Best 1859 Sharpes replica ??

Old hickory

From personal experience, what's your say on 1859 replicas when lots of shooting is the object ??

bartman45

I have 2 Pedersoli 1874 Sharps and have shot them a lot. Aside from the usual issues with 2 broken firing pins replaceable in a few minutes,and work fine and are very accurate @ 200yards. Cost wise, a fine rifle for the money. Is possible to spend a whole lot more for a domestic made rifle and they are of outstanding quality. Might poke around on the net for other comments. Sort of depends on how much you want to spend.......

44caliberkid

The 1859's and the 1874's are totally different animals. You won't break a firing pin on a 59, cause it doesn't have one. It's a paper cartridge breach loader and 54 caliber.
I have an AIB rifle. It's considered the cheapest or least quality. I don't think you can even buy a new one anymore. I got mine super cheap at an auction because most of the people there didn't even know what it was and 2. It had been fired, put away uncleaned and the action was frozen. I got it apart, cleaned everything and got it working again, but there is a little pitting in the first six inches of barrel. I still don't have the bullet mould for it. Been looking for a mould used or NOS that doesn't cost $100+. So I can't give any personal opinions on shooting one.
However, I found tons of posts about Pedersoli's, AIB's and Shilo's, when I googled for topics about them. Pedersolis are generally considered the best quality but bullet design and loading are important too. They will not shoot as well as a 45 caliber cartridge gun will, if that's what you're wondering.

Old hickory

Thanks for the comments. I'm mostly talking about long term reliability / paper cartridges / and the 1859 sharps/ It's tempting to consider the 1874 .45 option but I've always wanted the real civil war model .

44caliberkid

All of them have some kind of chamber seal system. Pedersolis and Shilo repros have a sleeve in the chamber that slides backwards under pressure and seals against the breech face. Originals had this design too. The AIB has a floating breech face that presses forward under pressure and seals against the rear of the chamber. In either case it is important to keep those parts clean and freely moving.

bartman45

quote:Originally posted by Old hickory
Thanks for the comments. I'm mostly talking about long term reliability / paper cartridges / and the 1859 sharps/ It's tempting to consider the 1874 .45 option but I've always wanted the real civil war model .

My post was to comment on the overall quality and reliability of the Pedersoli models I have experience with. Might take a look at the domestic made models if used, and compare to a new import.

Fokker Triplane

Hello: The best Sharps for the money is without question the ones made by the of Shiloh Sharps in Big Timber Mont. I own both the rifleand the carbine. The rifle they made for me with double triggers. The carbine purchased from an auction site. I make my own paper rds using cig. rolling papers Cast my own bullets using a Brooks mould/pure lead. A Sharps from Shiloh you can't go wrong. But what ever weapon you finally choose have fun and enjoy!

v35

I have an old Dixie 54 Sharps plier style mold.
The gun hasn't been shot in years but the conical was quite accurate in my CW 1863 carbine despite being from a second class mold. Their molds may have gotten better since buying this one in about 1963.
Round balls don't work so well and neither do hollow base bullets.
Be careful in loading loose powder. In trying to load a maximum powder charge, some got below the chamber into the forend and split the forend when fired.
The seal, seals but not perfectly.
It's been waiting patiently for years to be repaired.

JohnT

quote:You won't break a firing pin on a 59, cause it doesn't have one.

I've got a '59 McNelly carbine .45-70 that has a firing pin. They were originally converted from .54 caliber paper cartridge rifles to .50-70 Government...and they had firing pins.