Thinking on a new rifle

[Semtav]

I'd chamber it to the cartridge you can't quit thinking about. Whatever that may be. A 40-82 in a fast twist would rank up there for me if I was thinking 40 cal.

[MikeT]

My shooting pard started in LR with a 40-70SS, 16T, 420 gr gg bullet, 69 grs of 1.5 Swiss and a midrange tang sight. It worked for him at 1K. Shooting was done at 900 ft elevation so maybe at sea level he could have run out of sight adjustment.

For many years I shot a 40-82 Winchester 16T barrel, 440 gr gg bullet, 84 gr 1.5 Swiss
and a long range tang sight. It also worked at 1K. Now I shoot a 45-70, 16T barrel, with 523 grain PP bullet with 82.5 grs Fg Swiss and I will not go back to my 40.

Keep on hav'n fun!
MikeT

[bruce moulds]

mike t,
no wonder you prefer the 45.
with its 16"twist it is far superior for long range to the 40 with a 16" twist.
to be apples and apples, i.e. having a similar stability factor, the 40 needed a 13" twist.
also, relative drag due to nose configuration needs to be taken into account.
84 gns of 1.5 would have moved that 440 gn bullet pretty well.
was it a pp bullet?
sounds like both cartridges are using pp.
keep safe,
bruce.

[mustanggt]

Well, its been 4 days since I decided to buy another rifle and try to decide on a caliber. I've gone full circle and then some with my choices. I can't decide. I've been having a helluva time with it. I normally have no problem making a decision on most things but this has got me by the short hairs and won't let go. I know that I could just buy a long range soule sight for my 45/70 and be done with it but that wouldn't be near as enjoyable as getting a new rifle and new caliber to play with. I'm concerned that the 45 2 7/8" will have too much recoil and I'll regret getting it. Then I looked at the 40's thought that maybe they would be borderline out to 1K with a 16 twist barrel. Looked at the 44's too but can't decide on that either 90 or 77? I even let myself think about going with the 110 because I already have everything 45 I need for that but the brass. So that makes a lot of sense. Everything else of course would require dies, moulds, wads etc. for a new diameter. So here I am stuck at the same place I was 4 days ago.

[Kurt]

You have a problem

I have no idea who you are or where your location is. If you would be close to me I would say come on over and we will go to the range and you can shoot all of my calibers .40's through .50. I do not have a 110, never felt need for that caliber.

I would suggest going to a gong match a day early when most of the gong shoots have the range open for practice or just for fun shooting. I don't think that you would find a guy that would say no if you would ask "Can I shoot a round or two with your rifle"

Kurt

[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

[mustanggt]

Thank you guys for the help. Kurt I live in WA. state on the dry side. You live in IL? I lived in Joliet when I was a kid. Thank you for the kind offer. I would take you up on it in a heart beat if I wasn't 2K miles away. Mike it seems the 45/110 is quite versatile with respect to the powder charge. It would be nice if one could find good accurate loads at different charges. I'm still going to keep thinking. I'm taking the other girls to the range tomorrow to test some loads with 3F OE. Maybe that will help jar loose a decision.

[Gunlaker]

MustangGt I shoot mostly .45's as I live in Canada and anything even slightly unusual can be problem getting brass for unless I'm willing to pay extra importing fees. To add more fuel to the fire, Steve Rhoades shoots a .40-82 and apparently does quite well with it. He's using a 400gr Money bullet. That would cut down on recoil. Another possibility is the good old .45-90. Mine, when loaded with Swiss 1.5 or OE 1.5, is as fast as my .45-110 ( which uses Fg) when shooting the same paper patched bullet. With Fg it's nearly 100 fps slower which could be a good thing.

Mike I'm impressed by the guy being competative with a .45-110 for silhouette :-). I love my two .45-110's but like the .40-65 more for that game :-). I think the specs you posted would make for a great rifle.

The "problem" with these rifles is that there always seems to be an idea for another one floating around in the back of my mind :-)

Chris.

[mustanggt]

These are my other two rifles. I have since sold the 75. The top one is 45/70 and the bottom one is 50/90.

[Mike]

Mustang, I live in Olympia. Maybe we can get together. Shoot sharp, Mike