Help with my first shots

Ask Shiloh questions about your Shiloh Sharps Rifle.

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HarryH
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Joined: Sat Apr 30, 2016 11:03 pm
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Help with my first shots

Post by HarryH »

I bought a new 45-70 Sharps, 30" brl, from Shiloh about a year ago. Finally I am ready to start shooting it the first time.
I am not doing my own black powder reloading, yet.
My first shots will be using buffalo arms AMOGX4570405

https://www.buffaloarms.com/45-70-gover ... ogx4570405

My rear sight is the MVA Tang Sight 108

https://montanavintagearms.com/product/ ... mid-range/

The sight was installed by Shiloh.

Its vertical range is 200 MOA with a windage range of 28 MOA

My question is: what would be a good initial setting on my rear site to get on the paper at 100 yards.

Yes, I can go the traditional route with trial and error starting at 25 or 50 yards, as I do with my modern powder loads (that I do reload myself). However, the factory ammo was expensive. So any advice in the initial setting at 100 yards might save me some money.

Thanks for any help you can give me.

Harry
If we lose freedom here, there is no place to escape to. This is the last stand on Earth. Government is like a baby. An alimentary canal with a big appetite at one end and no sense of responsibility at the other.
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Lumpy Grits
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Re: Help with my first shots

Post by Lumpy Grits »

If you're run'n the MVA #113 front sight. Try '35' on the rear for a start.
Don't expect those 405's to shoot well in your Shiloh. :shock:
Mine hated'em :!:
Gary
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Lumpy Grits
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Re: Help with my first shots

Post by Lumpy Grits »

:roll:
Last edited by Lumpy Grits on Thu Jun 08, 2017 6:19 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Lumpy Grits
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Re: Help with my first shots

Post by Lumpy Grits »

:roll:
Last edited by Lumpy Grits on Thu Jun 08, 2017 6:19 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Lumpy Grits
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Re: Help with my first shots

Post by Lumpy Grits »

double tap :roll:
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Lumpy Grits
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Re: Help with my first shots

Post by Lumpy Grits »

Dbl tap :mrgreen:
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Lumpy Grits
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Re: Help with my first shots

Post by Lumpy Grits »

:roll:
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Re: Help with my first shots

Post by Lumpy Grits »

Think I need to clean the keyboard out........ :lol:
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Lumpy Grits
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Re: Help with my first shots

Post by Lumpy Grits »

OK-Lets try again......... :P
I now see that your sight is different that what I use. Sorry to say-I have no settings for you.
You could bore sight the rifle-Set the rifle in bags and open the breech. Looking through the barrel, align it to center of the target. Move the rear sight till it lines up.
Good luck,
Gary
"Hav'n you along, is like loose'n two good men"
SFogler
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Re: Help with my first shots

Post by SFogler »

I lined up the rear barrel sight and the front sight to hit the target at 50 yards. Then I set the tang sight so I could see the rear barrel sight as it lined up with the front sight, i.e. all three were lined up at 50 yards. After hitting the paper at 50 yards using the tang and front sight, I just moved the target out to 100 yards. There was just a few inches difference between 50 and 100 yards. That got me on paper for 100 yards with the tang. After refining the tang sight to hit center bull at 100 yards, then I went into the Hornady web site for calculating MOA and bullet drop at whatever yards I want to shoot. Meters too. I don't have a chrony so I just used 1300 fps and .4 ballistics coefficient. The Hornady chart let me know how many MOA to move the vernier to get on paper at the next range - once I found the setting for 100 yrds using the above method, I used the Hornady calculation to find the increment to move the sight to 200, then 300 etc. It also figures windage for whatever wind you put in. Not the most scientific but I got on paper at the ranges I wanted to try and then adjusted from there. 1 MOA is 1" at 100 yards and 1 MOA is 5" at 500 yards - simple. Probably better ways, but it worked for me to get started using black powder and a vernier sight sort of successfully right away without a lot of trial and error. It was actually better than just a "ballpark" or WAG. Now that I have some sight settings and loads worked out, I am shooting at local silhouette matches and really enjoying the BP and the rifle.

http://www.hornady.com/ballistics-resou ... calculator
rdnck
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Re: Help with my first shots

Post by rdnck »

SFogler gives good advice. Shoot straight, rdnck.
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SFogler
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Re: Help with my first shots

Post by SFogler »

I had read how to adjust the vernier sight and what the lines meant on it. But I never did find any info on how to find the first sight setting so I could have a fixed, known starting point to make the adjustments from. So getting started on BP and vernier sights seemed a little intimidating, but once I got the sight and the rifle in my hands it started to make sense. I would much rather adjust a vernier sight or adjust my MVA scope mount settings than adjust my modern scope on my smokeless elk gun. I have wasted far more ammo on a smokeless scope adjustment than I have on any vernier style sight adjustment. Just have patience to start with and it will be second nature after just a little practice. I also started with some BACO 45-70 BP ammo to see if it would be fun. It was. I quickly bought my own reloading stuff and reloaded my own. Mike Verturino's book Shooting Buffalo Rifles of the Old West got me started on what components to buy and how to easily get into reloading with some specific loads to try and how to properly clean the cases and rifle. BP shooting is not nearly as complicated as it appears to be if you have never done it, and IMHO, it is much more fun and rewarding than anyone could ever describe.
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rfd
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Re: Help with my first shots

Post by rfd »

as already mentioned, bore sight to get on paper and then fine tune, easy peasy.
BR ~ TMA ~ BPG
HarryH
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Re: Help with my first shots

Post by HarryH »

Thanks everybody for your replies.

I don't know why I never thought of the bore sight method. That is how I used to do the scopes on my bolt action rifles before I bought an optical bore sighter.

I suspect that ny memory went South whenI retired. LOL

Thanks again.

Harry
If we lose freedom here, there is no place to escape to. This is the last stand on Earth. Government is like a baby. An alimentary canal with a big appetite at one end and no sense of responsibility at the other.
President Ronald Reagan
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