Gun weight

Share your tales (tall or otherwise) of hunting adventures.

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Brent
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Post by Brent »

Actually, weight is the big downside to the hunting Sharps. You really can't make a light rifle w/o making it a short rifle. If you like short, then great. But a long barreled rifle is going to be pretty heavy with that action I think. You can get a thin-side Winchester down to a much more manageable weight and still have a long barrel in most any caliber. At least that is my experience.

Brent
Just straddling the hard line between "the arrogance of dogmatism and the despair of skepticism"
Constable Bill Manning
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Post by Constable Bill Manning »

Hunting with my Sharps was all in the fun of shooting with technology that is 136 years old. If I really am worried about weight, I have a new Kimber Montana .243 that shoots 85 gr Barnes bullets at almost 3300 fps and has a point blank range on antelope of almost 400 yards. If I need more gun, I have a Chet Brown custom 30-06 mountain rifle that will handle most of what I need to shoot. Both of these weigh in at a little over 6 lbs load. It's not that the Sharps weighs too much. It just weighs what a Sharps weighs and if you want something lighter, then don't hunt with the Sharps.

When I first bought my Sharps, I thought it was REALLY heavy but after using it and packing it around, I guess I'm just getting used to the feel. The weight that it is makes it fun to shoot. I'm not sure how fun a 45-110 would be if it weighed 8 lbs or so.

I have a Smith and Wesson Airlite 41 mag with a 6" barrel that you better be holding onto when it goes off or the least it will do is bust a finger. I have a mid 60s vintage Smith and Wesson in a model 57 with an 8 3/8" barrel that's a dream to shoot both because of the added weight but also because with the long barrel it's considerably easier to shoot. I think the same holds true for the Sharps.

The large British double rifles most all weighed in the 11 to 13 lb range. We just need to cowboy up and get on with it!

I like my 34" barrel. I'm concerned about being able to use it for BPCR Silhouette matches. I just need to perfect a shoulder carrying pad. Now I'm just whining!
mdeland
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Post by mdeland »

That is why most of the original hunting Sharps had the forearms wore about in two from carrying them over the saddle pommel.
They didn't carry them around all day on there person so weight for them was not really much of an issue.
They didn't seem to carry them much in saddle scabbard's either as the long barrels, wide action and big hammers would make them rather awkward to transport in such fashion.
I think I will chamber my Roller in 45-70, shoot government greasers with all the bands covered and use duplex loads if I ever decide to hunt with one.
I've built and shot a few Rollers for other folks and like the way they feel in the hand when carrying them and with the drop they all have from the action style are a natural for offhand shooting.
I once saw a little one, I think a #4 if I remember right, chambered in 45 Colt that was a peach and I wished I had bought it. It was a neat little gun with quite a bit of steam for such a short cartridge. The friend that had and sold it says he should have kept it! It would have made a really great Deer rifle to about 150 yards or so. MD
pete
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Post by pete »

Sharps rifles are not featherweights that's true but it seems like there's so many people that think they have to have an 11-12 lb. specimen to be a real representation of a Sharps. There were and are Sharps that are in the under 9 -10 lb. range and while no light weights they're a hell of a lot easier to carry than the 11 - 12 pounders. There's a very real difference between carrying my 12 lb. #3 and my 9 lb 13 oz. Hartford. Not everybody had a heavy rifle back in the 1800's.
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