Shooting Buffalo Rifles of the Old West

Tons of information, easy to read and understand

A good general overview of the subject, but lacking in some depth. If you wanted to pick one book to start with this would be a good choice however. The author gives excellent information regarding modern BPCR competitions and their history and solid coverage of the various rifle forms, original and reproduction, that a BPCR shooter is likely to encounter. Interesting history chapters with good photos. Where the book lags is how it compares to similar treatises on handloading and shooting particular weapons.Do not expect any information of any substance on paper patching. This is a grease groove bullet book. There is one cursory chapter where he tries it and reports mixed results - that's it. Paper patching is an immensely useful and practical aspect of BPCR and is growing in popularity for many good reasons, but you won't get that feeling here. Also he seems somewhat dismissive of calibers that he may not have had the best success with. For 40-70 BN for instance he uses an original Sharps, tries a few loads, gets mixed results (no worse than many other calibers that also shot 4" groups at 100 yards) and says "Meh." Shooting an original 140 year old rifle is always an adventure and somewhat problematic, and results with that gun can hardly generalize across the range of what's out there. I'm sure a writer of his stature could have had several different modern rifles in 40-70 BN to try had he wanted, as well as expert input on ways to make the round perform, but he calls it quits and moves on. For another caliber his test rifle is a modern reproduction with an unknown barrel - no idea who made it. How this is supposed to reflect on the cartridge's performance is unclear but if I wanted information on Winchester Model 70's in 30-06, I wouldn't particularly care to read about one with a mystery barrel.He does a good job discussing the 50-70 and 50-90 and I felt that I gained more practical useful information there than almost anywhere else. Load and bullet variety however is light here as it is other places - one or two bullets, a few types of black powder, one single weight of charge, two group sizes. He doesn't even do his own shooting for some entries, instead asking friends to shoot and reporting their results, which is fine but a little different I suppose.The other side of this coin is that in a book dedicated solely to black powder, only having one propellant is going to drastically simplify your options, and he can't take 100 pages to go through every permutation of wad thickness, lube recipe etc., to find the sweet spot for every caliber. But it would have been very instructive to see shooting with the lightest and heaviest normal bullets for a caliber. Or compare grease groove bullets to paper patch.Like I said, this is a good initial purchase that will give you a springboard for more reading. If you get more into it, there are sources that go into excruciating detail, and this a general interest book for someone considering getting into this fascinating shooting sport.

Excellent book for those who want to shoot Sharps BPCRs. If there is one book to get on the subject, this would be it. This book gives the history of the Sharps rifles, their variations, and best hand load data for each caliber. This book helped me enormously to know what features I should have on the Sharps rifle I ordered from Shiloh to make it authentic in every small detail. It is full of useful information on the care, feeding, and shooting Sharps rifles of any variation or caliber by a one of the most experienced and "readable" gun writers out there.

This is the definitive book on shooting the old black powder rifles of the great buffalo harvest era. Practical information is interspersed with interesting historical tales. If you own a single shot rifle or shoot black ppwder, this book is an excellent addition to your library. There are lots of good loads, tips on bullet casting and lubrication, and historical lore on the great rifles of the era.

Mike Venturino is the recognized expert on shooting these amazing rifles and the book doesn’t disappoint. He also covers reloading black powder center fire cartridges along with the secrets of other champion shooters like himself. The only reason for 4 stars is I had hoped for a little more info on Remington rolling block rifles.

Fascinating old west guns.

Being as I'm just starting at black powder shooting I found this book an excellent read for a newcomer. It had all of my major questions and a lot of the smaller ones answered . Can't wait to get my Shiloh Sharps. Sorry about the 2star rating fat fingers not fat enough. This book is a 5+star rated book in my humble opinion.

This is a great book for the beginner. Helps you understand the different cartridges, black powder loads and simply the different buffalo rifles. Good book on sharps rifles.

FANTASTIC BOOK CAME VERY QUICK WELL PACKED EXCELLENT READ AND PURCHASE

Easy to read. A wealth of information for the shooter. Load development and suggested loads particularly useful.

Mike warns the Reader, the Blackpowderbug will bite Everybody, who will start reload Blackpowder Catriges:It's the Truth ! Today I load the 45-2.4, the .45 Colt and the .44 WCF only with Blackpowder; my Guns and I loves it !A very good Book and Musthave for the Beginner of BPCR-Shooting....Greetings from Southwest Germany