BPTR Rifle Suggestions

[Fogman01]

Take a look at the match winners for BPTR competitions. Look at the rifles and calibers they use. Look at what the long range Creedmoor shooters used historically – there was probably a reason they used those calibers to win matches. Consider a 45-90 because it can do anything; hunting, long range, mid-range, silhouette. And it is historical both for hunting and long range target shooting too. You can always load a larger case with less powder... harder to do the other way. The availability of cases, dies, etc is good. I went back through the past auctions of Rock Island and Julia (now Morphy but they have a link to past Julia auctions) and cut and pasted real historic long range and Creedmoor Sharps rifles and made my own reference book as to what the originals looked like and what calibers they used for the long range Creedmoor matches. Then I had Shiloh build me a long range Sharps target rifle that is as historically correct as possible both in looks and in caliber. The early Sharps Creedmoor rifles still had the pewter forearm tip on them which is always nice looking but a lot of those were in 44-90 BN. Mine has a shot gun butt with checkered pistol grip stock and forearm. It is a 32” half octagon/round barrel and in 45-100. Sharps made some long range competition rifles just like this from December 1876 to June 1878. Then Sharps went to 34” barrels and 45-90 caliber. Have fun doing the research – it is incredible to be able to shoot these rifles using black powder and cast bullets you made yourself, laying in the dirt, over cross sticks at 1000 yards with iron sights! You will never learn more about long range shooting than shooting these rifles in this way. Casting, loading, wind analysis, marksmanship fundamentals - it’s all there.