I shot a cow with a Sharps

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Eric F

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So My friend owns a farm and he slaughters a cow once in a while for meat. He asked if I wanted to come over and help so I got this idea. I am planning a buffalo hunt for my 2009 vacation and thought this would be a perfect chance to give my rifle a good break in. Ist an Armi Sport Billy Dixon sharps in 50-90. He agreed to let me shoot the cow. I am not familiar with the various cows but it was all black I assume it was an angus.(just so I dont get blasted for shooting a milking cow)

We sat up across the field and laser ranged to 250 yards(I have already sighted in several times at various ranges) and waited for the right one to move away from the herd. I hit the set trigger took aim and pulled the trigger. I load with black powder and a 530 gr flat nose lead bullet the wind was very light and we couldnt see from the smoke it took a few seconds to clear then we could see the cow was down. We walked up and I made a good hit right behind the right shoulder. We walked around to the other side and there was blood and fur stretched out for 3 feet on the other side. The bullet had gone streight threw. We got the tractor and cart dug a hole and gutted the cow then rolled her on the cart the bullet had exited out the base of the neck just forward of the left shoulder. Looking at the organs I got the right lung and went just over the heart.

I was shocked that the bullet went threw. I guess I was expecting it to stick some where. No wonder it was so popular as a buffalo cartridge. I have to wonder where the bullet finaly ended up. All in All a fairly exciting event. I have not heard how much the cow weighed yet but might find out tomorrow.
 
Hey, I'm a member of PETA.

That's People for the Eating of Tasty Animals!

You are planning to share, right?

Hmmmm, we get water buffalo meat from a guy who organically raises them for the purpose.

I wonder.....
 
I am not familiar with the various cows but it was all black I assume it was an angus.(just so I dont get blasted for shooting a milking cow)
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If it was all black, more likely it was an Angus. They are steers, not cows. I dout he would shoot his milking cows.
 
Heap big medicine. That's the technical term for a combination of low velocity, high sectional density and substantial momentum.
 
Clint Smith enjoys telling of a story where the gun writer Mike Venturino was out shooting when a SWAT team came out to sight in their machine pistols and M4s and test their new armor. The SWAT team commences to shooting it with pistols, HK54s and M4s and then ask Duke to shoot it.

Mike shot their armor with his .50-110. Every cop's mouth was wide open watching the pieces come back to earth.:uhoh::D
 
You guys with the .50-90 and .50-110 are giving me a serious case of the jones.

What velocity are you driving those 530gr. bullets at?
 
I do not know, Every time I have had access to a chrono it has been broken not enough light raining ect ect. My best guess is 1500 fps max. with 93 gr ffg real balck powder

I love .50 cals. and way cheaper to shoot than 50 bmg. Next up is a 500 mag rifle for lighter work. Also the 50-110 ia the same case as a 50-90 so I read any way diffrence is 50-110 uses a lighter bullit.
 
.50-90, .45-70, all works about the same on game, with bullets over 500 grains.:)

But in case you need more to add to your jones...

These guys are setting up for a shot with a .50-90 Sharps (original). They got the big bull of the trip. All rounds fired were hand-cast, handloaded black powder.
bigsky.sized.jpg

This is me with a .45-70 Sharps (replica). Used a bullet I cast, weighed upwards of 520 grains, over a packed case, GOEX through a drop tube. Didn't chrono it. Bullet went in one side, out the other side, and kept on going. Buffalo went down with one shot.

The trajectory isn't flat, but the bullet goes through a buffalo about like a locomotive goes through a hay bale.:)

IMG_3071.sized.jpg

You'll have fun on your vacation, Eric!

BTW I'm not sure I would butcher them all by hand again.:eek: If anything, make sure you have a few big, sharp knives, a sawzall, some sort of hoist, a tractor, a few guys and a day, unless you have access to a real meat-processing facility that has everything set up.:)

However, doing it all ourselves, from loading to butchering, sure made the whole experience much "bigger". That, and sleeping outside in canvas tents in 0-degree weather on the plains. San Diego isn't the best place to get prepared for that.
 
Those bullets are under 2000 fps and are in the 2500 range of energy, If you were shooting a similar bullet from a 458 win mag they are over 2100 and some where around the 5000 energy figure.

