With some hesitation, I am offering my Pedersoli 1874 Sharps Competition 45-70. I bought this rifle new in 2005 and have given it all the TLC it deserves in the years since. The rifle has not been altered in anyway. Included is a Lee Shaver mid-range Soule sight with Hadley eyecup. Original rear flip-up sight and front globe sight are also included. About 500 rounds have passed through this rifle, the first 50 of which were modern copper-jacketed bullets loaded over smokeless powder. The remaining rounds were cast lead over black powder. She shoots great with cloverleaf groups of three at 100 yards common if you do your job. I have used this rifle in several silhouette matches out to 500 yds and did well enough to hold my interest, though any lack of better scores was entirely my fault. She loves 535 gr. Postell bullets loaded to touching the lands (Pedersolis have a longer throat so a drive band and a half are exposed.). I never sized my brass nor crimped the bullets in. She is a heavy rifle at about 13 lbs. There is nary a mark on her as you can see in the photos. More photos available at:
The only reason I have decided to part with this rifle is I picked up a Browning Highwall BPCR in 45-70 and a C. Sharps 1874 in 45-100. It makes no sense to me to let this fine rifle sit in the safe.
Those are great pics of a beautiful piece... Wish I could trade you a .243 X-Bolt and a stack of cash for it. I've wanted one of those for a long time. I almost traded an AR for one a couple of years back and regretted not making the trade ever since.
The action is spotless, as is the rest of the rifle both inside and out. I have about $1750.00 invested in 1995 dollars. The rifle is no longer made as far as I know.
I am willing to share load data. My loads may not be the epitome of long range accuracy, but they sure do ring steel plates at 500 yards. I think I only scratched the surface of accuracy potential for this rifle. A tweak here and there...and better eyes....who knows?
There is something special about shooting at 500 yards and beyond with a bullet traveling 1200 fps...you can touch off a round...set the butt of your rifle down...lift one side of your ear muffs and hear the bullet smack the plate...