doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion Classic & Custom Single Barreled Sporting Rifles @ doublegunshop.com The Shiloh experience

I'm 21 months into a 15 month wait for a Shiloh 1874.

The covid shut them down for a month, I understand that part.

My rifle has not started production. It's nothing fancy.

I'm starting to get a little discouraged.

Cases, bullets, powder all on hand. No rifle.

You might(?) check with Goodman, search his name with Sharps rifles, in Bozeman. You can look over his website info and decide if it would be worth giving him a call.

It was a '77, but I know of someone that gave up after waiting a little over three years and moved on to something else. There seems to be an unclear outlook with them, I'd consider checking down the block with the CSharps folks. Best of luck with it.

Gunmaker time is not the same as regular time. Just the way it is. It is partly the way they batch their rifles - somethings can take much longer. However, the quality is basically unmatchable in a production rifle, I don't care what type of rifle you want to consider. Shilohs are far and away the best made American firearm.

What sort of barrel did you order? Often hold up is catching the wave for a particular barrel configuration, but other times, it is the stock work. Just depends...

I ordered a heavy half round barrel.

During the time I've been waiting, I've seen at least two such barrels sold on their 'in stock' rifles. That's not the cause of the delay.

That's a bit of a thorn in my side. They claim these are all 'custon rifles' yet they build rifles for stock while customers wait.

The Goodman deal is curious. He has a good reputation to deal with, but the math argues against much of a profit for him unless Shiloh gives him a considerable price break. Obviously, his real deal is confidential but a $200 fee per rifle with deposits on 8 dozen rifles tied up for 2 years at a time? It's hard to figure, except that when they are making rifles for Goodman or for stock to sell on their web page, the other customers some of whom have paid in full for their rifles wait.

The people on their own forum are very polite and there is no complaining about the delivery time.

I understand it's a quality product. That's why I chose them.

The business is for sale, the owners want to retire. i have no idea what problems they have as far as obtaining steel and wood nor what their likely aging workforce challenges are.

I just want my rifle before i become too old to use it

I've noticed for some time now that these rifles sell quite reasonably at auction, and they appear fairly often.

So have you talked to Shiloh and asked them what the delay is? They probably can provide a lot more real answers then the guesses made here.

I'd be very surprised if anyone gets a Shiloh in 15 mo without going through Goodman. I'm sure Shiloh has had many a customer die before completion.

As Bill noted there are many out there for sale. They are always bought for less than new by quite a bit and many are unfired or nearly so. Most Sharps do not get a hard workout. If I was buying, I'd go for the used market. In fact, my Shiloh was bought that way. Just a few things to watch for when buying used.

A shooting partner has been waiting over 6 years for his model 77'. While at the Quigley, we had a rainy day and drove up to Big Timber and he ordered his retirement rifle. Picked out fancy Turkish walnut, Rigby flats, etc. Light engraving has been the hold up but a father of a shooting family here, ordered 3 74's through Bill Goodman. One for himself and 2 for his sons. All 3 had some engraving with gold depicting their family name and they got all 3 in a little over a year. That does not make sense to me.

My 1877 story had some similarity. A friend placed an order while we were on an unintended shop tour. Shiloh had a original torn down and had some initial run parts in various stages of batch production, this before they generally announced it was going to be added to their line up.

In fairness, it seems Goodman faces longer waits for his '77s also. It is completely subjective, but current production Shilohs that I've looked over seem to have lost a bit of fit and finish quality, ten years ago they would have been a sight unseen no brainer to me, over CSharps. Today, I'd prefer to closely look either over if the opportunity was available.

I agree with many of the others to keep the used market in mind. Hang in there Sgj, it'll happen.

I placed my order in January of 2019. It is for an 1874 Saddle Rifle in .38-55. According to Lucinda it being checkered as of now, so hopefully soon...

She told you more than she told me two months ago.

If anyone is planning to order a Shiloh Sharps, they should call and ask what they have in the "in stock" inventory first. There just might be something sitting there that's close to what you wanted to order, and you would get it with no wait at all if you were willing to allow some minor differences.