Cartridge Opinions, Shiloh Sharps

[UltraMax]

My 50/90 has the military butt plate, round barrel. Shooting 550 gr. P.P. with 90-95 gr. of B.P. recoil is more than my 35 whelan with a 225 gr. bullet. About 7-8 shots -not off a bench is about all I care for in the 50/90 but it is strictly used for hunting so it isn't that bad. and you can drop down in bullet weight or powder weight. You are an experienced shooter and if you are using it for hunting you shouldn't have any trouble dealing with the recoil. I've haven't shot a 45/90 so don't know about recoil for it but I can say in a 45/70 with a 550 gr. P.P. bullet the recoil is more than one would want for shooting long strings. For hunting no problem. The same for the 50/90. If you are thinking about a second rifle in 50/90 I wouldn't let recoil be the determining factor in the round you choose. It's more about what do you intend to use it for. I don't know if we can make it happen but you are more than welcome to shoot mine and you can see for yourself.

I’m gonna most likely start shooting a grease grooved brooks 535 grain money bullet with the first one or two bands reduced. Hopefully the recoil won’t wear me out too bad because I plan on shooting silhouette. I didn’t order the 34” barrel I wanted because it wouldn’t make weight. And with the extra fancy wood, heavy barrel, pewter tip and shotgun butt it’s gonna be close.

[UltraMax]

Cartridge Opinions, Shiloh Sharps

Well I called Shiloh the other day and I’m roughly 4-6 weeks away from delivery of my 45-90. Man I’m stoked.

I’ve been casting 560 grain round nose for hunting and paper patching them to .447-.448. I’ve only loaded about 25 rounds to play with so far. I’ve started to load them with Swiss 1.5 black powder and I’m using a .250 grease cookie. Hopefully I can get some decent hunting accuracy.

250ai, I appreciate the above info you gave me. It’s funny reading my posts above and seeing how much I didn’t know until now with all the research I’ve done for the past 15 months. Ive has to totally revamp my reloading set up to load for this rifle.

Here are 10 cartridges I’ve loaded.

[RifleBowPistol]

Oh believe me I’ve looked into the 50-90 because I will mostly hunt with it, but I know that I will be shooting this thing in BPCR Silhouette matches and the 50-90 May be a little stout.

With the 45-70, smokeless loads and gas checked bullets I can outperform any black powder cartridge (this includes the 45-120) and the Shiloh’s can withstand Ruger no 1 pressures, which can push a 500 grn bullet up to 1800fps, which is within 150fps of a light load .458 Winchester of the same grain bullet, but....

I most likely would not push the rifle, or my shoulder, to that extreme.

A BP loaded 45-100 will push a 530 grain bullet around 1300-1400fps, the 45-70 is about 1100-1200fps.

My brain is telling me to get the 45-70 but I keep debating with myself.

I am scratching my head on this one. If the gun is as strong as a Ruger Number 1, why could you not get a 45-100 or 45-110 and load it with smokeless powder. I would think the main reason, that people don't suggest loading smokeless in those calibers, is most guns in those calibers are going to be older guns. If it is a modern well built gun, I don't see a problem with getting the bigger caliber and loading it with smokeless. I would bet money, the case head thickness is exactly the same between all of the 45 caliber cases, just the length of the cases.

[RifleBowPistol]

Seeing you got a 45-90, should be fun. I am curious about the smokeless powder in the larger calibers, because I have been wanting something like this recently. I would sure love to have a 45-110 or a 45-120, but loaded with smokeless powder. If it would work, I might load black powder on occasions, just for the experience. Black powder guns, definitely sound different when they go off, then the lingering cloud.

[RifleBowPistol]

I went with a 45/70
I loaded some BP but the cleaning made me go back to smokeless
You can load a Barnes pointed bullet up to plum silly velocity
It is my favorite rifle
[ATTACH]924769[/ATTACH]

That's a beautiful rifle, nice buck also.

[UltraMax]

I am scratching my head on this one. If the gun is as strong as a Ruger Number 1, why could you not get a 45-100 or 45-110 and load it with smokeless powder. I would think the main reason, that people don't suggest loading smokeless in those calibers, is most guns in those calibers are going to be older guns. If it is a modern well built gun, I don't see a problem with getting the bigger caliber and loading it with smokeless. I would bet money, the case head thickness is exactly the same between all of the 45 caliber cases, just the length of the cases.

Here was my thinking after a lot of reading. I do feel as though the Black Powder elitest’s tell horror stories about loading smokeless in these cartridges but BACo sells smokeless loads for 45-110 and the 120 (no original sharps let the sharps factory chambered in 45-120). The issues come when trying to “download” the cartridges. Some smokeless powders will work. The pressure issues come when downloading. When your primer ignites powder way out in the case it causes pressure spikes. The other thing was this, had I wanted a .458 Win mag I would’ve bought that (for a lot cheaper mind you). I decided I wanted a dedicated black powder cartridge. Had I wanted to go smokeless, I would have ordered a 45-70. I will say this though about the 70, with a heavy bullet it will shoot clean through a Buffler at Black Powder velocities.

I came off of the 45-100 idea after 280’s post.

I wanted a rifle for all seasons and when it came to a 40 shot silhouette match, I did not want to be lying proned out with a 50-90 or 45-110 getting the hell beat out of me.

Per many books and articles I’ve read, the 45-90 was the most popular long range cartridge in Creedmoor matches in the 1880’s. Back then it was loaded with 100 grains of powder and no lube wad (the old time target shooters wiped every shot, buffalo hunters loaded lube wads in their cartridges so they could shoot many shots before cleaning)

The 90 seemed the best choice for what I wanted.

But I will say this, I’m already eyeballing my second Shiloh which will more than likely be a 45-110 in a bare bones Hartford style rifle. I’ll load it straight black powder and use it for hunting with a 560 grain paper patched pill.

[UltraMax]

Well I just got the call, my rifle shipped today!! Should have it Friday or Monday. Come on Friday!!

Hopefully I can get it on paper so I can at least kill a deer with it before the season is over.