish it from the one my original Sharps wears , other than the wear and tear on the original.

I always wanted to get one of Jim Kluskens copies of the Sharps sporting tang sight, but didn't get around to it before he quit, but he did tell me he would try to get one together for me for the next time I traveled to the match at Lodi,, Sadly his sudden passing sure interrupted that deal.

Here is a front sight that Stephen made for my .44-77 hunting rifle. IMG_3235 by Kurt, on [bleep]
It's a proper sight for my Hartford. This rifle is most likely no-one would build because of the Crescent buttplate and light barrel but I wouldn't build a hunting rifle any different.Version 2 by Kurt, on [bleep]

I just put mine on. If you look at the pic you can see it is ridiculously high at the moment

My understanding as well (and my Shiloh also only sees real BP)...

Is that front sight made from a copper penny? I made copper penny front sights for my Ballard and Lyman GPR. They work very well...