ORIGINAL SHARPS AND SHILOH SHARPS HUNT THE MUSSELSHELL

[Kirk Stovall]

Friday morning at 3:30 my brother, Morgan, my son, Jesse, and I left for the Musselshell with 3 pockets full of tags and high hopes.

Our arsenal included, as shown in the following photo...On left-Original Walter Cooper Sharps, circ. 1877, in 40-90 bottleneck; next, Shiloh Sharps in 45-70 (a project gun my brother picked up at auction after it had been in a fire for $12.00), next an original Winchester 1886 made in 1887, marked "Browning Bros, Ogden, Utah Territory" The 1886 is in 40-65 caliber and sports a rare single set trigger. The Colt SAA is a 38-40 shipped to St. Louis in 1911. The picture is also in front of a sandstone rock in a pass area not far from Musselshell MT. If you look close you will see the names scratched in the sandstone dating back to 1901.

This photo is of my brother shooting his Shiloh Sharps at a mule deer at 220 yards.

This photo is the result of his second shot, the first being a ranging shot that some would call a miss.

Next is my success with the original "Cooper" Sharps

Last but not least is my son with a nice Musselshell catfish, the best shot of the weekend


What a great Sharps weekend!

[Scott Tschirhart]

Thanks for sharing....great photos and it looks like a fine time.

[ironramrod]

Congratulations on an obviously fun and productive weekend with some very nice deer as a result. How far did your son have to lead the catfish?

Regards

[Orville]

Good job, what did he shot the catfish with? I've shot northerns with flinters and General Crooks boys burned up a lot of ammo shooting trout in the summer of 1876.

[kimwcook]

Pretty cool. Really nice pic's. I love the firearms. I don't know what you do for a living, but, with the pic's of your safe and now this, I want to do it too. You're a very lucky man.

[Kirk Stovall]

In regards to shooting fish, we were hunting Antelope in Wyoming one year (I believe it was more than 7 years ago, so the statute of limitations applies here) and there was a small stream running through our camp. We had some young boys along and they got the biggest thrill out of shooting at trout in the creek with my 45-70 model 1886.

As to the catfish, and the proper lead...it also takes some real vision techniques to see into the muddy water where catfish live.

As far as what I do for a living, it is all summed up in my byline at the bottom of all my posts. I don't have a trust fund, rich parents or any of that. I have the honor of being married 33 years to a wonderful wife. We both sacrificed most of those 33 years to raise 5 great kids, who are all married, and now have 4 grandchildren.

Even though the expense of being a parent never stops, we have never been better off financially, and it gives me time to buy, sell, and trade to accumulate my warchest full of nice firearms. I have been continually bartering for these guns over that period of time, but recently have had the greatest opportunity by having enough resources available due to debt being paid off slowly for all those years.

Life in Montana is great, and being an American makes it all possible. You couldn't do all that in any other country in the world, including shooting the fish.