Home Forums Hunting & Shooting BPCR The Big Fifty

Oh great another good rifle that'll get buried in the back of the closest for ten years or so then get sold, cuz it wasn't shot.... Hope it's something decent so someone might get a good buy on a "used" usable rifle...

If he has a 1/22 twist in that .50 and uses rounds loaded by someone else he might get on a good day a basket ball size group @ 100 yards using them.

ColeYounger,

Take a trip to the shiloh forum and read the heck out of posts regarding the 50. You can learn a lot about what works-and what doesn't, and it will save you time and money in the meantime. That is what i did when I got my 50 2 1/2". I don't call it a 50-90, since I load it with 120 grains of Fg and use a 700 grain bullet from Montana Bullet Works. So...50-120-700? I could not get bullets under 600 grains to shoot as well as I wanted with the 1/22 twist. The 700 grain bullet I use is exactly the same as Lymans 457125-except bigger. It shoots and penetrates well. Search for some of my posts on the Shiloh Forum for results. Good luck with your new rifle!

Sounds like my ".45-82", my .45-70 that pushes a 535 gr. paper patched Money bullet at about 1300 fps with 82 grs. of Swiss 1 1/2. Shoots very well out to 1000 yards.

Paul

I don't know that they do.

I'm still in the info-gathering stage. I have a Marlin 1895 Limited III in .45-70 that I am interested in feeding something other than jacketed bullets.

ET's conversations about paper-patched slugs has me intrigued. ALMOST intrigued enough to order a Sharps...

Ed

http://www.buffaloarms.com/Detail.aspx?PROD=160635&CAT=4121 This is a good bullet for the leverguns. There are a couple of 500 gr bullets that work well also, altho they just about work best when single fed thru the Marlin action.
Paper patching is a challenge, get your greasegroove bullet loading down pat first.

Not alot of need to order a sharps, Shiloh keeps a pretty good assortment ready to ship off the rack in the common cartridges, as does C Sharps.

Gents,ya have to keep in mind that I did the paper patch route for more than just historical reasons. I learned rather quickly that my old gun doesn't care much for grease groove slugs. I had a PP mold with the gun but it wasn't the best choice bullet weight. Anyhoo, paper patch is what my particular ancient rifle shoots so I had to figger it out. YMMV.

Manyletters . . . I've been using this bullet in my Marlin 1895CB 45-70. Lyman 457193/405gr RNFP cast from WW.



Recovered bullet on the offside of a 230# whitetail just under the skin, after going through shoulder, rib cage and offside shoulder.

Thank you, sir!

You're correct about rack rifles...now, it's just about the money.

As for it sitting in the safe, I don't own safe queens. As for recoil, I handloaded for my .458WM for several years until I switched to my .338WM as my primary rifle. I have quite a bit of experience loading grease-groove cast bullets for my .30 cal and up firearms, so it's not entirely new, but the paper-patched stuff is a whole new world that I want to get into. I think...

Ed

Big difference between those original rifles and their chambers, than with the modern versions, as I'm pretty sure you recall the trials that Jorge went thru trying to get his rifle to shoot, and I'm guessing that 44-90 has probably handed you your hat a couple of times already.

[quote=APDDSN0864
You're correct about rack rifles...now, it's just about the money.
Ed [/quote]

If you order a Shiloh, it's probably the easiest to afford rifle there is. You pickout what you want, place the order with your 250$ deposit, then you'll have a year to scrimp and save and rake together the money you need to finish paying it off, or you can send them a couple hundred when you get it toghether to put on your account. Then when you get the pay up or die letter stateing the gun is going into production, you've got it all taken care of. Then the 4-6 month wait begins,,,, and trust me it's a looooonnnggggg time.

Actually, the 44/90 did reasonably well so far. Hand size group at 100 doesn't disappoint me. I already figgered the loading would have to be jiggered. I consider it fun stuff. The old gun drove me crazy for the longest time before I went to different bullets at a much heavier weight and started to play with the compression. Kurt gave me some info that is invaluable. The big 44 is quite a powerful gun. Can't wait to get it sighted on something BIG!

It does occur to me that if one used a 600 grain slug over at least 100 grains of FFG in a 50, the recoil would be quite severe. Sorta atkin' all da fun outta letting go the next shot.

Indeed. My use for this gun will be fun shooting and hunting. I like to keep it fairly historical too-though I've been known to opt for smokeless to keep it clean. I don't have much desire to shoot a bullet that's a couple of hundred grains heavier than the normal originals were. 100 grains of Black doesn't sound too bad. 120 grains doesn't sound too good.

Cole, good luck with that Big 50. It looks like your'e going to need it...

I had a 40/70 bottleneck that shot lights out but you had to be sure to use a blow tube with the greased bullets to keep the fouling soft and still it would get hard to chamber a round after 4 shots without swabbing out at least the chamber. Paper patched was fun too.

I've shot it several times and the recoil with the 450 grain lead over smokeless is not bad at all. I shot my .257 Weatherby (I dunno what that gun weighs, but it ain't light) right after shooting the Sharps the other day and the .257 kicked worse.

Awww Man...letting one of the BIG rifles ROAR with BP and lead is the ONLY way ta travel

I agree.I shot my 50 With 5744 smokeless.It just didnt seem right using that big case with a sprinkle of powder.I quickly switched to Black powder.I now shoot a RCBS 550GR bullet with a case full of Goex Cartridge or Swiss 1.5F It will hold about 95gr with that bullet pressed way in to the crimp groove.The recoil is stout but not horrible in the 14 lb rifle.I tried 777 a few shots one time.Never again!!Recoil was arse kicking painful and it wasnt that accurate.