New long range rig!

kyyotestalker

New member
So I sold my beloved 338 Lapua as I do not get to stretch her past 1k very often and bought this mint Uberti 1885 Highwall 32" barreled 45-70 Government! Now to call up Montana vintage arms and order a full globe front sight and a Vernier tang rear. Guess now I have an excuse to learn bullet casting and paper patching LOL.

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Well done!

When I lived out in the country a few years back a gentleman used to come over on occasion to shoot. He had two of those things set up for some sort of long range shooting. One was in .45-90 and the other was in .45-120. He had some kind of vernier sights on them and I remember him telling me that they were several hundred dollars alone.

Anyway, an empty 5 lb bottle of Freon was cake for him to hit at 250 yards with those things. Amazed the crap out of me how accurate those guns were and how well he could shoot them.

He did cast for them but dont remember if they were paper patched or not. Sure was neat to watch him send that Freon bottle flying I will tell you that.
 
Amazing how accurate those old black powder rifles were/are in the hands of an accomplished marksman. Even Billy Dixon admits there was a certain amount of luck involved with this shot, but...........

Originally Posted By: 2nd battle of Adobe WallsOn the third day after the initial attack, 15 Indian warriors rode out on a bluff nearly a mile away to survey the situation. At the behest of one of the hunters, William "Billy" Dixon, already renowned as a crack shot, took aim with a "Big Fifty" Sharps (it was either a .50-70 or -90, probably the latter) that he had borrowed from Hanrahan and cleanly dropped a warrior from atop his horse. "I was admittedly a good marksman, yet this was what might be called a 'scratch' shot."[1]:233

Read more at:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Battle_of_Adobe_Walls

Beautiful rifle, kyyote!

Regards,
hm
 
Nice you should enjoy that, I have had a couple highwalls a CSharps in 45-70 and a Browning BPCR in 40-65, although I'm very partial to the Shilo Sharps 74.

If you are going to try casting a good mold is the Lyman Postell 457132 with 30:1 alloy it drops out of my mold at around .459 and 530 grs.
Great choice in sights MVA makes very nice sights, this is their Buffalo Soule on my Shilo 45-70
 
That's awesome. I've been thinking a lot about getting a .45 Whitworth muzzle loader for the same reasons.

I would love to do some bullet casting and longer range open sight shooting, plus I can hunt deer with an iron sighted muzzle loader in the shotgun zone which is half the state.
 
Kyyotestalker,

that sure is a good looking gun you've got there!

Have you got any paper patch rounds loaded yet?

How well does it shoot?
 
Originally Posted By: 1ASSASSINKyyotestalker,

that sure is a good looking gun you've got there!

Have you got any paper patch rounds loaded yet?

How well does it shoot?

Sadly I have yet to load or fire the first round. We have been having some crazy weather her in Kentucky combined with my crazy work schedule, I just have not had the time to get her out to play.
 
Beautiful rifle. I had a Pedersoli Sharps .45-70.

We used to have two Buffalo shoots a year, four herds of 25. Targets were 3' long and 2' tall (approximately) had a 2" wide foot to set on.

Targets were set out at 250 to 500 yards. Had to knock them down to count. Timed event, so you had to use a blow tube to soften the fouling. Used a 457125, compressed BP, wads, and a lube cookie.

Dang, that was fun !
 
I have been on one "Buffalo Shoot" with guys shooting open sight of various configurarions, at STEEL buffalo at 1,000 yards! It was very fascinating watching these gentlemen shoot their long barreled rolling blocks with paper patched bullets, and consistently hit their targets! Some guys would shoot prone, while other would sit and and use X sticks tied together with buffalo hide. Very fascinating to watch these guys shoot. I guess it was some 30+ years ago now...
 
They have a Quigley shoot in Forsyth , Montana every year on Father's Day. I believe the Boy Scouts put it on. Lots of competitors and they shoot steel at a very long distance. You might want to check into it. Rudy
 
Finally got some time to do some handloading, I have 40 rounds loaded for testing. I am starting with a hand cast Lyman 495 Grain .458" pointed midrange boolit and pyrodex RS(FFG substitute that I have on hand) with a homemade cork .08" wad. Will have a range test and possibly video up on Monday or Tuesday weather permitting.
 
Well finally had a chance to cast/load some ammo and hit the range for a few test shots. I did not take any range/target pics
as I was simply testing my ammo and did not have any true loads worked up to try. Will do a full range report once my Vernier and globe sights arrive, hopefully this week. Test load was a Winchester magnum primer, Winchester brass, 60 Grains pyrodex RS (FFG equivalent) powder, .08" cork wad, and one of my cast 495 grain lyman pointed boolits. I hand lubed the boolits with a mix of SPG lube, paraffin wax, and lucas #2 red and tacky grease.
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Give real black powder a try. Black powder is known to have less velocity deviation than Pyrodex. It also ignites more consistently for those of us that shoot traditional muskets. GOEX FF or GOEX cartridge powder are good choices. I've surprised many shooting in-lines at the range. Small groups and surprisingly less time cleaning up with a traditional round ball gun.
 
Planning on using Swiss 1.5f as soon as I can find some in stock. I have a large stock of pyrodex so I wanted to see if I can make it work in the mean time.
 
I've never found Swiss but it's supposed to be good stuff. I assume you already know this but there should be no air space when loading black powder. The cartridge should always be full. For us using it for muzzle loaders, we have to make sure the ball or bullet is seated on the powder. If there is an air space the pressure will ruin your barrel.
 
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