Shrapnel - It's a real pleasure tameetcha, Sir! A living literary icon. I often wondered, "Who is this mystical character?", so it's good to have a face put to the name.
I've had the pleasure of meeting and shooting in a couple of CAS matches attended by MLV in Idaho. This was just on the cusp of him leaving CAS for BPCR Silhouette out of sheer disgust. Butch Ulsher was another. Both deplored the devolution of Cowboy Action Shooting into IPSC in Cowboy Boots.
Well, I did take my Shiloh 50-70 Military Rifle to the range yesterday where it promptly threw a shoe. I had three consecutive failures to fire. The new blocks have always given an off-centre primer strike, but they've always gone "Bang!" before. Then the hammer began to fall to half-cock and finally failed to hold at full cock.
Fortunately, I had another rifle with me that works - every time; one of my Parker-Hale .577 Enfields. This rifle puts .564 RB/55 ffg into cloverleaves at 25 yards and prints three rounds into a group you could cover with a fifty-cent coin at 50. All off-hand, heavy trigger pull and barley corn sights, BTW. The wind precluded shooting at 100.
Backattheranch .... I pulled the lock from the 50-70 and I was able to get it to hold at full cock, but my, what a powerful hammer spring! I mean horrendous! I think I may have worn the full cock notch with the excessive hammer spring tension. I'm going to do a parts switch with one of my other Shilohs and see if that helps. Got a method of reducing the hammer spring tension that won't get us both written up by MLV?
A few years back, I 'converted' two of my Farmingdale Sharps (with the old 'H' type firing pin) to the modern small two-piece type. I sent them my blocks and received a pair of current blocks, but they kept the old ones. I politely asked for them back, and they complied. Guess what's going back into both rifles? I have three of the old firings pins on hand, so I'm good for a while. I suspect that the heavy hammer fall had something to do with the breakage of the old pin.
I'd ask for input on the Shiloh site, but after returning my NIB 50-70 carbine the day after I received it, I'd be burned in effigy by the "faithful'' for heresy. I'm becoming disillusioned with Shiloh. I don't dare tell my Uberti-Sharps pals about my trials and tribulations.