50-70 Shiloh Carbine

[PJ Hardtack]

Bright and sunny, no wind, so to the range I went with my new Shiloh 50-70 carbine .....

I've been playing with the 'as issue' sights and my loads, trying to get 50 and 100 yd zeros for spring bear season. I've widened the rear notch and changed it to a square bottom 'U' from the original shallow 'V'. I also shaved off about 1/8" from the front sight.

30 grs of 5744 and a 350 gr bullet groups into 2" at 50 like child's play. Zip recoil. Great plinking load.

Next up - a duplex loading. It printed two overlapping rds from the bench at 50, so I went to 100 and put three rds into 1 1/2". That was with a 350 gr and a duplex load of 5/4759/60/FFg. Minimal bore fouling, tolerable recoil.

The same bullet with 70 FFg put 5 rds into 1 1/2" at 50, but was a disappointment at 100yd. I forgot that the bore got pretty cruddy with 100% BP compared to the duplex. Now I was out of ammo .....

I was going to put an MVA tang sight on the carbine, but I think I can live with the Lawrence military sight now.

[quigleysharps4570]

Any pics of that new rifle?

[PJ Hardtack]

Quigley

Nothing special about, just the usual impeccable Shiloh wood-to-metal fit and overall quality. I didn't order the saddle ring as it's one PITA on a hunting rifle nor a patch box. I have those on my other military carbine and rifles and they're inoperable as I cover the butt with a leather lace-on pad from Buffalo Arms, the best product I've found for the purpose.

I did order a 24" barrel instead of the standard 22". Historically, you could order a carbine with up to a 26" barrel. C. Sharps offers their carbine with a 26" barrel. Rifles started at 28" with the 'Business Rifle'.

I shipped it back to Shiloh unfired for stock shortening. I presumed that it would have the same length of pull as my other Farmingdale-made military rifles, but the current LOP made it impossible for me to reach the trigger even in a T-shirt. It has the same OAL length as my Trapdoor carbine due to the long action of the Springfield.

One oddity is that it has a left hand twist unlike all my other Shilohs. I also ordered it with the fast (for 50-70) twist as  thought I would like to shoot 540 gr bullets - wrong! Fortunately, it stabilizes 350 and 450 gr bullets just fine.

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