What Tom Selleck did in Quigley Down Under...watch this video...realistic shot??

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Hmmmm.....interesting question and perhaps even more interesting feed back afterwards.

The .45-110 (2 7/8") was the longest cartridge produced for retail sales by Sharps. There was (as was correctly pointed out) no .45-120 and there was no .50 caliber bigger than .50 2 1/2". The .45-110 is not, repeat, not a particularly accurate or good choice for long range shooting. The very highest score at Creedmore matches with a Sharps rifle was shoot by Frank Hyde on Sept. 1, 1877. His score, a 214 out of a possible 225 was shot with a .44. His target? Well how does 6 feet high and 12 feet wide sound...the bullseye size? How about 3 feet by 3 feet? This included the 1,000 yard competition.

ArmedBear = .45 is not tapered, it is a straight case.

EricF = Well done, the .45-120 (3") became popular when guys didn't have the field tools to trim out their raw cases and just had their chambers reemed for full unsized brass, all non factory.

Billy Dixon = About the same as Quigley. Dixon shot an indian no doubt. The range, who knows, was it the 1,200 yards first published or the `1,500+ published later? Doesn't really matter, as at 1,500 yards a .50-90 (what Dixon shot) drops 1" for every 9" traveled forward. Physics boys, physics.
In other words, Dixon pointed his rifle up into the sky and let a round go.

Could it happen? Sure, why not, hell Bill Falin (chief ballistician at Accurate Arms) shot 130 times to hit a simular target over 100 years later. 130 times....with a 40-65 (much better round). He hit the huge target 13 times...3 would have killed the rider. Could it happen, sure. Shoot at a large enough group...remember folks, Dixon shot at a GROUP of riders. Everybody, duplicating the feat by shooting at a target (hello Mike!) just might want to set up thirty more.

Have at the facts gentlemen,

http://www.levergun.com/articles/bdixon.htm

Want to get excited about another real person that carried a Sharps? Consider the true life story of an American legend. Read about it here.
THIS guy never had a girl friend that couldn't remember his name unlike Quigley....Dont miss page seven (7)!!

http://www.shilohrifle.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=11052

That story is something to get excited about!

,
 
The .45-70 does have a slight taper towards the case mouth.

Neck diameter .480 in (12.2 mm)
Base diameter .505 in (12.8 mm)
 
As I recall, Billy Dixon hit AN Indian, one of a group at extreme long range with a borrowed gun. Not bad.

How about Jack Bean? He hit THE Indian he was aiming at. Range was not as long as at Adobe Walls, but was still agreed to be over 1000 yards. Of course ol' Jack cheated. He had a scope sight on his .44 Sharps, so he had the advantage of optics and familiarity with his own rifle. Sales files research indicates that in their late years, Sharps was selling about 25% of rifles with factory installed scope sights. No doubt some aftermarket, too; so don't poo-pooh the idea.

If you want to find out what a BPCR will really do, there are getting to be more and more events at various ranges. I was shooting silhouettes yesterday, but only to 440 yards, that being all the range the club has available now. For a real vacation consider "The Q", the Matthew Quigley Buffalo Rifle Match in Forsyth, Montana every June. For serious competition, the bPCR Nationals at Raton, NM in August. Everything from scheutzen to Creedmoor.
 
A lot can be said for a rifleman and his rifle. I think in todays world were so cought up with benchrest shooting that standing and taking a shot is unheard of. If shoot at 75 yards against a guy who shoot a 575 yard deer with my iron site Mauser, he had a tricked out 700 with a nice scope, I won big time. A lot can be said for a good set of irons.
 
Only 440 yards Jim!!??

That's pretty far for me for Pete's sake.

Are you a young man? :p

Cripe, at my age, 200 yards is long!! Well....maybe 300 yards.

I never was and never will be nearly good enough to make a shot remotely resembling those Quigley made in that movie. It's an absolute pipe dream for me I'm sorry to say. :eek:

Christ, you could give me a modern-day tank and I'd still miss that bucket.
 
Well, BPCR Metallic Silhouette is shot prone off cross-sticks (except for the 200 yd/metre chickens) and the targets are about 2 MOA in the small direction. It's still a challenge, but that is why you do it, isn't it? High score for yesterday was 28x40, and it wasn't mine.

Standard setup is chickens at 200 metres, pigs at 300 metres, turkeys at 385 metres, rams at 500 metres. The only club around here started out with yardage firing lines and only 440 available for the rams. They have an earthmoving program planned for Spring, maybe we can get those sheep out to 500 yards if not metres.

