The mighty Sharps

I ran a really nice 4 miler early this morning. Conditions were perfect-extremely cool and foggy. So, why couldn't it have been like that on Saturday when I ran such a miserable half marathon?

Hubby and I went to the shooting range yesterday and I finally got to shoot my Spencer as well as my latest toy, the mighty Sharps model 1874. When I told Hubby I wanted a Sharps, he asked if I wanted a new replica or an old original. Well, duh. Of course it had to be an original and dang if Hubby didn't find one at the gun show Saturday. The Sharps is the longer gun at the top of the picture with the Spencer below it. More about the Sharps later-we shot the Spencer first and may I just say that it was highly satisfying-hardly any kick, a very pleasant bang and a big puff of smoke. I learned how to bore sight a gun, but I still couldn't shoot it with any accuracy; I figured I did ok when I hit the paper at 25 yards, never mind trying for a bulls eye.

Then we got out the Sharps. The Sharps is big, heavy, and kicks like a mule. My Sharps has a set trigger. This means there are 2 triggers-set the set trigger, and it makes an already touchy firing trigger frighteningly light. If you saw the movie "Quigley Down Under", you might remember how Tom Selleck fired the gun-he did it very gently and carefully. I now have an understanding for why he fired that way. The Hubster and I discussed at length how we were going to fire this gun in a safe way. I had to be really, really careful because "hair trigger" does not accurately describe how sensitive the trigger becomes after the set trigger is engaged. Honestly, I never squeezed the trigger-I barely touched it and the gun fired.

My Sharps has no rear sight. In order to aim accurately, I tried to center down the barrel to the front sight, all the while trying to not even breathe weird because I knew it would fire at the slightest touch-which brings us to the picture of the target. I put a nickel next to the round I shot with the Sharps. The nickel is to give you an idea of how big these rounds are-at least they seem big to me (I'm more used to my trusty 22 caliber). So, with no rear sight I managed to put a round pretty darned close to dead center. I'm proud of that shot, even though Hubby claims it was just a lucky shot. He's just jealous because I shot better than him. He's currently on the hunt for a rear sight and it should be interesting to see how accurate the Sharps is with proper sights.