Hello gents, I have been lurking on this site for a while and have enjoyed following many of the discussions, learned a bit and laughed a bit. I have been enamored with the 1874 sharps rifle for as long as I can remember. Unfortunatly my early experiences with them were with an Italian job that was a complete pile of junk. Within the last two years I have aquired two shilo's, a 45/70 roughrider w/34" bbl and a saddle rifle w/ 28" bbl in .40 2 1/4. I hunted exclusivly with the .40 2 1/4 saddle rifle this year and thought I would share some of my experiences with it. My load consisted of Buffalo Arms streached and formed 45/70 brass, fed 215, 67 gr. swiss 1 1/2, .030" fiber wad, 400 gr layman bullet w/spg (dropped from mould at 420 gr.) seated with one grease groove out of case. This load and rifle shot 2-3" groups a 100 yds with the full buckhorn sights with a copper penny front sight, which I thought was plenty good. The rifle and I spent a week in canada on a whitetail/wolf hunt. Lots of time was spent on horseback and still hunting with some time in tree stands. I thought the rifle handled beautifully while carrying and packed very well in a saddle scabard. Saw lots of deer and finally got a 40 yd shot at a nice buck.
![Image](http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o304/895versitile/101_0177_2.jpg)
Quartering away shot, bullet entered between last two ribs on left side, exited right on the knuckle of the right shoulder, deer ran about 30 yards and folded up. Also heard lots of wolves and saw lots of fresh tracks but never saw one. I thought the rifle stood up well to the conditions, which were cold and snowy, with no problems.
The next deer I shot was at home on my farm. 20 yard shot standing straight on. Bullet entered on the bottom line of the throat patch, dead center and shattered 4 vertibrea. Buck dropped on the spot. The bullet really came apart on all that bone. I recovered 4 large pieces that collectivly weighed 360 grns. The most special part of that day was that my two young boys (2 and 3 yrs) were with me. They both get a kick out of watching me shoot that rifle. When I shot that buck my 3 year old said "Wow dad that buck really bit the dust".
Thank you for letting me post this and thanks to shilo for such fantastic rifles.
longcarbine