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During the site crash I picked up another old Hepburn rifle. It was posted in the FS section at ASSRA forum and I was lucky to see it soon after and snatched it at a very good price. The thing that caught my interest beyond price was the cartridge; .45 2 7/8" Sharps. A very rare chambering for a Hepburn, and the same chambering Quigley had his Sharps chambered in. Of course he referred to his as a ".45-110" the modern name for this cartridge, which was a small error in that great movie.
The Hepburn has a heavy full octagon barrel that's 30" long. It has the standard buckhorn rear, and silver blade front sights. Also a Lyman tang sight, but I swapped out the tang sight and front sight for a Long-Range MVA, and a spirit level globe. Glad I did as I discovered the Lyman sight had the wrong screws and was loose from being too small!
Just after getting this Hepburn I was contemplating when or how I'd ever get brass when I saw someone on the Shiloh forum mention in a discussion that they had 158 pcs. of .45-110 brass. I sent them a PM and got that brass early this week, and sized it all this morning. I need to cast up some big heavy bullets soon, and make up some test loads to see what it prefers.
Going to try next week to do some early morning casting before the temps get too warm. Have another mold coming to me Sunday at our OAC gun show to also cast some lightweight bullets for my .45-70 offhand Ballard rifle. Maybe try some of those in this Hepburn too.
Vall, it is a wonderful find all right. But I shudder at the thought of shooting more than a handful of .45 2 7/8 with a 550-grain bullet over a case full of compressed black! Heck, I realized a while back that I don't even enjoy shooting the service load from a Trapdoor Springfield anymore. Getting to be an old sissy I guess.
Bill in Oregon wrote: ↑Sat Jul 26, 2025 9:41 am
Vall, it is a wonderful find all right. But I shudder at the thought of shooting more than a handful of .45 2 7/8 with a 550-grain bullet over a case full of compressed black! Heck, I realized a while back that I don't even enjoy shooting the service load from a Trapdoor Springfield anymore. Getting to be an old sissy I guess.
I had a quick learning curve trying to make my Sharps in .50-140 comfortable with 1.5fg Swiss. I was able to get it down to 120 grs. with no problem using two 1/8" wads over powder. Then I tried amaranth seed filler and got it down to just over 100 grs. of 1.5fg. I'll be using fillers to begin with, and see how accurate I can get it without beating myself up. Wads first, then amaranth seed and a wad over that to get down to 45-70 recoil. I do plan to make up a few with my 480 gr. bullets and full cases just to see what it feels like with a standard charge though. Might not get past the first cartridge!
Bill in Oregon wrote: ↑Sat Jul 26, 2025 9:41 am
Vall, it is a wonderful find all right. But I shudder at the thought of shooting more than a handful of .45 2 7/8 with a 550-grain bullet over a case full of compressed black! Heck, I realized a while back that I don't even enjoy shooting the service load from a Trapdoor Springfield anymore. Getting to be an old sissy I guess.
At our OAC gun show yesterday a friend who sells lots of old molds brought in a bunch of lightweight bullet molds brought in a half dozen Lymans for me to choose from. He had 4 of the old Lyman 457191 molds that are 292 grs. I bought one for my recent Ballard offhand rifle in .45-70 to make up light loads for it, and will also cast enough to try some in this Hepburn. Likely wont load a lot as it counters the long range capability of the .45 2 7/8" cartridge. Just enough to play with at 200 yds. or less.
Val, that is a real beauty. That would be just the ticket for our 1200 yard buffalo target that has been kickin' everybody's butt at our shoot. The fellow who won the match last Saturday got 4 hits out of 13 shots and he got way more than anyone else (I didn't get a single hit).
And Bill, I've been shooting that fine trapdoor you sold me with those full-bore 500 grain loads (that's what she likes!) with no problems since I discovered the inch-thick slip-on butt pads old Buffalo Arms sells. I won't touch off those loads without the pad!
The greatest patriot...
is he who heals the most gullies. Patrick Henry
earlmck wrote: ↑Tue Jul 29, 2025 8:56 am
Val, that is a real beauty. That would be just the ticket for our 1200 yard buffalo target that has been kickin' everybody's butt at our shoot. The fellow who won the match last Saturday got 4 hits out of 13 shots and he got way more than anyone else (I didn't get a single hit).
And Bill, I've been shooting that fine trapdoor you sold me with those full-bore 500 grain loads (that's what she likes!) with no problems since I discovered the inch-thick slip-on butt pads old Buffalo Arms sells. I won't touch off those loads without the pad!
Hepburn buttplates are nicely shaped, but narrow and small, so I may also look into the BACO butt pad. I use a PAST strap on pad for some of my higher recoiling singleshots with crescent buttplates and it works well, but I often am adjusting how it sits on my shoulder.
marlinman93 wrote: ↑Wed Jul 30, 2025 8:53 am
Hepburn buttplates are nicely shaped, but narrow and small, so I may also look into the BACO butt pad. I use a PAST strap on pad for some of my higher recoiling singleshots with crescent buttplates and it works well, but I often am adjusting how it sits on my shoulder.
Yeah, I use the PAST pad and the thick butt pad. But that is the shoulder that had parts replaced in it a few years ago and I really really don't want to break anything loose.
The dang PAST pad was always moving out of position on me until I started putting it on next to my skin and then putting T shirt and c'boy shirt over it. Lots less frustrating that way.
The greatest patriot...
is he who heals the most gullies. Patrick Henry
