Sharps vs Rolling Block?

Which rifle would you choose? (Read post)

  • 1874 Sharps

    Votes: 44 73.3%

  • Remington Rolling Block

    Votes: 16 26.7%
  • Total voters
    60
  • Poll closed .
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Panzerschwein

Panzerschwein

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Picture this:

The year is 1875.

You're a buffalo hunter/explorer out on the Great Plains. Your hunting party is blazing a trail, hunting buffalos. There's Native American* war parties about, you might just have to fight 'em off some time. They don't take kindly to you and your pards being on their land.

You've got a trusty rifle that is ready for the job. It's chambered in the Army's new .45-70 cartridge, big old bullets they are. Excellent for harvesting buffalos and you can hit a Native American* near as far as you can see 'em.

But your rifle... is it an 1874 Sharps, or a Remington Rolling Block?

Which would you choose, and why? :)

*I do not mean for the term "Native American" to offend anyone. If this term offends you, I apologize in advance.
 
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Cooldill: I shoot both a Pedersoli Sharps in 45-70 and a Pedersoli Rolling Block in 45-70. And I can`t really tell you which one I like the best or why. Both are just great to shoot and extremely accurate, and both shoot the same load very well. I shoot both rifles a lot and really enjoy shooting both of them. So I would have to give you a really stupid ansewer. The rifle I like the best, I guess is the one I am shooting at the time. I have been told by several people that should know, that the Rolling Block is less prone to breakage, than the Sharps. But don`t quote me on that. Like I said I really like them both.
ken
 
For shooting buffalo, it's a horse apiece on the Sharps vs. Rolling Block. For an Indian attack I would rather have the Rolling Block. In the heat of battle the Sharps firing pin can be broken if you forget to pull the hammer to half-cock before lowering the lever.
 
Rolling Block. I like the falling block action, it's the strongest action around, but for the late 19th Century and just black powder loads, the Rolling Block is so wizard.
 
Sure it's a good rifle, but let's define "good". It's a Pedersoli so it's actually a great rifle. The barrel and action are manufactured the same, and are made of the same materials as their more expensive rifles. Other great qualities are the double set triggers, 1:18 twist, .458 groove diameter, and the tang is drilled for a tang sight. This rifle will shoot with the best of them.

What may not be perceived as "good" is the finish. It's not blued, it's a matte finish. I don't know what the coating is, but when I see it I think of high temperature, flat black, barbeque grill paint. They also saved money by not using a high grade of wood, and they left off the nice "silver" forearm tip.

I have this same rifle, but I bought it from Cabelas. They called it a Sharps Hunter. Dixie calls it a Lightweight/Target Hunter Rifle. If you go to the Pedersoli website they call it something else (Business Rifle?) Anyways..... I stripped the matte finish, and refinished the wood. I was going for an "old-timey" look so I just cold blued it, but intentionally didn't do a perfect job. Then I spent some time bringing out the figure and grain of the wood. I was trying to make look like it spent some time in buffalo country. Now I think it looks great. It shoots good too. I use it for the long range competition at Cowboy Action Shooting matches
 
they both have plus and minus points, for the black powder shooter the sharps is easier to take apart to clean, but the roller may be stronger( if newer made). i own and shoot,rollers,sharps, high and low wall,s and rugers. eastbank.
 
I'll take the sharps, but I want the Big 50, not the 45-70.
As for why, that's what I have and I love it.


delrom418, you can't give details like that and pics, come on don't be a tease.
 
I voted for the Sharps 1874 primarily because I the way it looks versus the Remington Rolling Block. Both are great rifles and I would be thrilled to have either one.
 
As history would tell us, the Rollers were much more common than the Sharps. I would go Roller, I already have two originals. Nice triggers and good shooters.
 
Pedersolis are the best of the Italians, barrels are the same no matter the action type.
I have seen far more Sharps than Rolling Blocks at BPCR matches, don't recall what I saw on buffalo hunts.
I think most of the zillions of Rolling Blocks went to foreign military contracts while the shorter lived Sharps Rifle Co. was nearly all commercial sales after the War. So I would not bet that Remingtons were more common on the frontier.

If you want to just squeak in under the chronological wire, the C. Sharps Model of 1875 is a very fine rifle and not that much more expensive than a Pedersoli, if you can stay off the option list.
 
