Suggestions for long range percussion rifle

[Jshorter]

Hey everyone, I’m new to this forum and I’ve had a growing interest in BP target shooting at longer distances. I want something besides the ol .54 flintlock to shoot targets with. Does anyone have any suggestions for a traditional percussion target rifle? I’ve been looking at the volunteer and whitworth rifles as well as the pedersoli Gibbs and Mortimer whitworth. I would love to have a whitworth but even the ones from pedersoli seem hard to come by.

 

[deermanok]

Welcome from southeast Oklahoma.
There used to be a member here, Idaho Lewis, who did some long range shooting with fairly basic Thompson Center rifles.
If you Google his name, you can find some of his YouTube videos.

 

[Ninering62]

Hey everyone, I’m new to this forum and I’ve had a growing interest in BP target shooting at longer distances. I want something besides the ol .54 flintlock to shoot targets with. Does anyone have any suggestions for a traditional percussion target rifle? I’ve been looking at the volunteer and whitworth rifles as well as the pedersoli Gibbs and Mortimer whitworth. I would love to have a whitworth but even the ones from pedersoli seem hard to come by.

GIBBS all the way! Unfortunately they can't be picked up for 1k-1250.00 anymore.
Heres a link for a Pedersoli Gibbs .45
https://www.gunbroker.com/item/990534566

 

[Jshorter]

GIBBS all the way! Unfortunately they can't be picked up for 1k-1250.00 anymore.
Heres a link for a Pedersoli Gibbs .45
https://www.gunbroker.com/item/990534566

The Gibbs sure does look nice! Is there any reason why it would be preferred over the volunteer/whitworth? Some of the models appear to come with the tang sights already on them, so that’s a plus

 

[Ninering62]

The Gibbs sure does look nice! Is there any reason why it would be preferred over the volunteer/whitworth? Some of the models appear to come with the tang sights already on them, so that’s a plus

Good questions J.
Wellll if ya read some about all of the incredible percussion LR bench rest rifles that you mentioned ( all true legends ) you forgot one/we - forgot one, the English Rigby, Thats an amazing rifle as well.
The Gibbs, whether it be the .45 1:18 or the .40 1:16, for me, they just check off every single box for everything I would want in a rifle intended for that purpose. Not a daggone thing wrong with anyone of those other guns mentioned. You ARE stepping into a world all unto its own with the Whitworth though with a hex bore & bullets.
There are plenty of load data avail online for the Gibbs & them already having the mid range or long range ? Soule sights & front target globes is a huge plus. They are expensive to buy. I know.

 

[Harleysboss]

I’m having a semi custom Rigby sporting rifle built as we speak. The build is using a Green Mountain LRH 1-28 50 caliber that I had on hand. Still many months out. I won’t have any more details until I get it back. I had the barrel on a Lyman Deerstalker percussion stock. I liked that setup but I wanted to have a Rigby styled rifle. I will report back when I get it back.

 

[GREENSWYLDE]

I have a custom made Gibb-Metford .461" L/R rifle with tang & supine sights to 1200 yds. Swiss 1 in 20" tube to Metford form,Turkish Grade 3 Wallnut handle and Brazier lock. Finished in 1993 and shot at Bisley and in S/A out to 1000 With good results long ago. At 10lbs It's too heavy for my aging struckture these days to get up and lie down 15 times in 3/4 of an hour. It will need a Deep pocket !!. O. D..

 

[Ka'imiloa]

I have a custom made Gibb-Metford .461" L/R rifle with tang & supine sights to 1200 yds. Swiss 1 in 20" tube to Metford form,Turkish Grade 3 Wallnut handle and Brazier lock. Finished in 1993 and shot at Bisley and in S/A out to 1000 With good results long ago. At 10lbs It's too heavy for my aging struckture these days to get up and lie down 15 times in 3/4 of an hour. It will need a Deep pocket !!. O. D..

Sounds like a superb long range rifle. This rifle shoots the slightly larger diameter .461" O.D. bullet, which of course needs a little less spin rate than .45 cal. in order to stabilize to long range.

I did a little searching and found the following thread, which includes multiple photos of this rifle, and the lock even has an old-time sliding safety! That thread says it includes a .461 Gibbs mold. Buffalo Arms has such a mold, but is currently out of stock.

As an aside here, some think 1:20 twist is not fast enough for heavy .45 bullets, because so much has been written about .45-70 old-time cartridge-rifle shooting, and even .45-90. The crucial difference is that a ML barrel has unlimited powder capacity and thus powder fouling and recoil are the only usual limitations to pushing the bullet faster and thus achieving bullet stabilization out to 1000 or 1200 yds. (Many still haven't figured out that bullets are stabilized via their rps at muzzle and on from there, via combined effect of velocity and the twist rate of the barrel, not the twist rate alone. I'm still amazed at that.) And some don't realize that bullets must spin faster and faster as caliber goes down, in order to stabilize.

Aloha, Ka'imiloa

 

[Ka'imiloa]

Hey everyone, I’m new to this forum and I’ve had a growing interest in BP target shooting at longer distances. I want something besides the ol .54 flintlock to shoot targets with. Does anyone have any suggestions for a traditional percussion target rifle? I’ve been looking at the volunteer and whitworth rifles as well as the pedersoli Gibbs and Mortimer whitworth. I would love to have a whitworth but even the ones from pedersoli seem hard to come by.

If you want a very fine looking and well-made rifle to shoot 50 to 200 yds., get a Pedersoli Mortimer-Whitworth which has a 1:20.7 twist rate to best stabilize a shorter-nosed 500 gr. bullet at 100 meters, and it will shoot a 545 gr. long-nosed bullet clear to 1000 yds if you push the bullet harder by using 107 gr. of 1.5F Swiss. If shooting to, say, 500 yds, I think the Mortimer Whitworth will do the job with about 100 or so grains of 1.5F Swiss and the heavier LR bullet.

If you want to shoot longer range: 600 to 1200 yds, choose the Gibbs with its 1:18 twist rate. The Volunteer and Whitworth rifles should shoot similarly, depending on their twist rate, but I am not as familiar with them. I believe the original Whitworth had a 1:20 twist rate.

At least in the past, the Pedersoli Mortimer-Whitworth came with a mold for the multi-groove, shorter-nosed bullet made for 1-200 meter competitions. Don't know about a mold coming with the Pedersoli Gibbs.

Aloha, Ka'imiloa

 

[Jshorter]

Thank you everyone for the replies. This is all very interesting and valuable information for me to ponder on. From this thread and other research I’ve done it seems that the Gibbs might have an advantage at very long distances over some of the others I mentioned initially.

 

[Ka'imiloa]

Maybe 15 years ago, I told the Pedersoli U.S.A. rep that if they would make a 1:18 twist rifle like the Mortimer-Whitworth they would sell a lot of them worldwide for long range shooting. About 9 months later the Gibbs model came out with 1:18 twist. The rest is history.

Aloha, Ka'imiloa