50-90 and freebore.

[Skywagon]

One of the gun shops that I frequently stop at has an older Shiloh in 50-90. The barrel is marked Old Reliable. Looking into the chamber I can see what looks like a large amount of freebore. Does anyone have experience and success shooting one of the older Shilohs in 50-90 with freebore. Asking price is $1200.
Thanks

[kwilliams]

At $1200 I would just buy it and worry about the free bore later. Seriously, I am sure you can get it to shoot fine either with grease groove or pp. My own 50-90 has some free bore and was doing fine at 600 yds with gg.
kw

[Skywagon]

I ended up going back to the gun shop and looking this rifle over again. It’s a Farmingdale. The hammer doesn’t go back as far as other Farmingdales at half cock. The hammer goes into half cock like the newer Shilohs. With the hammer at full cock I pulled the set trigger and then pulled the front trigger and the hammer doesn’t drop. Is this a function of the set screw in between the triggers? I appreciate any help, trying to avoid another basket case rifle..

[Woody]

If the rear trigger is setting and the front trigger is releasing, then the failure of the hammer to fall is not a matter of the adjustment screw. It can be several other things, none very hard to diagnose and not very expensive to fix. I would assume, based on it's age, that it has a military style crescent butt plate. If a 50-90 doesn't trip your trigger, a rebarrel should be less than $1K from start to finish. Something to consider too.

Woody