Another vote for the Rolling Block.

Simplier to load and clean. Accepted by several foreign countries for issue to their Armies.

p.s. A fella stopped by our hunting camp yesterday. Said he was looking for investors in his new invention. He called it moving pictures show. He says it will show moving pictures on a big screen inside a building.

Then he told a real whopper about the people in the movie picture show talking!

He was so sincere and convincing I was ready to invest in his new invention until I asked him what the moving pictures shows would be about. I threw him out of the camp after he said one of them was going to be about a fella using Sharps Rifle to shoot bad guys at long range.
 
Cooldill said:
Picture this:

The year is 1875.

You're a buffalo hunter/explorer out on the Great Plains. Your hunting party is blazing a trail, hunting buffalos. There's "injun" war parties about, you might just have to fight 'em off some time. They don't take kindly to you and your pards being on their land.

You've got a trusty rifle that is ready for the job. It's chambered in the Army's new .45-70 cartridge, big old bullets they are. Excellent for harvesting buffalos and you can hit an injun near as far as you can see 'em.

But your rifle... is it an 1874 Sharps, or a Remington Rolling Block?

Which would you choose, and why? :)
Click to expand...
1875, it would be the Sharps in 44-77. The 45 govt. cartridge is a bit anemic and not overly available. The 44 2 1/4 bn is the most popular chamber in both Remington and Sharps rifles and has a reputation of being able to shoot thru and kill 2 buffalo at 500 yds with a single round.
The Remington rifle has a tendancy to shoot backwards when the chamber gets dirty, and sometimes not even then, just if a shell is hard to chamber and you put extra pressure on the breechblock... Kaboom you've got a hand and faceful of shrapnel from the exploding case.
 
Remington almost as many Rolling Blocks in a Month than Sharps did during their entire run. Buffalo hunters preferred the sharps due to accuracy with the Remington second. Yes, most went overseas. But they were there in as many numbers if not more than the Sharps. The No 1 was pretty popular. Nothing here takes away from the Sharps. People forget about the Rollers and their mark on the West.
 
When you read the various accounts of the old hide hunters and look at the inventory lists of the various trading firms, there's precious little mention of the Remington. Not to say they weren't there, but they weren't there in as large of numbers as the Sharps.
 
Why has a racial slur - used twice in one post - stood unedited since last night?

Perhaps no one knows better, so I'll educate you: "Injun" - That's a disgusting, offensive, ignorant and antiquated way to refer to Natives.
 
barnbwt said:
Is "Peabody" an option?
Click to expand...
The really interesting thing about Peabody is the 45-70 was their brain child and three versions of it, with rifles were presented in 1864/5 military rifle trials. The rifle and the 480 gr bullet actually topped all the tests, but in the end the War Dept shelved any new rifles and ammunition, until 1873,,, and son of a gun look at this new cartridge....
 
I have both, however I prefer my Sharps 45-70, using Mil-Spec black powder loads, I've consistently hit the 16" gong at 500 yards. Further it definitely put a big whitetail down at 75 yards, umpteen years ago in UP Michigan.

Wisco, don't be so politically correct, this is after all a gun forum.
 
Wisco said:
Why has a racial slur - used twice in one post - stood unedited since last night?

Perhaps no one knows better, so I'll educate you: "Injun" - That's a disgusting, offensive, ignorant and antiquated way to refer to Natives.
Click to expand...

Yup. Caught my attention as well. Just as offensive as the "N" word, but not so many people objecting. While we're on that topic, squaw is also an offensive term to Native Americans. USGS is changing many maps and place names to eliminate that reference.

To stay on topic, I've always wanted a Sharps, so that would be my choice. At my age, I will probably never own one. I would take the .45-70 just because of ammo availability. That's now, I'm not sure about back in the day.
 
Wisco, don't be so politically correct, this is after all a gun forum.
Click to expand...

Politics has nothing to do with the racial slur used in this thread. "Injun" is offensive to myself and every other Native I know.

This is a gun forum, but from what I see, quickly becoming a place where many, like myself, are unwelcome.

I stopped on this thread because I have a Shiloh Sharps, not because I am an ethnic minority looking to be offended.
 
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