Lost a lot of good shooting years fooling around with them junk modern guns untill I discovered the sheer fun of Sharps Shootin! This Italian manufacturer can produce quality rifles with beautiful coloured cast hardening and capable of exceptional accuracy.

Top to Bottom
Pedersoli Mod 782 40/65 . . Mod 788 50/70 . . Mod 782 45/70


Left to Right
40/65 with 420gn Snover and loaded with 395gn tapered; 577/450 Martini with 500gn; 45/70 with 535gn Lyman and loaded with 485gn tapered bullet.


7 consecutive rounds at 100yds with Sharps 45/70 and tapered bullet (top 4 shots = .688")

Real nice rifles and real nice shooting!

Jesus H how many guns do you own ????? Just how far is that 45-70 seated ? Looks like its just settin on top of the brass. Nice guns, even better shooting.

CW, at last stocktake 150 rifles, 9 handguns & 6 shotguns.
All stored in about 2 ton of concrete & steel vault. This view shows about 3' of a vault about 10' long (this the Ruger No.1 section)


Back to these Sharps, the tapered bullet is seated only one groove into the case allowing a huge increase in performance from the 40/65 & 45/70. For example 45/70 will push a 485gn bullet at 1360fps which places it on the same performance level as a 45/90 with conventional bullet. Similarly the 40/65 will boost a 395gn bullet to 1344fps to equal the much bigger 40/70 Sharps B/N.

This tapered bullet aligns a long way down the bore but must be made soft otherwise it will not upset into the rifling and accuracy decreases. My first try with a hard mix was nowhere as good as the latest batch cast 1:30.

Buffalo Classic 45/70 groups at 100 yds. 4759 left vs Swiss 3F @ right making 1220 fps-- Lee 500 gr 3R. The target at left is the same Lee taper sized with a 452 Lee push thru die, seating out .21". F'r means fouling shot on a clean bore. And there's 5 rds in the .75"-- albeit all groups shot with a scope.



I post this paper only to show what is possible with these simple tools, which isn't that difficult a-tall.