Frank Hyde What DID HE KNOW?

[Kenny Wasserburger]

Ironramrod,

Looks like a grining day for me for sure. Last night my Ole Shooting pard Jimbo called to tell me he had bought a #1 Sporter with 34 inch #1 heavy barrel with Pack Hardening and its a 90 now but soon will be a 45-110. Rifle is very similar to my LR Express.

Shiloh must be having a rush on 45-110's.

Someone might want to tell BA to stock up more brass and dies!

Kenny Wasserburger

[kevin harris]

Hi Kenny,


I filled out the order form, will be sending it off soon.
.45-2 7/8

[Frank]

I still have a question as to the type of primers they were using in the 1870 and 1880 shooting years. Did they have many choices? Are any of the modern primers the same as the old primers.
Frank Costa

[Kenny Wasserburger]

Frank,

Thats still a good question, from what I have read the old time primers where not as hot as modern ones but burned for a longer time or duration. Pistol primers are similar as I understand it.

About all I can tell you is what is working today.

Kenny Wasserburger

[dbm]

[quote="Kenny Wasserburger"]What I wonder is what made Hyde build these 45-110 long range rifles? [/quote]

D.W.Bailey in an article on 'The Sharps in England' for the Historical Breechloading Smallarms Association wrote in 1994:

"Hyde's services to the Sharps company were not always considered as entirely satisfactory and never more so than during the troubled months of 1880. His experiments in long range shooting, and perhaps the recommendations of a number of leading American shooters, led him to design a significant modification of the Model 1878 Long Range rifle which included a 36-inch barrel (in place of the standard 34-inch) chambered for at first the 2.6-inch case and then the 2 7/8-inch case (replacing the standard 2.4-inch case). These longer cases were loaded with 120 grains of powder and a 650 grain bullet (as against the standard 100 grains and a 550 grain bullet). Ten of these rifles were made up and sold for $150 each without discounts (the standard model cost $100), of which three or four were in the longest Sharps case, the 2 7/8 inch. In a very short time and after a battery of complaints (despite having been carefully tested), they were all returned to the factory to be rebarrelled in the standard configuration and Hyde's reputation sank very low with the company hierarchy. Under this cloud he sailed for England on 1 June (1880)."

I haven't been able to find any more to date here in the UK.

David

[url=http://www.researchpress.co.uk]Research Press[/url]

[Smokin]

Kenny,

Have I just committed a large blunder? In reading the last message about the 110's being shipped back for rebarreling, I wonder if I have done right in asking Lucinda to change my chambering from 2.4" to 2.875". We keep saying that the old boys knew what was what and that we youngsters, in our ignorance, keep trying to re-invent the wheel, or other devices. I'm worried now that my wheel may end up having four corners. Just kidding, Smokin

ps, of course, if I kept to the original plan and have it chambered in a 90, I could always have it stretched to a 100 and then to a 110. That way, with my exhaustive experimention practices. in twelve to eighteen years, I could determine just what worked the best. That way, by the time I was half blind and totally demented, I would have no idea what to bring to the range or even where the range was. That is providing they'd even let me go on the field trip. One-ten it is.

[rdnck]

Smokin'--Don't fret. If you are dissatisfied with the way your soon to arrive bull barreled 45-110 shoots, I will be delighted to take it off your hands. You won't even have to give it to me, I'll buy it from you. Promise.

In another vein, I have thought about it, and can't make myself accept the fact that the Borchardts that Frank Hyde had made were rebarreled as a failed experiment. Hyde's rifle still exists, and it IS a 45-110. The Americans had just won the international team championship--again--and I doubt that a shooter would rebarrel a rifle that he had just used to help his team win another world title to a lesser caliber. That is my rationale, at least.

From a direct, hands on perspective, my experience with a half dozen 45-110 Sharps rifles, five Shilohs and a Pedersoli, I can only say that this is the most impressive caliber I have ever shot. There is not another rifle or caliber I have ever owned that is as accurate as my 14 pound Shiloh 45-110. Not my five 45-70s or any of my four 45-90s. The 45-110 simply leaves them in the dust. Not only that, it is the cleanest burning rifle I have, by far. I shot exactly 50 rounds through the 45-110 fire forming brass yesterday with only a blow tube, no wiping for the 50 shots. Humidity ran 17 to 21 percent, and the temperature was 51 degrees. The last five shots went into 5 1/4 inches at 415 laser yards shooting Goex 1f and a Paul Jones Creedmoor bullet in failing light. I don't have another rifle that will do that. Just so you don't think I am pulling your leg, I have another 14 pound bull barreled 45-110 coming from Shiloh. These things are like potato chips--there's no way you can eat just one. Shoot straight, rdnck.

[Smokin]

rdnck,

I appreciate your calming observations. Of course, they do nothing to assuage my concerns of chambering choice. While having watched your fine 110 digest 2 score and 4 consecutive rounds and exhibit a nearly clean looking bore, this only serves to whip my paranoia to a frothing fever. You see, my Ballard, the Montana porker, albeit in the of concern .45-2.6" chambering, has done bad things to me at a recent match. I, of course, was blameless in the debacle. "It is truly a fine craftsman who knows when to blame his tools." If this new rifle, in its new chambering, also has its moments of drifting focus, you realize, of course, that I am going to have to come up with an entirely new batch of excuses. Can you appreciate the anguish this will cause?

Ah well, I've just spoken with Lucinda and have locked in my druthers for the new rifle: big barrel, big calilber. Now, if all things cooperate, regardless of where the chips fall, I will be able to blast them to smithereens. If the opportunity presents itself, I may even do the same with the chip dispenser. Smokin