Thinking on a new rifle

[Mike]

Mustang, Maybe it would help if you looked again at the Sharps history. Remember that the .44s and the .50s were basically discontinued after 1875 when those cartridges were replaced with the .45s, the .45/70 and the .45/110, for sporting purposes. Also, the ".45/110" is how we refer to that cartridge today and back when it was introduced it was simply the .45-2 7/8". An early standard loading for the .45-2 7/8" was simply a 500 grain bullet over 90 grains of powder. Heavier bullets and larger powder charges came rather quickly and the .45-2 7/8ths cartridge was loaded as high as with 120 grains of powder. One real good advantage to getting a .45-2 7/8" over the .44/90 is variety of loadings you can use. The .44s, both the .44/77 and the .44/90, are difficult to use with lighter loads because of their bottle-neck cases. With any of the straight cased .45s you can use wads as filler and reduce the powder charge in a load quite easily. The .45s can give you a lot of variety that way. Also, the wide range of bullets or bullet molds for the .45s can't be ignored. Those add a lot to that variety. As far as recoil goes, they all have the potential for heavy recoil. It is best to consider that when you "form" the rifle in your mind and on your order. If you go with a .45/110, make it a Bridgeport model. That is quite fitting historically (if that enters into your criteria). The Bridgeport has the nice shotgun butt which is more comfortable to shoot. Add a heavy barrel to the gun, maybe a # 1 1/2 barrel which would put the weight of the gun over 13 pounds, considering a 32" barrel. That would make the rifle too heavy for silhouette rules but you are talking about longer range shooting. (I know one fellow who shoots a .45/110 in silhouette matches, using paper patched bullets, and he does very well. He also placed 3rd in the Men's category at Quigley this year.) An even heavier barrel is available and you already have your .45/70 as a "hunting rifle" or something to carry. Make your long range gun a real shooter, with characteristics your other guns don't already have. Yes, I'm shooting in the dark but maybe some of my suggestions are things you hadn't thought about.
I only threw these things together because I've "been there before." Shoot sharp, Mike