doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion Classic & Custom Single Barreled Sporting Rifles @ doublegunshop.com Thoughts on Little Sharps rifles

I am planning to have a Little Sharps rifle from Big Sandy Montana made for varmnint hunting and would like opinions regarding the quality of these rifles. I am leaning toward a .219 Zipper. It is also made in .22 Hornet and .218 Bee. Any opinions regarding the .219 Zipper as compared to the other calibers would be appreciated.

Shawn:

Frankly, I could see no point whatsoever in a "little" Sharps. It was the second silliest idea I ever heard of. Then I met one at the Silhouette Nationals a couple three years ago and fell in love with it. As I recall it was in .22rf but I don't remember who made it.

I cannot speak to the quality of the one you are considering,as I don't know it is the same, but the one I held would be a treat to shoot in one of the chambering you are looking at. It was a wonderful little rifle.

Best of luck to you.

Glenn

I once owned one of the Little Sharps from the folks at Big Sandy. Very nice rifle and good people to deal with. I recently aquired one of the Italian little Sharps. I had worked on it for the original owner as it had several problems. The action was very nice. The bore was off center in barrel and extractor wasn't fitted right. I rebarreled to 25-35 with a heavier barrel and bent lower tang and installed pistol grip stock so as to have more drop. The original owner wanted it back after the changes and is very happy. Jerry

Okay cuz Glenn --- you get one and I'll engrave it for you free.

In my experience the 219 Zipper will handily outperform either of the others in velocity and often in accuracy as well. Many factory Hornet chambers appear to have oversize necks, and perhaps this is the reason I've never gotten the best accuracy from a std Hornet. I have a low wall with Shilen Hornet 1:14" bbl that's now been set back and rechambered to K-Hornet, and as a result it went from 1.6 MOA down to 1 MOA. I have a Ruger No 3 Hornet bbl that was so inaccurrate that the owner gave it away, but it now is installed on a Martini Cadet and chambered to 219 Zipper, and shoots less than 1 MOA.

Zipper dies are sometimes pricey and velocites are limited to just above 223 Rem levels by the case taper, see Frank de Haas' article comparing the various cartidges in the Zipper family. I have confirmed this with my own Zipper, it ain't no 22-250 but will handily smack 'em at up to 350 yds with the right bullet. Neither the Hornet nor the Bee are anywhere near this class, but OTOH either of the smaller cartridges would be more suitable for smaller game in settled areas at shorter ranges.

I personally like the Zipper quite well and have several both std & Improved as well as several Hornets/K-Hornets. I can easily achieve a tight-neck condition by using 30-30 brass and turning the necks just slightly, and this appears to improve accuracy noticably with the Zipper.

I've had several Improved Bees that were tackdrivers but have no opinion on a standard Bee.
Regards, Joe

Looks very interesting...

http://www.littlesharps.com/pages/menu.html

Pete

I think they are great and would love to dream up an appropriate custom job with one. Ron Otto and Aaron Pursley used to be ACGG members. I thought them great guys and loved their rifles. One of my clients got one for his son (.218 I think) then rebarreled it in .25-35 to take to Africa & the kid shot some small antelope(?). (Kurt are you out there?) Another friend who shoots prairie dogs up to Big Sandy where they make them, ordered one after meeting Aaron in the local cafe!

Don't know if the quality changed with the Italian Manufacture? I can imagine an m-77 style, with a cartridge appropriate to iron sights, or maybe a period scope?

I like jsell's ideas!
Steve

What is the relationship between the "Big Sandy," Charles Daley, and what I call the "Mon Yee" miniture Sharps? If you don't know Mon Yee, he is a long range shooter who was at Raton last summer and was selling miniature Sharps '74s. He said he made them (from what I don't know), that they only came in .22 lr, and that he couldn't make them fast enough. I have not idea what they cost, but are they all made from the same castings, the same factory, or are they all independent of each other?

A 77 Sharps would be a whole lot more interesting in that small size, but a sharps as a .22 or some other micro-caliber still just doesn't seem right to me.

Thanks for the responses. I had never handled one of these rifles by Little Sharps of Big Sandy, Montana. I wanted to know their quality before I ordered one. I was in the Bas Pro Shop today during my lunch break and they had a miniature Sharps made by Dakota Arms. There was a note with the gun stating that it was Dakota's version of the Little Sharps of Big Sandy, Montana. It seems that the same gun is being made by at least Little Sharps, Charles Daly and Dakota.

Not quite, it is my understanding that Dakota pirated the project from the Little Sharps Co., said they would make them on a royalty, then simply took over the thing for themselves.