45 2 7/8 performed well on it's first hunt.

BuckeyeShooter · Post by **BuckeyeShooter** » Fri Jun 25, 2004 9:00 pm

I first noticed it when I got home from work. It was a deep chocolate color and stood out against the dark green grass of the field behind the house. I decided to see if I could kill it tonight. Walked into the house to the gun safe and looked at my guns. Could use the 22-250 or the 7mm mag. Then I thought lets try the Sharps. Grabbed my cross sticks and some ammo along with my rangefinder and headed out the back door. He was gone. I knew he hadn't gone far so I set up and changed the setting on my tang sight and waited. Just then I noticed another dark chocolate one to my left and only about 50 yards away. I was facing the wrong way and couldn't move. He then decided to head into the brush so I turned my attention in that direction, he would be back I was sure. Just then a really large blonde colored one ambled out of the brush just beyond where the other one disappeared. I figured him to be about 80 yards out so I added a few points to the elevation pulled the hammer back and set the trigger. I took careful and and squeezed off the shot. When the smoke cleared I couln't see him in the high grass. Did I miss? Loading another round in the gun in case he was wounded and angry I headed that way. Luckily it was a clean shot square in the middle of the chest. He dropped where he had stood. The 525 gr 20:1 round nose bullet made a nice clean hole with no expansion at all evident. The hunt had been a success and the 16lb bull barrelled 45 2 7/8 had perfomed flawlessly. The first groudhog of the summer was in the bag

pete · Post by **pete** » Fri Jun 25, 2004 10:11 pm

Congrats Buckeye. Good story setup and suspense. We have some prairie dogs coming in and as they aren't quite as big as a groundhog I'm hoping my 45-70 will be adequate. I don't want to stretch it's capability.

BuckeyeShooter · Post by **BuckeyeShooter** » Sat Jun 26, 2004 5:18 am

I figured my story would be more interesting than "I shot a groudhog with the 45-110 tonight". Glad you enjoyed it pete.

Lee Stone · Post by **Lee Stone** » Sat Jun 26, 2004 6:29 am

How much of that critter did that 525gr bullet leave?

BuckeyeShooter · Post by **BuckeyeShooter** » Sat Jun 26, 2004 6:40 am

Actually Lee it only made a hole the size of the bullet through it. I've shot hundreds of hogs with everything from 22LR up to 7mm mag and other than 22LR the 45-110 did the least damage of all of them. The 7mm mag pretty much turns them inside out but even with that they will almost always have their tail waving after you shoot them. This one didn't make a flutter even. That's what made me think I had missed it at first.

Lee Stone · Post by **Lee Stone** » Sat Jun 26, 2004 7:12 am

Gary,

I just sent you a reply PM to yours.

Rich Siegel · Post by **Rich Siegel** » Sat Jun 26, 2004 9:16 am

Buckeyeshooter,

Good story. I moved from your state a year ago and while living there, I had shot some of those dangerous chucks with my 243 but never my Sharps. While so many people talk about long range shooting with their Sharps, I've had just as much fun with my 40/65 in rifle matches from 25 to 50 yards, as long as the target is of a challenging (small) size. The same is true fo hunting.

Rich

wwben47 · Post by **wwben47** » Sat Jun 26, 2004 10:48 am

Rich, Lee, Buckeye, Pete..While I have a lot of learning to do before I have to worry about this problem, it hit me last night..With smokeless in a hunting situation I normally fire one or sometimes two "fouling" shots, the day before....What IS the procedure with this water attracting stuff we call black?...I know tactical shooters are concerned with the first round from a cold clean barrel. But hunting is a different story.Buckeye great buildup on the story! Congrats.

BuckeyeShooter · Post by **BuckeyeShooter** » Sat Jun 26, 2004 2:17 pm

Typically from a clean barrel on my 45-70 the shot goes high. I didn't really notice a big issue with this till my first time shooting out to 800, 900, and 1000 yards where the effect is considerable. As an example a good 1000 yard sight setting put me at the top of the berm on the first shot. It was hard to resist moving my sight for the second shot. If I did it would always be low. I think the best solution for this is to get a good sight setting for both conditions if your going to be hunting and use the clean barrel setting for the first shot (which is usually all thats needed and then use Kentucky elevation for the second shot or change the sight if time allows. Welcome to the fun of BPCR shooting my friend. The best way to figure all this out is just to shoot a lot.

fjjensen · Post by **fjjensen** » Sat Jun 26, 2004 6:20 pm

Jeff,
I would expect that after a summer of shooting ground hogs,the
targets at KW's shoot next summer will absolutley defenceless.

Good shooting

Frank

BuckeyeShooter · Post by **BuckeyeShooter** » Sat Jun 26, 2004 8:26 pm

Hey Frank, good to hear from you. How you been? Well I hate to admit it but I think the poor groudhogs will be good practice. I definetly need it as you know. Hopefully by the time July 2005 roles around I'll be ready to make a decent showing at Kenny's match.

Buck Shot · Post by **Buck Shot** » Wed Oct 20, 2004 5:02 pm

I just returned from a buffalo hunt in Wagon Mound, NM using my Farmingdale Sharps in .45 2 7/8.

I shot a very nice bull buffalo out at 133, laser measured, yards away. I used my own home made ammo too!

My ammo consists of a 525 grain 20:1 lead:tin cast bullet with 90 grains of GOEX ffG black powder. The bullet is a grease lube and I use my own home made lube. My sights were iron sights for a fast acquisition.

I had to shoot twice. The first bullet hit about 8 inches back of the right front leg and skidded a few inches along the ribs before entering the body cavity. I never did find the bullet and I could not tell how much damage was done when field dressing him.

The second bullet caught him as he was running away from me a few inches back from the top of the hump just under the back bone. When the bullet hit the bull he acted as if he was driven into the ground nose first! What a sight to see when that happened!

I retrieved that bullet at the butcher shop. It has retained most of it's weight but is deformed to an open "U" shape. Some of the bullet was lost when the butcher's band saw cut a small portion of the base off during the butchering process.

After all was said and done I had 922 lbs. of meat on the hook and brought home 600 - 700 pounds of buffalo meat that is real tasty.

What a great hunt this was for me and to use a Sharps rifle with my own ammo makes it even sweeter to enjoy.