A 30-06 shooting a 220 bullet is faster and the energy is more than the 2500 area. Why there are a lot more 06 out there knocking down various game.

The drop is not bad at 250 with the 06 but I figure the 500 grain + is a real looping trajectory :what: Could miss easily;)

But I'll bet the Sharps is a fun gun and anything it touchs is going to go down, something about that slow dude, like the 45-70:uhoh:
 
A 30-06 shooting a 220 bullet is faster and the energy is more than the 2500 area. Why there are a lot more 06 out there knocking down various game.
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Energy? Energy is a pretty dubious figure unless you're relying on a light, expanding bullet or trying to break through the skull of a cape buffalo with a heavy bullet.

The .30-06 and the myriad rounds it spawned over the years are popular mainly because they shoot flat. A .45-70 is quite effective at 400 yards and beyond. It's just harder to get the elevation right -- and that's an understatement. But energy isn't really all that much of an issue with a slow, heavy bullet. Energy obsession among hunters has more to do with Roy Weatherby than Bill Cody. Buffalo hunters did fine without all that energy that we think is so important now.

The terminal performance of a big, heavy, blunt bullet is really different from a little spitzer.

the Sharps is a fun gun and anything it touchs is going to go down
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Yup. No fancy bullet required, either. Hardcast lead does fine.
 
he slaughters a cow once in a while for meat. He asked if I wanted to come over and help
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In my best redneck speach (that's an oxymoron) "Hey, I'm gunna be a killin some stuff wanna come over and do sum killin wiv me?"
 
In my best redneck speach (that's an oxymoron) "Hey, I'm gunna be a killin some stuff wanna come over and do sum killin wiv me?"
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Hey come on the guys family is out of town his boys usually help him. Country but hardly redneck. But that is funny.
 
Hey, I'm a member of PETA.

That's People for the Eating of Tasty Animals!
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Me too!

Give me some of that steak as well. There is plenty to share with every member who logged in and posted here today.:neener:

You also want some white rice with that?
 
How about a 50-140? Navy Arms chambered their Remington Rolling Block replica for it for awhile years ago and I bought one. Think it was the late '70s. That thing will get your attention.
 
How about a 50-140? Navy Arms chambered their Remington Rolling Block replica for it for awhile years ago and I bought one. Think it was the late '70s. That thing will get your attention.
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You bet. I fired a Sharps in .45-110 before. That one sure kicked like hell and thundered like a Midwestern prairie storm.
 
When my friend and I were 14, we were charged with downing a steer for slaughter. It was how they stocked for the winter.

One 12 ga slug at 8 ft made it stumble. The second put it down for his father to bleed it out. Not a pleasant experience but it fed his family for the winter to come.
 
I had a bunch of horses and kept them next to a slaughter house that was closed. They are very efficient. The guy just quit being a slaughter house and all the mechanical stuff was still hanging. One day said "no mas" had his fill of blood and guts he said.

The folks who come out to your location and do it, are pretty handy with those knives and bleeding them out quick. I am surpised the OP shot it from so far away, by the time you got there it would not bleed out very well (in comparison to doing it right next to the pully and crane and up ending them).

Like anything else it is an art, to be handy at it you need to apprentice for some time.

:)
 
I shot my .577 snider enfield at a fence post about half a foot thick, didn't go through, went in about an inch!!! what gives?

Lead 400 grain conical bullet, with 70 grains of powder in the cartridge. The rife was a vintage 1868 snider enfield.

The point I'm trying to make here is if its good enough to go hunting with? I see the sharps had no problem and the bullet characteristics are sorta on the same page and it went straight through a cow.
 
brentn, That depends on what kind of fence post it was. There ares some types of wood, when there seasoned, that are very hard.


The energy numbers on these old guns don't mean much. When you sling a 450+ grain flat nosed hard lead bullet at least 1300 FPS it is going to make a mess out of about any animal.

Taylor Knockout Factor talks about this. The momentum of those big bullets is what makes things happen.

I have a Shiloh Sharps and it my favorite gun. I have a New Model 1863 and it's one of best and balanced guns I have ever shot. Most Sharps are.
 
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