I had been looking around for a Sharps 1874 on Gun Broker and ran across this one several weeks ago but the .44-77 paper patch only chamber kinda worried me. I really liked the looks of the rifle and thought what the heck go for it. This Shiloh Sharps according to the serial number is a later Wolfgang Big Timber build but it has been restocked and rebarreled. It has a 34" 1 in 17 Green Mountain barrel that was chambered and installed by John King. The chamber was done in the original Remington type chamber for paper patched bullets. It will not chamber ammo loaded with .446" grease and groove bullets according to the seller and It has not been shot since the rebuild. It will be a new adventure learning to reload for this rig.

Beautiful rifle - I’d be afraid to leave a smudge mark on it.

If you haven't checked out if it would or would not chamber a round with a .446 bullet I would take the time to check it out with either loading a round or making a chamber cast.

I have a Early Farmer that John rebarreled with a 17 twist and I think he used Steve Rhodes reamer doing this and is so I would use this bullet. https://www.buffaloarms.com/443-495...1-cavity-arnie-seitz-design-jim443495epp
Or this one, https://www.buffaloarms.com/434-470-grain-paper-patch-bullet-mould-1-cavity-flat-base-jim434470

I hope you were able to get some brass with it.

Kurt

Good luck with that rifle. I've yet to see any of these tight chambers preform consistently well.
Doing the chamber cast is probably a good idea, just to make sure about the chamber measurements.
If you can't get that 434470 bullet cast from 16-1 and wrapped in 7 lb paper , on top of 76 grs of OE 1 1/2, to shoot well then you may want to consider having some one open that chamber up.

Nice find! A good buy?

Don,

I have to disagree on the tight chambers they have performed well for me at several matches. They have put me into the AAA at the end of the first season silhouette matches (4)
One Quigley in the top 10 and the second I lost the top 10 by a tie breaker, Shot into 6th at the Lodi in I think 2013 shot poorly on the first relay because of a hazy mist and shot a 50 @900 but done well when it cleared up. I can dig up more results and this is not with just one tight chambered rifle I use for matches.
I will take a tight chamber over a large any day.

Coon Dog,

If this shooter don't work out for you please let my know and give me the first choice. I can use another Farmer.

Kurt

Thanks for the replies!
My plan is not to be in any hurry. The rifle will be used to deer hunt with some and I have a great place of my own in the ozarks to shoot out to a 1000 yards or more If I want. Maybe try some match shooting if all goes well. I believe I got a good deal on it. Mike Kuffler did the stock work, plus new GM barrel with work done by John King with a reamer Mr. King owned, plus cool caliber, plus no wait time. I will probably need some advice along the way to iron out some problem and any help will be appreciated.


Thanks
Robert

It may be a little heavier than needed, for deer, but if you had Steve Brooks build you one of his dual diameter patched bullets at .435 on the base, .432 at the base of the nose, with his original postel nose, keep the length to no more than 1.35, it may turn out to be a one bullet that can do it all in that rifle. You could also have him build one to the same nose and dimensions but have it done in a nose pour with a flat base. That way you can set it to 1.1 inch for a hunting and midrange bullet and let it out longer when you want to reach out to the long range targets.

Sure like the wood on the gun, what kind is it? Say you have a pm inbound mb

The Shiloh Sharps marked barrel leads me to believe that it is not a Green Mountain barrel.

I thought the same thing but the seller said that Mr. King stamped the barrel with the Shiloh-Sharps Model 1874 / CALIBRE 44 markings because he has the dies to do it. The seller also told me all the work was done around 18 months ago. I did not investigate any further.

Might want to measure the twist. If it's 1-19 it's a Shiloh barrel that was set back and rechambered. If that's the case you'll sure want to keep the bullet length to a max of 1.3

I will measure the twist this evening. I'm out of cerrosafe at the moment to check the chamber. I did check the rim thickness with my calipers. It's right around .0785ish.

Is John King still doing gunsmithing? I thought about calling him to see if he kept records of his work by serial number. It maybe easier just to do the chamber cast than bothering a guy about work he did in the past 18 months or longer.


I talked to Mr. Kuffler. He said he stocked this rifle years ago before he was in the American gunmakers guild. The wood is English Walnut.

That sure is a pretty piece of wood.
The rim recess is sounding an awful lot like the same one Shiloh uses..

The twist is 1-17.

Well the 50pcs of BACO brass and some other supplies made it yesterday. The brass is made from Starlite 50-110 brass. The brass is a little to big for this chamber. It stops about a quarter inch from chambering completely. I'm not 100% sure but it looks like to me the body is a little to big down the closer you get to the rim. I do have correct Jamison brass coming and correct dies coming. I have 3.5Lbs of GOEX FFG BP on hand. I also bought a box of big heavy pure lead bullets to mess with and I patched up one and it fit snuggle in the case. I also have a member on here sending me some sample bullets to try. I also bought a few more supplies:

Probably better put extra poligrip on the dentures when you torch that thing off.
That bullet may be a touch long even for that 17 twist, but there's only one way to find out.
I have found over the years shooting the 44-77 there is a point of rapidly dimensioning point of returns with powder charges in that bottleneck case.

LOL
I thought it might be a little long and a little heavy. I'm still learning and have a long way to go. I've been reading forums and getting good advise here so I'm sure it will all come together. Muzzleloading and a little breach seating 25-20SS with bullets bought from retailers is all I've ever done. I've never cast my own bullets, so that is part of the new adventure. I'm hoping the other brass and dies will be here this week.

Both of my other 44's that have 17 twist really seem to like bullets at 1.35 inches long. Well enough at least that, thinking about a longer bullet is mostly an excercise of deciding whether or not to add another mould to the cabinet that's already so heavy I'm surprised it stays on the wall. LOL

Thanks, I'll definitely look at that length bullet.

Following along as this discussion is paralleling a similar discussion we are we having over on the cast boolits forum :-)