Remember, Quigley was a MOVIE. He didn't have to really make those shots. If he even LOOKED like not making a shot, there was always Take 2.


Oh, yeah; I am 64.
 
As far as the movie goes, everything Quigley did with his rifle is possible. However, if I were fortunate enough to do it too, I would immediately head for Las Vegas before my luck changed.
At the distance that the bucket was supposed to be, all that would be necessary for a clean miss would be to miss judge the distance by 10 feet. Keep in mind even with 110 grs. of powder, that bullet would probably be traveling in the neighborhood of 1150 to 1250 fps.

Sure was a good movie.
 
its peoriod correct, and the shot is possible. what really gets me is the stories of buffalo hunters shooting them at 1000 yards with .45-70's, the black-powder load, dropped 4 feet from 975 to 1000 yards, and another 4 from 1000 to 1025, show me 1 person who can tell weather a buffalo is 975, 1000, or 1025 and ill belive them
ken
 
I think its great that so many folks are confident that the fictitious Quigley could make that shot.

So a man standing with a .45-110 can shot rapidly at a bucket that is.....that is.....well, its about....hmmm, well....well, just exactly how far is that bucket? Script? Script!

No real matter....he could do it....just look how well he can drop dirt.

I'm with FredT on this one.....pass the pop corn.
 
I work for a special effects company in California. Just go to Full Scale Effects web site and click on video resume.

http://www.fullscaleeffects.com/

I didn't work on all of them.

I can guarantee you we could "make that shot" anytime, day or night, rain sleet or snow. It is difficult to make in fog. Not the shot, but allowing the cameras to see it.

Much harder to hit a control tower with a Corvette. Con-Air.:)

We did not do Quigley.
 
The whole thing looks like Hollywood BS to me. I'd bet that 99% of us couldn't even see a dull bucket like that at 600 yards and judging by the elevation on the tang sight, it was more than that.

And, sure benchrest shooters can shoot some incredible groups with iron sights and black powder, but they know their exact range and they don't do it by snap shooting offhand.
 
Its a movie... enjoy it.

Now the movie that really gets me the 1 mile soup can from Shooter... how did he even see it?
 
Afy, forget the soup can ... how about all the head shots made on moving targets in the opening 5 minutes with a .308. Now THAT'S Hollywood!! :what: Great film though.

Semmerling, that's an amazing thread that you posted .. I spent half an hour this afternoon looking at all the photos and reading about the Arctic Rifle, Fredrick Schwatka and William Henry Gilder ... what an amazing Shiloh (Gemmer) Sharps rifle.

:)
 
Remember. He is Tom Seleck. In Magnum P.I. he allways got the girl and solved the crime. In other words and in my opinion it's Hollyweird.
 
hey...at least he is part of PRO-gun hollywood. :)


and the fact that its all eye-candy is cool. Some take it serious, some don't.


I am normally one of the folks that scoff at the folks that use car-doors for cover. :)
 
1858 - Thanks, it was a wonderful project. Just know that it is a C.Sharps Arms, not a Shiloh. Shiloh was kind enough to allow the post on their site because it was such a celebration of American legends.

Dont miss the "Buffalo Falls" Sharps here...

http://www.barryleehands.com/

It is also a C. Sharps.

I own both Shiloh and C. Sharps. both are both superb rifles. Own one and be done.
 
True, but it is a Sharps "straight case".
Click to expand...

Perhaps I should have said "straight case" with the quotes.

But whenever I've sized them, they come out tapered.:)
 
.

You boy's need to watch this video before you say that
the Quigley shot was not within the realm of possibility
for the "best rifleman in the world" circa Matthew Quigley.

This is 1000 yards. Not a Sharps action, but that is not important.
It's open sights and it's a similar cartridge/bullet. From a rest,
granted, but remember Quigley was "the best".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4WpYj3CATg
 
I am betting that if you could find the best rifleman in the world alive today and give him the time to on the rifle that quigley had he could make this shot easily. I know some guys that can do some amazing things offhand with iron sights.--Unfortunately I'm not one of them.
 
There is a small group of very hardcore Sharps competitors who can do that stuff, today, with the equipment in question.

Again, only the best shots can do it, but in the movie script, Quigley was the best shot.
 
All Hollywood. The Adobe walls story, is a tired old west fable. Billy Dixon probably shot something at some distance and there were probably some indians too. But 700 indians?

OK, we can concede he fired randomly fired into space in the general direction of 700 indians and hit one. Getting a Medal of Honor for that? If it happened today in Iraq and he was a Major or LTC then he would get an MOH. If he was a PFC he would have got court martialed for war crimes.
 
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